June 6, 2011, is the 67th anniversary of D-Day. Here is a memoir about September of that year.

German Gun Emplacement
In full uniform, I walked alone, in the hills bordering Cherbourg, France on the harbor side, and found wild vines growing along the roadside. To my delight they were red grape vines. I picked two bunches and ate them slowly. Delicious! Engrossed with the grapes, I walked aimlessly towards the sea again oblivious to the dangers of leftover anti-personnel mines. My contentment was high when I saw a huge fort-like structure which I approached carefully.

It was a re-enforced concrete German defense carved into the side of a high coastal hillside. Two menacing gun barrels pointed out toward the Atlantic. The closer I approached the more debris and destruction I saw. I entered the rear of this enormous structure from the land side. There on the ground were long foot-wide tracks used to transport heavy shells on dollies to the guns now useless. Spent shell casings lay about the area showing the size of the projectiles used. Our captain said that the two coastal guns were six or eight inches in diameter with a range in excess of 6 miles. Several weeks ago, they fired at our ships in the English Channel beyond the harbor entrance.

The small and confining firing room interior for the guns was claustrophobic. How could men live and work in such a closed place? Weapons were first priority--not soldiers. The view from the inside towards the channel and sea was clear and panoramic, even though the sight line was through narrow horizontal slits in the thick concrete. The openings were minimized to prevent incoming shells and small arms fire from entering.

I left sadly thinking that the sound of the wind from the sea, eerily pushing through the slits, seemed to be moaning the recent death and destruction on this devastated hillside.

John Patrick Roche (Jack)
The Garlands of Barrington
May 9, 2011

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