Bayeux, France may not be a city with which you are particularly familiar, but you have no doubt heard of Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches. Even those names aren’t ringing any bells, I’m sure you’ve heard of the Allied invasion of Normandy better known as “D-Day.” Bayeux served as our jumping off point for studying and visiting sites related to the D-Day invasions.
It’s very hard to describe what it’s like standing on one of the beaches of Normandy. It’s so peaceful there now. It’s very hard to imagine those beautiful, beautiful beaches being the site of such brutality and such bloodshed. To stand on one of the beaches of D-Day and to think of how many men around my own age lost their lives at that very spot. It’s a chilling spot and very reverent place. The two beaches we visited were Utah and Omaha (the two American beaches). Those beaches were one of the few places on the trip that seemed very quiet and still (they were also one of the few places not overrun by screaming French school children). It was an extraordinary feeling to be on the beaches of Normandy, a feeling, so far, unmatched by any other on the trip.
Another site we visited was the Pointe Du Hoc, a heavily fortified area of the Normandy beach. The US Army Rangers were tasked with climbing sheer cliffs and assaulting the German instillation and destroying the large artillery pieces. This was a very interesting site because unlike the other sites we had visited, it was very clear that a battle had been fought there. There were large bomb craters all over the site, with half destroyed German bunkers scattered throughout. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of national pride at the site where the US Rangers carried out a now legendary assault against a highly dug in enemy. The site was also where the Rangers earned their motto of ‘Rangers Lead the Way’.
In addition to American monuments, we visited French museums on the Second World War. In these museums, the French narrative of the Second World War became apparent. In this museum, there was a very large portion of the museum dedicated to total war. And when I say very large, I mean it was about one fourth of the exhibit. The French have a great remembrance for the time in the war when French cities proximity to Nazi forces made them a target. The museum goes into great depth as to the planning of “strategic bombing” as it was called as well as the implementation of these methods. This was a very dark time in the history of the world in which the line between combatant and civilian often became blurred in the bomb sights. France clearly has a deep remembrance for those lost in bombings of the French cities and infrastructure.
A more curious aspect of the French narrative of the Second World War involves Vichy France, collaboration and the Resistance. The French clearly do not look back fondly on the time of Vichy France, but they are very quick to say in the museum that it was simple the best option available for most French people at the time. One aspect of the Vichy that the French appear very reluctant to speak about is the collaboration with the holocaust. Nowhere in any of the museums in any of the museums we visited in Bayeux was it explicitly stated that the Vichy actively assisted the Nazis in carrying out the holocaust (which they did). This is clearly a very dark chapter in French history, and one it appears they are hesitant to speak about. The other aspect heavily ingrained in the French narrative of the Second World War is the Resistance. The French people appear to be quite proud with the work of the French Resistance during the war. Although it seemed as though the museum itself was a bit confused with just how much of a role that the resistance played. In the win of the museum dedicated to the Nazi occupation of France, and the emergence of the Vichy rule, the museum stated that open resistance was very dangerous and few people were involved in such resistance but that that was ok and that was alright and that passive resistance was resistance all the same. Later in the museum, they would claim that the French resistance was supplying the Allies with the majority of their intelligence on the Germans in France (not quite 100% accurate (thanks ULTRA!)). And even that the majority of France had liberated itself by the time of D-Day.
The French people seem to be clearly deeply imbedded into their narrative that they suffered greatly during the war and that they persevered and ended up over coming and liberating themselve3s from Nazi rule.