Normandy Meeting

23 February 2005 by Peter Hatcher 283

Living in Normandy you are part of a museum. Wherever you go, you are surrounded by memories of the second World War. Every town has a war memorial and even the road names can be of the commanders and generals from the war. There are also the D-Day landing beaches along the channel coast. You may have seen Private Ryan, which is a very harrowing film, but I am sure it cannot even come close to what the men who were actually there at that time witnessed. I know two ex D-Day veterans and talking to them, you get two very different sides and feelings of the events that occurred in June, 1944. One was a private in the British army landing at Gold beach and was involved in the battle for Caen. The other was a private in the German Army, also involved in the battle for Caen, but these two men do not know each other. It could possibly have happened that they met and even took shots at each other. I will not name these men as they are both now old and for the German at least, he does not want to recall the events of the past. He would love to come and see where I live in France, but just to talk about Normandy gets him very emotional and the tears start to run down his cheeks. He was very young, almost a boy soldier, and it is only since l came to live in Normandy that he has actually spoken to me about it at all. The Englishman is completely the opposite. He is a friend of my in-laws. He is a lot older than my German friend and not in the best of health, having to use a cane. Blind and paralyzed down his left side, he looks now a frail old man, but his mind is so active and he can recall the stories of D-Day and tell them so well, it is almost like watching it on TV. It is strange to me to get such different views and even though the war was a long time before I was born, it makes you think of what they had to go through and makes you realize how the war affected people on opposing sides. Both men have led long lives and perhaps you could say they were the lucky ones as they survived, but they must carry those sights that they have seen every day.

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Living in Normandy you are part of a museum. Wherever you go, you are surrounded by memories of the second World War. Every town has a war memorial and even the road names can be of the commanders and generals from the war. There are also the D-Day landing beaches along the channel coast. You may have seen Private Ryan, which is a very harrowing film, but I am sure it cannot even come close to what the men who were actually there at that time witnessed.

I know two ex D-Day veterans and talking to them, you get two very different sides and feelings of the events that occurred in June, 1944. One was a private in the British army landing at Gold beach and was involved in the battle for Caen. The other was a private in the German Army, also involved in the battle for Caen, but these two men do not know each other. It could possibly have happened that they met and even took shots at each other.

I will not name these men as they are both now old and for the German at least, he does not want to recall the events of the past. He would love to come and see where I live in France, but just to talk about Normandy gets him very emotional and the tears start to run down his cheeks. He was very young, almost a boy soldier, and it is only since l came to live in Normandy that he has actually spoken to me about it at all. The Englishman is completely the opposite. He is a friend of my in-laws. He is a lot older than my German friend and not in the best of health, having to use a cane. Blind and paralyzed down his left side, he looks now a frail old man, but his mind is so active and he can recall the stories of D-Day and tell them so well, it is almost like watching it on TV.

It is strange to me to get such different views and even though the war was a long time before I was born, it makes you think of what they had to go through and makes you realize how the war affected people on opposing sides. Both men have led long lives and perhaps you could say they were the lucky ones as they survived, but they must carry those sights that they have seen every day.