D-Day March 23, 2015
One of the major reasons that we came to Europe this spring was to fulfill Bruce's long-time desire to see the sites where the Allies had invaded northern France in World War II. The D-Day operation was the largest seaborne invasion in history, and it began in the seaport of Portsmouth, England. For that reason, we booked 3 days in Portsmouth. At the end of those three days, we would be leaving from Portsmouth ourselves to cross the channel to France.
The major draw for us in Portsmouth was the D-Day Museum. We set aside a whole day for this event, even though Bruce is an avowedly anti-museum person. After we had spent nearly 6 hours there, we concluded that it just takes the right museum to engage him!
Upon arrival at the museum, we almost immediately encountered an older woman with a bunch of school kids surrounding her. She was telling them stories from her time as a young Red Cross nurse on a hospital ship on D-Day. We listened in, and then, when the kids moved along, we sat down for a good chat with Mary Turner Verrier. Mary loved sharing her experiences - and we loved hearing them!
Mary Turner Verrier, veteran of the D-Day invasion. You can google Mary and read more of her stories and quotes.
"What kept us going were the men themselves, " she said. "They waited patiently, no one asking for us. They helped each other. A Brit would hold the hand of a German and vice versa. There's no greater leveler than a hospital bed."
Later, when Mary was working in the hospital in Portsmouth, a bomb exploded just outside, killing many people on that end of the building. The shock threw her against a wall. "That's why I'm a bit deaf now." Almost immediately after this disaster, Sergeant Major barked at the staff to get on their feet and back to work. Mary asked if anyone had seen the head nurse ("matron"), and said, "I'm going to find out where the old dear is." She found matron lying wounded, with a large shard of glass embedded across her face. Mary spoke to her, and matron responded, "Turner, I knew you'd be the one to find me." Mary put pillows under her head and bandages around the glass until she could be moved, but matron had lost her sight. With great tenderness and respect, Mary told us, "I modeled myself after her."
One of Mary's stories was more light-hearted. It involved a young man rushing past the place where Mary was on duty, claiming that he had a message for General Eisenhower (whose headquarters were nearby). She didn't believe him and ushered him into a room and then quickly locked him in. He managed to escape and deliver his message; Mary was demoted, but that story ended up on the front page of the New York Times!
As we got up to leave, Mary shook our hands and said quietly, "When your country said that it was coming over, we broke down and cried. We were pretty primitive, you see."
I was the one who was tearful by now. It had been a privilege to share time with this remarkable woman.
This D-Day Museum is especially known for its piece of embroidery work that uses fabric pictures to tell the story of the invasion. It's patterned on the famous Bayeux tapestry, just across the English Channel, created 1000 years ago to tell of the invasion of England by William the Conqueror, coming the opposite way from Normandy. There's a beautiful symmetry in the whole thing. I could hardly wait to see both. (and looked forward to seeing its counterpart in Bayeux).
The Overlord Embroidery didn't disappoint. It's the longest piece of similar work in the world. Everything about it is so well done as to be immediately recognizable - even the faces of Ike and the other commanders. There was text under the panels to describe what was being depicted: the preparations, the meetings, the gathering of men, as well as the battle on the beaches of Normandy.
While I was studying the Overlord Embroidery, Bruce ran into John, a 94 year old Army veteran, who had served in the D-Day invasion. He was sharp as a tack and loved helping out at the museum, especially since his wife of 75 years had died last year. "This gives me a reason to get up in the morning and it is important to teach the next generation about the war". John said that he landed on Sword Beach on June 6, "I couldn't show anyone that I was scared to death - but we were all scared. We were all young and did things in the war that I can't believe now. We fought for each other - not for any grand purpose".
Bruce described John as a very interesting guy with excellent insights about the experience of going to war - an unexpected encounter. Bruce wished that they had had more time to chat.
Further along was a very limited display of the Women's Land Army. I was especially interested in this because my Aunt Jean, a British war bride to my Canadian Uncle Lloyd (my mom's younger brother) had been a member of the Timber Corps, a division of the Women's Land Army. Jean had grown up as a city girl in Plymouth, on the south coast of England. However, in 1941, the British government became the only nation to conscript women into service wherever they were needed. Whether Jean was "drafted" or volunteered, I don't know. In any case, she ended up far north, in the woods of Scotland, helping in the effort to produce timber for the nation.
There were other displays and aspects of the invasion that were described, but meeting Mary Verrier and John Jaques were the highlights of the day for us. It had been a privilege to hear their accounts of their experiences - and we were very aware of the fact that, in another year or two, they might not be here. In the words of Winston Churchill, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
In the days since, we have crossed the Channel and are now in Normandy. Yesterday we saw the famed Bayeux tapestry and learned about the invasion of England by William the Conqueror. The WW II liberation of France by the British was a closing of the circle, in some ways.
Today we spent another 5 hours in a D-Day Museum in Caen, France. It was a much larger and more fully endowed presentation, with lots of actual film footage (it also had a much heftier admission fee, compared to the free admission to the museum in Portsmouth). We're pretty weighed down now with the sorrow and destruction of World War II but are on schedule to pick up a rental car tomorrow and forge ahead to see the beaches where the invasions took place. I'm counting on some good French wine and creamy Normandy camembert, spread liberally on a baguette, to help lift the spirits!
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