RE: [MV] Omaha Beach revisited

From: Dan Faye (d.faye@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Wed May 01 2002 - 21:36:23 PDT


Hello folks.
Being a French born (1942) naturalized US citizen ( and damn proud of it!)
familiar with the area in question and the industry proposed I like to
clarify a few points on the subject, if I may.
First, there is no doubt about the enormous debt of gratitude felt by the
French in general pour " les Ricains" (friendly nickname bestowed on the
GI's). However, one has to remember that Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah,
stretching from Ouistream to Carentan covered an area of almost sixty miles.
Omaha Beach itself stretches for six miles. We must also remember that
Normandy was not the only opposed landing area. In France alone Overlord was
also followed in August by Anvil an allied landing on beaches of the
Mediterranean stretching from Toulon to Cannes. We must also pay homage to
the tragic sacrifice of our valiant Canadian Friends slaughtered at Dieppe
before Overlord. Following the landings, vast areas of French countryside
witnessed the valor and the sacrifice of American, British, Free Belgian,
free Norwegian, Free Poles and Free French not counting the divers
undergrounds and Maquis. It would be truly impossible to enshrine all the
sites were Allies in general and brave American soldier went in combat,
suffered, died and truly made a nation proud.
Acres upon acres of rolling hills covered with row over row of white crosses
lay, resting on holly ground, under the cover of the US flag in small parcel
of France forever deeded by a thankful France to the people of the United
State. Omaha Beach by itself is still French soil, but two American shrine
overlooks it. The hill of Pointe du Hoc on top of the cliff for ever
associated with the us Rangers is now and for ever an integral part of the
territory of the United States and a monument mark the sacrifice of the men
of Overlord. And finally overlooking the beach of Omaha at Coleville sur Mer
another piece of American ground shelter the American Cemetery were 7,000 US
soldier rest (among them 3 congressional medal of honor recipients) and a
Memorial honor the Missing http://www.ifrance.com/normandie/cimetier.html
(Sorry in French!)
As of the practice of mussel farming it is not an intrusive practice. The
mussels grow on frames hanging from float ancred in shallow areas. There is
neither intrusion on the sea bottom nor any hard structure on land. The
farmer/fisherman access the float on boats.
Sorry, about taking all that space but I thought that the above should be
said.
Back to truck and jeeps.

 -----Original Message-----
From: Military Vehicles Mailing List [mailto:mil-veh@mil-veh.org] On
Behalf Of Ryan Gill
Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 8:09 PM
To: Military Vehicles Mailing List
Subject: Re: [MV] Omaha Beach revisited

At 9:18 PM -0400 5/1/02, Pete & Renee Davis wrote:
>Hello TJ,
>
>That was pretty much my first reaction, too.
>
>But then I thought about how it saddens me to hear the latest
>development plans
>for another US Civil War battlefield. It's hard to say exactly how big a
>
[snip]

I think Omaha rates as being far more significant due to the sheer
number of casualties that were lost on that small strip of beach.

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