From: Nigel Hay MILWEB \(www.milweb.net\) (Nigel@milweb.net)
Date: Fri Aug 08 2003 - 07:08:27 PDT
I hope the following translation from a French tourism magazine I saw in the
clinic waiting room this week may be of interst to any of you hoping to come
over next year. Please dont turn this into a "do we love or loathe the
French" debate!
Nige
SO WHAT'S GOING ON IN NORMANDY ?
Remembrance SIXTY BIRTHDAY CANDLES FOR THE LANDINGS
The Basse-Normandie region is preparing to celebrate in 2004 the sixtieth
anniversary of D-Day. To this end an association, "Normandie Mémoire 60e
aniversaire", has been set up headed by Admiral Brac de la Perrière. But
first, what does the admiral think about the attitude of the American press
towards the French?
We haven't forgotten what the Allies did for the liberation of Europe. And
Normandy in particular has a strong sense of gratitude for the part played
by its liberators. Clearly that outweighs the political difficulties of
today.
You are obviously right. There is no doubt that in 1944 the mass of European
people were keen to be free of the Nazi yoke. In France especially everyone
regarded the arrival of the armies from across the Atlantic and the Channel
as a form of deliverance. That is the spirit of how we were and how we
remain.
With René Garrec we want to take advantage of this sixtieth anniversary to
pay particular homage to our liberators and not to forget anyone, whether
civilian victims of the war nor the role of the resistance who prepared the
way for or assisted military operations. Then we have decided to stage the
commemoration by revisitng the various battles of Normandy. Because this
operation consisted not merely of the landings - themselves an extraordinary
military achievement - but was followed by a very long battle which lasted
until the eve of the liberation of Paris on 25th August. On our website the
front line will move every day. On 25th -26th June you will see the fall of
Cherbourg and the Battle of Caen on 9th July: St Lo on 18th July: Caen again
on 19th July: on 31st July it is the turn of Avranches; on 12th August it
reaches Alençon and on 21st August reaches a climax at the Chambois pocket.
What do you remember from this period?
I was then 18 years old and was preparing for what was not yet called the
Naval College. There were exams on 6th June 1944. The news of the landings
caused an explosion of joy because everyone had been anxiously looking
forward to the liberation. We had followed the Italian campaign and the
Germans put up posters with snails representing the slow progress of the
allies. Rome was liberated on 5th June by French forces, a date which has
since been completely forgotten. A Norman friend of mine showed round Caen
at Easter, 1944. Like other French towns, Caen had suffered a certain amount
of bombing, but was largely still standing. But military strategy of the
time dictated that towns should be destroyed before being taken, in order to
prevent counter attack by tanks. When I returned in the Easter holiday,
1945, I saw Caen had been flattened. It was frightening to see the streets
swept clear by bulldozers and nothing left standing except churches and
abbeys. It was a horrifying sight.
And do you find it a moving experience to take charge of this association ?
Yes, so much so that I had the chance to become mayor of a town in Normandy
for 12 years, but I chose to follow Raymond Tribulet at the Comité du
Débarquement. I have been very involved in the beaches since 1999. In
perticular, my first solid business was the reconstruction of the museum in
honour of the 6th Airborne Division at Ranville, the Pegasus memorial which
was inaugurated by Prince Charles on 4th June 2000. And on 6th June every
year, the committee arranges celebrations, which creates strong ties with
the military attachés of those countries who participated in our liberation,
a true form of osmosis. You will know that practically every family in
Basse-Normandie has "its own" veteran or veterans. Towns like Ranville,
Bénouville, Sainte-Maire-Église, Sainte-Maire-du-Mont which were the first
to be liberated, are at heart half English or American. That's without
forgetting the Canadians and the Juno Committee.
We will be putting young people at the heart of the festivities and
remembrance in 2004 because it is rather like passing on the torch from our
octogenarian veterans to our young folk and with it the duty of remembrance
in their thoughts and the understanding that liberty and peace necessitated
sacrifice by those people when they were their age. When you visit the
cemeteries, take note of the fact that 18-year old boys gave their lives for
the liberation. We are working with the university and education authorities
to see that every school and college has a pen-friendship with a veteran.
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