Letter 8 from RV trip to Europe

We left for Caen next. We were headed to that city because there is a museum of antiquities near there that Adelle wanted to see. Unfortunately, she had lost the brochure that told us its location. Ron suggested looking in our guidebook, which might list it. The book opened on the wrong page, and just by chance, Adelle read that the best museum about the D-Day invasion was in Sainte Mere Eglise. On the spot, we decided to change plans and go there. But we had already passed the exit for the correct highway.

We decided to use the local roads to backtrack. It was a perfectly sensible idea, but the French were up to their old tricks. Somehow, they hid the correct round-about for the northern road, and we ended up going back even more than necessary. The stress level was getting high. Then Adelle got the exit off the highway wrong. We got off, but once she realized her error, we went around the circle at the St. Lo exit to get back on the highway, only to find the entry ramp was blocked. That required that we get back on the highway going in the wrong direction. We got off at the next exit, got on the right way and found Ste. Mere Eglise by 3 p.m. Pulled into the town campground and were astounded to see what looked like WWII jeeps and other equipment, army tents, etc. That’s when we realized it was June 2, and the nearest weekend to the June 6 anniversary of the D-Day landings. This town really celebrates the anniversary of that day.

We were lucky. There were exactly two spaces left in the campground, and we got one. For those who are too young to remember and haven’t seen the movie “The Longest Day”, many of the 82nd Airborne paratroopers, the Screaming Eagles, who were supposed to be dropped in the fields around here were dropped on the town instead. One American paratrooper, a real person who was played in the movie by Red Buttons, was caught on the church steeple. He played dead for two hours, was captured and then escaped in the confusion when the Nazi troops retreated. This is a true story. In fact, there is a parachute and a full-size molded plastic man dangling from it on the church right now, as you can see in the picture. Whether it is always there or was put up for the occasion, we don’t know, but a British informant tells us that it is a permanent fixture.

This weekend is a big “fete” – if you can call it that. There are many French and English people who own 1940’s jeeps and trucks, and get all dressed up in the US Army uniforms of that day. It is not exactly a re-creation, but something like it. And we don’t mean a few people, either. There are “soldiers”, “paratroopers”, army officers, WAAC’s, etc. - and these people were dressed down to the last detail. We met a group in an antique shop. When Adelle went in, one of them was explaining to a man who had asked about his uniform that most of it was new, but he did own several original pieces. The so-called WAAC we saw had the uniform, even stockings with the seam down the back, the whole nine yards.

Furthermore, there are about 200 American Paratroopers (real ones) here. They were scheduled to jump onto a site close to town on Sunday. There are people serving food in the square, music in various places and generally it’s a hoot.

It’s very strange. Several times we’ve gone up to men in American army fatigues and said something to them in English, only to find that they are Frenchmen and don’t speak any English. Indeed by our guess, most of the pretending-to-be 1940’s G.I.’s were French. Everywhere you look there were 1940’s jeeps, trucks, uniforms, etc. We asked some of the Brits who owned vehicles about them. Apparently, when the Americans left, it didn’t pay to take equipment home. They just abandoned it. And some were rescued by the locals, who have kept these remnants of the war in tip-top shape.

There are events planned for the entire weekend. Friday night we attended a very nice concert in the 12th century church. Yes, the same one that John Steele, the real paratrooper played by Red Buttons, was caught on. It was an organ and trumpet recital of music that is best heard in a church where the sound resonates just right. Mostly Purcell, Telleman, Bach and Couperin. Loved it, except for the uncomfortable pews on which we sat. They seemed to be designed to be uncomfortable!

The campground seems to have a friendlier air than most. Our next door neighbors in the campground, who are Irish, wanted to know if we’d like to visit them there…and our across the street neighbor wants us to visit them in Swansea, Wales. Between walks in town, the museum, meals, and doing laundry, we did a great deal of enjoyable socializing.

We went to the museum on Saturday, and it was, as the guidebook said, a really good museum. It was crowded with tourists, mostly French. Adelle says she only cried a little. When we left we signed the book and looked at the other comments. Everyone was impressed with how well the museum had conveyed the feelings of the local people who were liberated and the difficulties of the young Americans.

We’ve talked about this a bit. Ron thinks that no one would have known much about Ste. Mere Eglise if not for the movie. We were kind of surprised to find that all the major roles in the movie were about real people and real exploits. As we already said, Red Buttons played the young man who was caught on the steeple. John Wayne played the commander who really did break his ankle, strap it up and continue fighting. We think his name was Vandervort . The museum highlighted their stories and others that were very compelling.

Now the big problem was how long we were going to stay. Ron thought we should move on without delay. But Adelle really wanted to stay at least until the parachute drop. So we compromised. We stayed until the parachute drop.

We pulled out of the campground on Sunday morning, and found that all the roads were semi-blocked by movable barriers. We ignored them, and got onto the main street (Gen. de Gaulle Road). Ron managed to pull into a parking space while Adelle went to the Boulangerie (bakery) to buy a loaf of bread (and a few little treats). She found herself in back of a group of 82nd Airborne troops. Since you only find out by asking, she asked them where the actual drop would be. A French paratrooper who was with them showed her where to go. Then she started talking to the Americans, including the one female trooper. Was she going to jump? No, because on her last jump, she had damaged her ankle. She asked where we came from. Adelle gave her the usual answer: CT and FL. Where in CT? It turned out the young woman had gone to school in Pomfret, CT – about fifteen miles from us. She and Adelle talked until she got her order, and her group left. Then Adelle was served, and she returned to the RV.

We ignored another barrier and turned where the paratrooper had said. After a few kilometers, we saw a sign that indicated Parking for the Parachutage. We followed the sign, paid the 5 euros and drove a very long way on a very narrow, unpaved road. When we parked, we walked to find the “DZ” – drop zone. It was not far away, near a statue of an American paratrooper nicknamed “Iron Mike”. Just to the side of the statue was a bronze plaque with fresh flowers on it. The sign reported that it was placed there in honor of Pfc Charles Deglopper, Company C, 325th Glider Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division, who had won the Medal of Honor posthumously.

It seems that this particular area was the spot on which a very important battle of the D-Day invasion was fought. There is a bridge (a very small one) here over the Merderet River. American troops under the command of General James M. Gavin on the Ste. Mere Eglise side of the river had the job of preventing German forces from counter attacking Ste. Mere Eglise on the night of June 5 when the paratroopers got control of the town. The soldiers guarding that bridge destroyed two German tanks that were trying to get into the town. Although the plaque did not say so, we surmise that Pfc DeGlopper was one of the soldiers who did that job and that cost him his life.

We talked to the people there who spoke English. There were two American women there. Adelle asked them if they knew what road we were on. They said no, they were just here to get their father something to eat. We talked to an Englishman who told us that there is the same sort of ceremony going on in other communities along the invasion beaches from Oistreham on the east to Utah Beach and Ste. Mere Eglise on the west. He’d been all along them during the week. It’s quite mind-boggling.

There was about two hours left before the event was scheduled, so we went back to the RV and ate our lunch before we returned to the area with our chairs. That’s when we met the two women again. They stopped to talk to us, and their father appeared. He had just discovered that a Belgian man who published a new book on D-Day in Ste. Mere Eglise, and that a whole chapter was devoted to him. So we met a man who had really dropped from the sky into the town in 1944! In the picture of him that we have included, he is pointing to the area where he had landed on the night of June 5. In 2006, there were cows grazing there.
There were other veterans there. High security was apparent. Every gendarme in the area seemed to be there. Someone told us that an ambassador was expected.

As we walked around, we met Adelle’s favorite paratrooper and we talked for a while. She’s a young woman, and there were a lot of things that we know as a matter of course that were new to her. We talked about the movie stars who went into the service during the war and repeated Bud Roper’s story about being in London on D-Day (his squadron wasn’t scheduled to fly). He said he saw bombers in tight formations of five, eight groups across, i.e., 40 across, flying by his spot for 2 hours. That description – lines of forty bombers for two hours – makes the number of airplanes (935 or something like that) seem more real. After our conversation, the paratrooper kissed Adelle good-bye and went to film the parachute drop. (Adelle says “I really liked her and I think she really liked me.”)

We waited in our chairs. The planes were about twenty minutes late, and there plenty of announcements made on the public address system, but we couldn’t understand them. When they appeared, those men came out of those two airplanes so fast that it was mind-boggling. Suddenly the sky was full of them. It was definitely in the “amazing sight” category. We only stayed for the first drop, but there were two others to follow. Adelle’s favorite paratrooper had told her that the jumpers had formed a pool. The winner was to be the one who first landed in the Merderet River. Our friend said that made her really wish that she could be one of them. We did not see any winners on that first jump. We wanted to be on our way to Honfleur.