14th November 2012
Normandy 2012 Remembrance
Dear all
At 8am on Friday 09th November, 41 members of Gravesham District Scouts set of from Hopehill to pay their respects to the fallen on the beaches of Normandy.
During the long drive down we watched the film “The Longest Day” to gain some knowledge of the events, before arriving at our accommodation in Bernieres-sur-mer (Juno beach).
Following dinner we walked down to the water’s edge of Juno beach, before turning round to look back at the gun emplacements to imagining what it would have been like in 1944. After crossing the beach we visited the gun emplacements.
On Saturday morning we were joined by our guide “Claire Lesourd.
Our first stop on the tour was at St Mere Eglise to see the stained glass windows in the church dedicated to the American airborne troops and the monument to Private Steel on the spire of the church.
It was then on to Pointe Du Hoc, to see the cliffs and the German defences that was faced by the American Ranges. The landscape still shows the signs of the ferocious battle that took place. By walking along the cliff top and then going inside the bunkers gave a prospective from both sides. We left Pointe Du Hoc and drove along the beach at Omaha.
Our next stop was at the British Military Cemetery at Bayeux. Here we parade from the museum car park to the cemetery to lay our first wreath. At the cemetery explorers and leaders left poppies on graves as a mark of respect. We then went inside the Normandy Museum to see the exhibits. The Union flag was carried by Chris Johnson , The Explorer flag by Joe Langwith, The Network flag by Jane Taylor and the wreath was laid on behalf of Gravesham scouts by Kitty Wilson, with other members of the district acting as their escorts.
Leaving Bayeux we headed for Arromanhes and the remains of the Mulberry harbour, here we were able to see remnants of the harbour still in place along with exhibits in the museum. We were given a guided tour of the museum showing us the working models, along with a film show.
The last stop of the day was at Pegasus Bridge to see the bridge and the glider landing zone’s. We had planned to visit the museum but we had been told we would not be able to as they would be closed. But on arrival the museum director was standing at the gate waiting for us and said they had decided to stay open for us. So we were able to look at the exhibits before being given an explanation about the battle and a film show. We then walked over the road to see the landing zone in the dark to see what the troops would have seen when they landed.
On Sunday we headed for Ranville Cemetery but on the way we decided to stop of at Pegasus Bridge again to see the landing zones in day light. One of our leaders Raymond Page was then presented with his wood beads for completing his leader training on Pegasus Bridge.
On arriving at Ranville Cemetery we could see that a service was already take place so we formed up in the road outside and quietly paraded into the cemetery and formed up as a guard of honour either side of the walk way were the veterans, and flags were able to pass through us. The veterans and vicar then came back it to talk to the explorers about their experiences and commended us for forming up the way we did and for coming to pay our respects. The Union flag was carried by Annable Raff , The Explorer flag by Kieran Weston, The Network flag by Graham Edwards and the wreath was laid on behalf of Gravesham scouts by Nikita-Reese Purnell with other members of the district acting as their escorts.
The curator of Pegasus Bridge also came up to us and invited us back to the museum for a special guided tour of the Bridge and glider as we had not been able to see them properly in the dark.
We then spent some personal time around the cemetery before forming up again and paraded down to the monument for our two minuet silence at 11 o’clock and the laying of our second wreath.
We took the curators offer up, on arrival some of the veterans again come up to us to thank us for being at Ranville cemetery. We were then give a great tour where we were show the bullet holes in the bridge and the inside of a Hosra glider.
Next we called in at Merville Battery to see the German gun possion that threatened Sword beach and Pegasus bridge which was attached by 700 of 6th Para in the early hours or the 6th June only 120 survived.
Our Final stop off on the way back was to a small cemetery at St Valerie to allow one our group to pay their respects to a relative who was killed.
A thought provoking weekend was had by all.
Andrew Martin
Apollo Explorer Leader
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