In homeschool, we’ve been studying World War II all year because I think it’s really interesting. So when we went to visit my family on the southcoast of England, we took a ferry to Normandy to see the D-Day landing beaches and take in a bit of World War II history up close and personal. In the past, we’ve visited Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor, which were really important points in the history of WWII, but I think June 6, 1944 – D-Day – is the most important day of the war.
Pointe du Hoc bunker
In Normandy, we saw Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, the American cemeteries, Pointe du Hoc, Sainte–Mère–Église, Bayeux, Pegasus Bridge, the Battle of Normandy museum, the Airborne Museum and a bunch of bunkers, viewpoints and strongholds all over the beaches of Normandy. But what impacted me the most was Pointe du Hoc. The reason it hit me so hard was because of how impossible it seemed for the American Rangers to climb that hundred foot high cliff with Germans firing on them constantly. Before our trip, we watched Saving Private Ryan and a bunch of other WWII movies and we read Horrible Histories Woeful Second World War, but nothing really prepared me for how it would feel actually being there and imagining what it was like on D-Day. When we learned about the Battle of Normandy and D-Day from books and movies, I expected to just see beaches. I thought the Allies just stormed the beaches and captured the bunkers while getting shot at. But when we got there, I realized it was so much more than that. There were so many significant battles and important strategies that led to Allied victory. Pointe du Hoc was one of them.
My brother and me in a bunker at Pointe du Hoc
In World War II, France was taken over by Germany and the Nazis. The Allied Forces wanted to take France back from the Germans, so they made a plan to invade France from the English Channel. This was called the Battle of Normandy, codename was Operation Overlord. The Allies were going to invade and take France from Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches. But in order to take the beaches, the Allies needed to take Pointe du Hoc. It was a critical mission in the Normandy invasion.
Pointe du Hoc was a really strategic point high up on the cliffs overlooking the English Channel which could oversee Omaha and Utah beaches. Pointe du Hoc was also one of the most dangerous because it was a really strategic position and stronghold for the Germans. They had a battery of guns that covered Omaha and Utah beaches and the English Channel that had a range of twelve miles. It was heavily fortified with massive concrete bunkers. It was also straight up a vertical cliff almost 100 feet high. If the Allies took Pointe Du Hoc, then the Allied forces would be able to invade from the beaches and the Nazis would not be able to see or call for backup. So when the U.S. invaded France on Omaha and Utah beaches, they first invaded Pointe du Hoc. The mission was a success in the end, and the Germans were pushed back east. This move by the Allies would help eventually win the war, and stop the Axis powers from taking over the world.
What really hit me about Pointe du Hoc was how impossible the odds were, and yet they still won. First, the Rangers came over by sea. The weather was bad and they were all suffering from sea sickness. They were starving. Many men were gunned down before they could even get off the landing craft. It must have seemed hopeless. I’m sure they were all really scared and in shock. The beaches were red with blood and there were bodies everywhere. But they still had to accomplish their mission. After they made their way onto the beach – if they weren’t shot or killed by the Germans first – they then had to scale a hundred foot vertical cliff. That was just the beginning. Once they made it up these steep cliffs, they had to take it. All the while, they were being fired upon. When I stood on top of the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, I couldn’t believe what these men had to face.
