CA-35
Senior Member
Seventy-five years ago this June 6, some 150,000 men stormed the beaches of northern France, opening the way to the defeat of Nazi Germany. It was an operation so bloody and so iconic that has become known to history simply as “D-Day.” The beaches in Normandy, particularly those in the area of Colleville-sur-Mer, were barricaded with steel traps, mines, barbed wire; gun emplacements and bunkers lined the ridges above them, machine gun nests covered very inch of sand. Today if you walk the beach below Colleville, you’ll see no sign of these things. If you go early enough, you may see riders exercising their horses in the firm sand, or watch a parasail cross above the shallow surf. Later, bathers will spread their towels and kids will splash in the waves.
There is only one monument on the sand near Colleville-sur-Mer, and from the distance it looks not like a monument at all. It’s a slab of aggregate, concrete, cement, and rock left by the Germans while constructing obstacles, left by the French as the sole reminder at the water of so many tragedies and so much courage.
There is a plaque on the rock facing Colleville, again the sole plaque at the water’s edge. It commemorates the men on D-Day who tried to save lives, rather than take them – the combat medics of the 16th Infantry’s Second Battalion, led by Staff Sergeant Ray Lambert. Thirty names are inscribed on the bronze plate. Each man was a hero, saving dozens of lives while risking their own under constant fire. Many were in the first wave to hit the beach, and began their work immediately, saving men weighed down by equipment as well as wounds, some drowning in the surprisingly high water. The first hours here were particularly hellish; the obstacles were flooded and generally mined, and artillery and mortar shells that didn’t hit you generally splintered the rocky shelf of beach, turning nature herself into the enemy.
The only true cover was that large bit of aggregate left by the Germans; the medics dragged countless wounded men to safety behind it as the battle raged. appropriate that the medics command the only memorial at the water’s edge. Not because they were brave – many, many men were brave that day. Rather, because they symbolize hope, not just for the wounded, but for the future itself. Death in battle is not the purpose of war; life after battle is. And these men – not just of the Second Battalion or the First Division, but all medics – were there to help ensure that there was life after battle, that the war was worth fighting for.
Rays Rock
Ray Lambert in 2018 at Normandy Beach
There is only one monument on the sand near Colleville-sur-Mer, and from the distance it looks not like a monument at all. It’s a slab of aggregate, concrete, cement, and rock left by the Germans while constructing obstacles, left by the French as the sole reminder at the water of so many tragedies and so much courage.
There is a plaque on the rock facing Colleville, again the sole plaque at the water’s edge. It commemorates the men on D-Day who tried to save lives, rather than take them – the combat medics of the 16th Infantry’s Second Battalion, led by Staff Sergeant Ray Lambert. Thirty names are inscribed on the bronze plate. Each man was a hero, saving dozens of lives while risking their own under constant fire. Many were in the first wave to hit the beach, and began their work immediately, saving men weighed down by equipment as well as wounds, some drowning in the surprisingly high water. The first hours here were particularly hellish; the obstacles were flooded and generally mined, and artillery and mortar shells that didn’t hit you generally splintered the rocky shelf of beach, turning nature herself into the enemy.
The only true cover was that large bit of aggregate left by the Germans; the medics dragged countless wounded men to safety behind it as the battle raged. appropriate that the medics command the only memorial at the water’s edge. Not because they were brave – many, many men were brave that day. Rather, because they symbolize hope, not just for the wounded, but for the future itself. Death in battle is not the purpose of war; life after battle is. And these men – not just of the Second Battalion or the First Division, but all medics – were there to help ensure that there was life after battle, that the war was worth fighting for.
Rays Rock
Ray Lambert in 2018 at Normandy Beach