Utah Beach - Exploring France

This week was a bit different, we didn't actually have any plans to visit Utah beach.  Matt has bought a Sigma 150-600 lens for his camera and was desperate to try it out, so I found a bird sanctuary over on the coast which looked like the perfect place.  After this, we were going to have a look around a small local village and grab a coffee (we didn't get around to going to the village but we will go back).

So, this lens.  It's a supersonic lens you might see a paparazzi or a bird watcher going around with.  It is described as a compact and light lens. I am defiantly no expert but this is not compact or light! Im sure it is compared to the alternatives out there, again, I am no expert (should have left this part up to Matt). But he was like a kid at Christmas when it finally arrived. We managed to get a great deal through London Camera Exchange who had £100 off this whopper and it arrived really quickly and even came with a free piece of equipment, although delivery for that is up to 8 weeks so we're still waiting for it.  

In all seriousness though, this lens is a lightweight, hyper-telephoto zoom lens which features high usability and outstanding performance. It is their finest lens within the Contemporary range. It weighs in at just 1,830g (I still think that sounds a lot) but Matt can use this without a tripod if he wanted to.  The photos do come out slightly blurry with the movement, but it has a really cool stabilisation feature, so the lens locks onto the image and it doesn't move around half as much as without it.  The lens comes with an attachment to pop it straight onto a tripod so it doesn't end up getting unbalanced and comes with a neck strap so if you want to quickly change to a smaller lens, you can just let it hang from around your neck.  This lens is dust and splash resistant, has a zoom lock switch which can be set for any focal length and a water and oil repellant lens coating.  There are a lot of specific features of this lens, most I have no idea what they are, so if big fancy lenses are your thing, check them out on the sigma-global website!

So, off we went to the bird sanctuary. It turns out, the place we chose is currently under development and are in phase 2 of their 3 phase plan to open a huge sanctuary with loads of bird hides and routes in and out the manmade lakes and ponds. At the moment, the sanctuary is a long straight footpath with a couple of bird hides leading out to the beaches. The beach here forms part of Utah beach which was one of the five strategic places used along the Normandy coastline to relieve France of the enemy forces during WWII.  There are also sometimes seal colonies that live here, but as we approached the beach, we could see that the tide was so far out.  If there were any seals, they would have been half a mile nearer the water. It was so windy, we didn't dare venture down to the seafront. It was a lovely walk to the beach through a little bit of marshland where there were little birds fluttering in and out of the heather. They were all too fast to be able to get any good pictures but on the way back to the carpark, we stopped off at the bird hides again to see if there was anything new. When we first walked though, all the wildlife we could see were ducks and the odd pigeon.  Nothing to inspirational.  But on the way back, there were different types of ducks (I'm not sure which) and there was a heron in the distance. Matt just about managed to capture the heron with his new lens but it was a push to the lens' capabilities. 

We didn't realise, when we came to this area, how close we were to Utah Beach and the memorials for D-Day.  We plan to, in the summer, do a tour of the Normandy Beaches, checking out all history we could find including the bunkers and all the beaches. But we decided it was too good to miss as we were so close. When we got there, there were lots of statues and seperate memorials for different people and parts of the army that were involved in this location during 1944. 

For anyone that doesn't know the significance of the D-Day beaches here in Normandy, here's a bit of background. The D-Day landings were the planned operations for the allied forces to try and regain control of Normandy from the Germans during World War II.  There were a total of 5 beaches and different nations landed on different beaches on the night of 6th June 1944.  It was and still is, the largest seaborne invasion in history!  Utah and Omaha were landed by American troops, a total of 21,000 landed on Utah beach and a further 14,000 paratroopers were dropped over the area on the night of the 6th June.  The intention, was to stop the German troops gaining control of Cherbourg as it was an important strategic port on the Cotentin peninsular.  

At the site itself you'll obviously get to see the famous beach where all the action happened. Although there were 21,000 troops that landed there, there were only 197 casualties with 60 missing soldiers. This was relatively low and was to be one of the fewest casualties of the Normandy Landings. There are lots of monuments and statues here, the biggest and most easily seen is the Higgins amphibious craft. This had already been used throughout the war in places such as North Africa, Italy and the Pacific.  It was big enough to hold 4 crew members and 36 troops.  The one here at Utah beach is a replica made in Nebraska, the birth place of Andrew Higgins who made the boats. There are statues of soldiers coming out of the boat.  Its purpose here is to be a memorial to these boats and their crew who made an Allied victory possible.

The next monument we came across was the US Navy Monument. This consists of 3 figures representing leadership, sailors and combat units.  Inscribed on the bottom of this statue is the names of the American ships that participated in the Battle of Normandy. This is the only monument outside of the US to represent the US Navy.  Next as we walked across, we came to the 90th Infantry Division monument. This Infantry, after landing on the beaches, continued inland though France and Belgium and entered into the Battle of the Bulge in Ardennes. They then moved the Germany and Bavaria where they helped liberate the Nazi concentration camp at Flossenbürg. The monument at Utah beach was constructed from granite taken from the quarry at the Flossenbürg concentration camp were prisoners were forced to work. 

We didn't get the chance to visit, but there is a little restaurant here which before the war was a simple fishing house. During the war it was taken over for use by German forces but liberated on D-Day.  The name of this restaurant Le Roosevelt is so named because of American General Theodore Roosevelt Jr who landed at Utah beach and received a Medal of Honour for his role during the landings. 

There is lots to see and do here, lots of old bunkers to explore and a tank and cannon still standing and off course the museum. We weren't able to get any photos of the museum because the glass was really reflective and all you could see was ME but it did look great inside. There was a huge fighter plane and they run 45 minute tours all throughout the day. 

I would defiantly recommend Utah beach as a place to come and visit. It is one of contemplation and thanks for all those who saved their lives to make our futures better. All around the area, there are more monuments and memorial sites.  There is the only Danish monument in France honouring the country's contributions to the liberation. Denmark were taken over by the Nazis, but some Danish soldiers wanted to show they disagreed with the Nazi regime.  This monument honours 800 Danish men who fought alongside the allies that stormed the beaches. 

If you want to see more of Utah Beach check out our YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCafklL7k4CrfWgiA9H3RawQ

W3W
Bird Sanctuary ///cafes.things.detours
Utah Beach Memorial ///insincere.caves.atoned

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