I'm in Paris right now and things seem to be gearing up. French and British flags line the Champs Élysées (yes there were other countries, but ignore that), and we saw a Canadian University group at the Arch de Triumph yesterday decked out 70th anniversary jackets. I'm sad our flight leaves on Friday and I can't experience some of it.
The beaches are crazy to visit and incredibly sobering. Omaha especially due to the depth of the beach. Standing at the water edge and looking back onto the hill it's a wonder anyone was successful getting off that beach and then having to crawl up that hill too. I can't imagine doing it now without all the barbed wire, iron crosses, and other stuff the beach would have been littered with at the time. Only other place that I shake my head more at is Dieppe. There is no sand, it's all shale and almost impossible to walk along, you just sink into it.
Everyone talks about fight or flight as the basic instincts. I think the soldiers would have gone into another level flight or freeze. I can only imagine the brain saying "I need to get off the beach to that berm." or the brain completely freezing up. The platoon and squad commanders who got their troops off that beach are the guys who won that battle by keeping their heads about them.
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