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40
winter
|
spr ing
And, choosing among the private guides, our favorite is a particularly
resourceful man who has written two books on the events of those days
(“Arnhem 1944,” “Omaha Beach”), and lectures at the British Royal
Military Staff College (equivalent to the U.S. Army War College): the
witty, often acerbic, but always informative guide,
Colonel
(Retired)
Oliver Warman
.
With a name like Warman, it is no surprise that after a 30-year
military career in Her Majesty’s Service as a Special Forces officer –
machine gun and parachutist divisions – the colonel would spend his
retirement overseeing the construction of a new museum near Pegasus
Bridge, delivering speeches to the Staff College, and guiding civilians and
soldiers through European (the Somme, the Ardennes, Calais, Dunkirk,
Antwerp, Alsace Lorraine, the Eagles Nest, Berlin, Crete, Anzio, Monte
Cassino) and North African (Tunisia) World War Two battle sites.
We were made aware of Colonel Warman by a Montecito couple
–
Jane
and
Bruce Defnet
– who had already experienced the Colonel’s
guide abilities. Upon exchanging e-mail, we arranged for a two-day private
tour, using our vehicle (which turned out to be an extremely efficient –
45-50 miles-per-gallon – Mercedes A180 diesel rented from Hertz).
The story of the landings is the stuff of legend: the uncertainty of
the weather; construction of plywood and inflatable “dummy” military
vehicles and ships for a fictional First United States Army Group (FUSAG
of Operation Quicksilver) further down the coast built to fool the Germans
into believing the landings would take place elsewhere (at Pas de Calais)
or at least lead them to believe the Normandy landings were a feint and
that the real landing at Calais had yet to occur; assemblage of the largest
fleet of ships, boats, landing craft, and water borne vessels in the history
of the world; the “impregnable” Atlantic Wall brimming with minefields,
underwater obstructions, machine gun and artillery nests, guarded by
seasoned German soldiers led by Hitler’s best general, Field Marshal Erwin
Rommel (“The Desert Fox”). Arrayed against him were the best the Allies
had: Montgomery, Patton, Bradley, and Eisenhower. It was a clash of titans.
This “castle” in Creuilly, not far inland from the
Normandy landing beaches was British Field
Marshal Montgomery’s headquarters. The window
on the central tower (below the flag) is where
Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, and other war
correspondents delivered their invasion reports.
Opposite (not in photo) is a manor where Monty
hosted a lunch for Winston Churchill, George
Marshall, and Dwight Eisenhower on June 8 1944,
just two days after the D-Day landing.
Now a five-star hotel, this estate is where German soldiers executed 68 Canadian
Prisoners of War. A young soldier asked the German commandant what he should do
with the Canadians they had taken prisoner and the commandant said simply, “Shoot
them.” The young lieutenant did that by taking ten men at a time, placing them against
a garden wall (not seen, but to the right) and shooting them. All 68 were buried in
shallow graves. When Canadians retook the building, they saw 68 pair of boots
sticking out of the ground under the wall. Upon learning what had happened as they
removed the dirt and realized that 68 of their compatriots had been killed execution
style, rumor has it they made a decision to not take any prisoners.
Twelve years ago, a plaque that had been placed directly on the wall was removed
in the cause of “European unity,” and re-mounted on a different wall on the road
outside the nearby town.
D-Day