Saturday, May 30, 2009

D-Day Memorial, Va. 2007

In the spring of 2007 Ken and I visited the East Coast. One of the things that I wanted to see was the D-Day Memorial outside of Roanoke Va. It was recently completed and sits high on one of the mountains. The memorial is visible from the freeway and is quite awe-inspiring from the highway.

The memorial re-creates the D-Day invasion on the Normandy beaches. The structures represent the various landing crafts and the soldiers who stormed ashore under German gunfire. As you walk through it, the water erupts with stimulated gunfire, just like what the soldiers went through.



The bronze sculptures are cast from actual photos of the invasion. They are life size and very life like.

The walkway takes you over the beach with a representation of one of cliffs the soldiers had to scale to reach the German soldiers.

The sculpture is incredible. From the expressions on the soldiers' faces to the detail in the equipment each soldier carries, it is an exact replicia.


At the top of the wall the soldier survives to charge the German lines. This sculpture is so emotional that tears spring to your eyes when you walk through it.
The plaque lists the names of the soldiers who survived the climb, and the ones who didn't. It also lists who the sculptures are representing. Again, the sculpture is taken from a photo.

This represents everyone from the various counties who died in the D-Day invasion. The memorial contains flags from every country involved in WWII.



One of the planes used during WWII. No GPS, no computers, no technical assistance. Just good pilots and lots of courage.

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