One of my guidebooks lists thirty (30!) D-Day museums in Normandy, but this is the one I’m going to plug. Opened in 1981, it was planned in the 1970s or earlier based on the dreary architecture and mid-century modern signage. But don’t let that dissuade you. It contains original artifacts that tell a better story than any whiz bang diorama that has higher production values.
Here you will see postcards issued to British soldiers that got to the point. Basically, either you were “quite well” or had been “admitted into hospital.” Tellingly, this postcard is dated June 11, so this soldier (Ken) had either arrived late to the beach or survived it and is “quite well.”
You will also see a German bunker phone that cautions the user to “Beware: the enemy is listening.” These phones were placed in all the bunkers in the Atlantic Wall so the Nazis could communicate about where to shoot the enemy. And then there was Nazi china and “personal protection” guns for Nazi officers.
And then there is General de Gaulle, all 6’5” of him, crossing the English Channel and returning to France on June 14, 1944, after the Allies had liberated his country for him. (I will add here, if that sounds a tad snarky, that the French Resistance was instrumental in providing intelligence to the Allies for the D-Day invasion). He arrived to tears and hugs in Bayeux and gave a speech in a park later renamed for him. Bayeux was the first city in France to be liberated and would now be governed by Free France. And then de Gaulle turned around and went back to England the same day. Watch the original movie of his return, which is fascinating.
Across the street from the museum is the British cemetery, which is very sobering. The Marine, “known unto God” but not otherwise identifiable who died on June 6, 1944, and Captain T. F. Cousins of the Royal Marines, who died June 7, 1944, just 22 years old, are two of the many soldiers buried here.
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