Normandy Cliffs and American Cemetery – France

There are few places more memorable to me than our visit to Normandy. No movie, photograph or history book could prepare us for the vastness of this coastline or the weight it still carries. It is impossible not to feel the immensity of what happened across these beaches on June 6, 1944.  

We started at Cricqueville-en-Bessin where the sea meets steep cliffs.  Here, the U.S. Army Rangers scaled 100-foot walls of rock under relentless German fire.  Here the 2nd Ranger Battalion were among the first American troops to land on D-Day.  At 7:10 AM on June 4, 1944, these rangers scaled the cliffs using ropes, ladders and hooks.

Above the cliffs lies the American Cemetery and Memorial. Perfectly aligned rows of white marble crosses stretch across acres of green, each marking a name, a life, a story that ended here.  Thousands of markers standing shoulder to shoulder, facing west toward the sea they crossed to reach this shore.   From the bluff, you can look down upon Omaha Beach.

At the heart of the cemetery stands a bronze statue, “The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves.”   This is a statue of a young man with face turned upward and eyes open.  The statue captures the strength of a generation who gave everything before their lives had fully begun.