Mine clearing tank

Hope Wilts When War Starts

War is the ultimate failure of imagination.

Tank reclaimed from under water

The sun was low in the west casting a golden beam of light on distant figures far out from the shore appearing as is out of nowhere. Also looking down the beach I saw I was no longer alone. A figure was sitting on the low concrete wall that formed the edge of the bunker. She sat with knees up to her chin, wrapped by her arms and a thick white wool sweater. Long dark hair was being tossed by the wind
around her face pale in the deepening twilight.

We both sat separated by twenty or so metres, lost in the twilight of our thoughts. After some time I
looked up and she was gone. With her departure the spell of the place was lifted.

Juno at Courseulles sur Mer

Juno at Courseulles sur Mer

Allied Flags Juno Beach
Further along the coast was the decimated strong point at Point du Hoc, its six 155 mm guns taken and destroyed by 225 American Rangers, led by Col J. Rudder, who fought to scale the 33 m cliff and take out the guns before H-Hour. By the time they were relieved, 2-1/2 days later, there had been 135 casualties.

This is the Canadian Cemetery at Juno Beach. Canadians provided 1 in 5 of all the troops landed on D-Day. As you can see many did not live through the assault and subsequent fighting.

They stand in the setting sun. Why is it that I can leave and they can not?

Relief