D-Day Remembered Day 3

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We began the day on Sword Beach, one of five D-Day landing beaches, and one of two which the British landed on:

   

The tide was out, as it was on D-Day, but I walked out and paddled briefly



Here's the memorial at the beach



From there we moved onto Juno beach, where the Canadians landed



And the memorials there

   

After lunch we went onto Hell's Corner, where Canadian troops fought

   

While we were there a Frenchman came out and invited us to come in and see his collection of war weaponry and uniforms.  He lived in an old chateau, with artillery damage on the walls, and produced boxes of weapons and uniform.  It was a great opportunity to actually handle the (decommissioned) weapons and really helped to bring the time to life, far more than just looking at exhibits in a museum.

After which we went to Bayeux War Cemetery, which is the second largest WW2 British war cemetery in France with over 4,500 graves