… is quite comfortable, which is why I chose this sofa anyway, but for some reason last night I couldn’t drop off to sleep. And when I eventually did, I was awake quite early and couldn’t go back to sleep.

So I had my medication and then set out everything for breakfast. The muesli that I make myself went down very well, as did the bread from LIDL. Good stuff that, I have to say.

When we were ready and organised, I made some sandwiches and then we set off on our travels.

Our destination for today was Utah Beach.

On the north-eastern shore of Normandy, it was the most westerly of the landing beaches on D-Dau. Despite many problems and issues regarding the arrival of troops, many of whom were offloaded at the wrong place, the beach was quickly captured.

Of the 21,000 soldiers who landed here, just 197 of them were lost. It was one of the more successful landings.

The aim of the landing here was to seal off the Cotentin Peninsula from German reinforcements and to move on quickly to capture Cherbourg and all of its port installations.

Unfortunately, the American soldiers were so over-trained that they were very devoid of individual initiative. So when they were held up, they just waited for someone else to come up with a new plan instead of finding another way around.

As a result, it took three weeks rather than three days to capture the port, and the Germans had used the time profitably to destroy the port installations.

At a certain prominent point on the shore there were a few heavy concrete defensive strongpoints. A combination of air strikes, assault troops and naval gunfire saw them off.

This point here is one of the most prominent points on the coastline, and the shattered reinforced concrete scattered around here makes me wonder whether or not this was the site of one of these strongpoints.

Whatever it is, it’s been well-and-truly seen off.

A good way offshore were a couple of objects that looked quite interesting. I couldn’t make out what they were so I took a photo with the telephoto lens and enlarged it.

It’s still not very clear as to what it might be, but it looks suspiciously like the wreckage of some kind of ship. And the boat around it might indicate the presence of divers.

Of course, it could equally well be a bizarre rock formation. I shall have to wait until I can find a kayak so that I can go out there for a proper look.

There’s a museum here too. This contains all kinds of relics uncovered from the battlefield, discovered by local residents or donated by former soldiers who served here.

But this is more like the kind of thing that I would find interesting. If ever I buy my own island I would need something like this.

Caliburn would fit quite nicely on it and I could quite easily go across to the mainland and the shops in it. It would make life easy.

Mitchell Marauder B-26 bombers were used by the United Nations to bomb the German defences.

One of these planes and its captain was quite famous due to his exploits but was shot down a short while later. Parts of his aeroplane were recovered subsequently and are displayed here

I could have an enormous amount of fun with this 18-cylinder twin-row radial engine.

While we were wandering around I ate my butties, and then we set off again.

The key to the assualt on Cherbourg was the town of St Mere-Eglise.

With the land behind the beach being low-lying, the Germans had flooded everywhere to inhibit any invasion. The roads however are raised up on causeways and these all radiate out from the town, so the capture of the town was quite important.

A squadron of paratroopers were parachuted into the area early in the morning to seize the town.

Of course, the parachute drop went wrong and the soldiers ended up being scattered all over the countryside.

One unfortunate soldier landed on the roof of the church and as he slid down, his parachute was caught on one of the gargoyles.

And here he dangled while a battle was ranging right below him. Eventually the Germans spotted him and rescued him, but he subsequently escaped when the town was captured.

We had a coffee and then we set off back home for tea.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that Liz and I had made some vegan burgers a while ago. And so for tea we had burgers in baps with potatoes and vegetables. And they were delicious too.

Hans is as much a film buff as I am, and so we sat down and watched one of the Inspector Hornleigh films. I still think that these films are really well ahead of their time considering that they date from the late 1930s.

And so, being thoroughly exhausted, I settled down on the sofa. I hope that I have a better night tonight.

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