𝐈𝐓'𝐒 𝐀 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐓 𝐅𝐔𝐍𝐍𝐘 | rantbook #1

normandy

my class and i spent two days in normandy, in the north of france, and i really wanted to share with you guys everything i've learnt from this trip (and the almost same one i did two years ago) because it means a lot to me. not only am i interested in world war II, but I am also french and russian, so both sides of my family were somehow affected by the war

before we start, here's a little map of the coast:

on the first day, we visited the caen memorial, basically a museum dedicated to the world before 1945, world war II and the cold war. we got to see archive videos, old war posters, uniforms, documents, learn about the holocaust and see some photographs of its victims, talk about the asian side of the war... it was really interesting, and our guide was very sweet. she even mentioned captain america! (perhaps because i was right in front of her wearing a cap shirt) (;

at the end of the visit, she told us all about d-day:

— why did it happen in 1944?
the strategy was to make several landings, thus weakening the wehrmacht until the allies could hit its core: berlin. before d-day, two landings already occurred in 1942 (in northern africa) and 1943 (in sicily)

— why in France?
as Hitler once said said, who has the harbours has europe

— why in normandy?
the easiest way to go would've been to land in pas-de-calais, which is only a few hours away from the uk. knowing that, hitler took extra care to fortify that part of the coast, leaving the other ones more vulnerable; thus landing in normandy would take the german army by surprise (especially since the ghost army was working on building fake landing devices (you can google operation fortitude if you'd like to know more about that) meant to fool the germans into thinking there'd be a landing in pas-de-calais) and be less damaging for the allies, despite the longer journey to get there

— why land in june?
first of all, the weather. d-day was initially scheduled for may, but general eisenhower wanted larger landing grounds for his army. utah and sword were added to the landing beaches, which doubled the surface, therefore also doubling the number of men who would be sent there. they had to take some more time to plan everything

— why on the 6th?
d-day needed to happen at low tide (which the germans, once again, didn't expect), as the wehrmacht had mined the cost beforehand and it would've be impossible to avoid the mines at high tide. a full moon was precisely supposed to happen between june the 5th and the 7th, but stormy weather was also expected on the 5th and 7th. june the 6th was therefore chosen, though the weather still wasn't great as that day was rainy and foggy

we then watched a short film on the battle of normandy, which happened after d-day. sadly it is often forgotten as everybody focuses on d-day and the liberation of paris, though it did happen and was terrible for civilians; the allies bombed a lot of french cities in the north, making a lot of innocent victims. i think it's really important to never forget about the other martyrs of this war — civilians