April 29 – Normandy Bunker Museum and Drive to Bayeux

We are relocating today so it is drive through the countryside.  Saw this pretty church along the way.

We headed to the coastal town of Ouistreham.  We are doing some D-Day touring.  Ouistreham was at the far north end of the beaches that were invaded during D-Day in 1945.  There is a large, preserved German bunker that sounds interesting. 

The bunker is huge and easy to see from afar.  The bunker has been set up like it would have been when occupied by the Germans.

The entrance went deep into the ground...

and at the end of the first hall we were greeted by the business end of a machine gun sticking through a very thick wall.

This is the back side of the gun. 

The bunker was fully outfitted with all of the equipment that would have been in it at the time of the war.  Generators and electrical lines, water lines and such. 

There were full size dioramas on every floor showing such activities as the medical clinic and...

the communications center.

There were some living quarters with beds and lunch laid out on a table.  However, the information said that the soldiers lived in the town and rarely slept in the bunker. 

The supply rooms were fitted out with munitions boxes.

And when we finally got to the top we could see through the narrow gap where the soldiers could fire on advancing troops. 

There were five floors plus the top level with the viewing room.  There were also ladder rungs for climbing up to the top of the bunker.  But we passed.  The lobby had a cutaway model showing the interior of the bunker.  Lots of floors and stairs.

There was also a model showing the typical defenses around a bunker. 

There were also posters showing the various D-Day beaches, statistics about the invasion fleets and army and casualty statistics. 

There were also some interesting equipment in the yard.  Some tanks and a landing craft.  We have seen many tanks in our travels but never a landing craft.  Each of these landing craft carried about 200 soldiers, each with their packs of about 50 pounds.  This landing craft didn’t look big enough to hold 200 soldiers.  They must have been really packed in there. 

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More Le Grand Bunker
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After we finished at the bunker we headed down to the nearby park for lunch.  We had each made a baguette sandwich from the breakfast buffet, so we had our sandwich and some water.  Not much of a lunch but it was enough.

From there we drove to Bayeux, our next destination.  We settled in and did some unpacking.  We headed out around 7:00 to find dinner.  

There was an Italian restaurant right on the square of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Bayeux.  Gorgeous building. 

We will be in Bayeux for about a week so we will be back to visit the cathedral later.