Utah Beach

We've seen Omaha Beach and related sites on several occasions, but I think this was our first visit to Utah Beach. Always in a hurry to get to Brittany and its megalithics, but not so this time.

Among the memorials was this, built atop and within a German
gun battery on the beach

Thus

The battery was taken June 6 and became the headquarters
for landing operation; the names of those who fell are inscribed
on the walls...

Utah Beach, looking toward Omaha Beach

Monument to US naval forces, who bombarded, transported,
landed, and continued support for D-Day

One of many Sherman M-4s in this part of the world; I've read
that there is only one left that still runs

Landing wreckage

Further north on the beach, a monument at the
place where General LeClerc and the French
division landed; they would liberate Paris two
months later as part of Patton's 3rd Army Group

And everywhere, on the beaches, the fields, and a couple miles
inland where the land rises...German gun emplacements,
batteries, everywhere, seemingly more than we have seen before

Thus

And thus

But a message worth pondering: "Who changes the children,
changes the world"