Friday, September, 20, 2024 – Screaming Eagles Tour.

Travel Blog 3 Minutes
This is William. He was the guide for today’s 101st Airborne Screaming Eagles Tour.
As I was walking downtown to start today’s tour I stopped by a boulangerie and bought a chocolate croissant and a bottle of apple juice. I have had croissants from four different boulangeries in Bayeux and they aren’t half as good as the croissants in Paris. I wonder why?

The first stop on our Screaming Eagles tour was Sainte Mere Eglise. This is a little bit of a repeat of yesterday’s tour but William said it was necessary to set the stage for the rest of the day.

Statue of Eisenhower in the square at Sainte Mere Eglise.
The altar in the church at Sainte Mere Eglise

An hour or so before the paratroopers from the 101st division, the Screaming Eagles, dropped on Sainte Mere Eglise one of the houses near the church caught fire and was burning furiously when the paratroopers were dropping from the sky. This illuminated the paratroopers and allowed the Germans to shoot a number of them as they floated down to the ground.

Major Dick Winters was the most famous member of the Screaming Eagles and was the star of the HBO series Band of Brothers. This series is “must watch” TV.

Dick Winters Leadership Memorial outside Sainte Mere Eglise.

Dick Winters landed about a quarter mile north of Sainte Mere Eglise. He gathered together as many paratroopers as he could find and under the cover of darkness walked for two hours to get to a command post near Brecourt Manor. Our tour followed this journey and the skirmishes Winters fought along the way

When Winters got to the command post he was ordered to attack and destroy four big guns that were located near the command post in a field near Brecourt Manor. Winters had 13 men with him and attacked a four gun German battery that was protected by 60 Germans and 4 machine guns. Winters and his squad attacked this position and destroyed all four guns. The tactics Winters employed during this skirmish were so exemplary that they were taught at West Point for years after WW II. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his leadership during this action.

This is the line of trees near Brecourt Manor where the Germans placed their four guns. William took us into this field and spent 30 minutes walking us around explaining the skirmish step by step.
This is the memorial to the Screaming Eagles near Brecourt Manor.
Next we went to this excellent museum near Carentan.
This is a life sized replica of a C-47 that the paratroopers flew in on D-Day. We sat through a simulated briefing and then we were loaded in this plane and the plane simulated what the flight must have been like for the paratroopers.

We went back to Sainte Mere Eglise for lunch. After a quick sandwich I spent half an hour exploring the town.

This is a memorial to all the paratroopers who dropped on D-Day.
This is the first in a series of markers commemorating the American’s journey of liberation from D- Day to the end of the war.
Explanation for these memorials.

After we finished lunch we made a brief stop at the church/aid station I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post.

This is a memorial for the paratroopers who died when their plane crashed near this church.
Kennith J. Moore was one of the paratrooper medics at this aid station. In his will he requested that his ashes be spread from an airplane. He said he was and always will be a paratrooper and that this would be his last and final jump.
We stopped at this memorial in Carentan. Joseph Beyrle was a Screaming Eagle who jumped on D-Day. After four days of fierce fighting he was captured and sent to a POW camp in Poland. He escaped and hopped a freight train to Russia and fought with the Russians. He returned to the United States after the war ended. He is one of the few soldiers who fought in World War II who earned service awards from France, the United States and Russia.
The end of today’s tour. William was a great tour guide and today’s tour was incredible.

That’s it for today from Bayeux. Tomorrow I take a train from Bayeux to Paris and then another train to London. I stay in London Saturday night and fly home on Sunday.

I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.

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Published by abeandmarkonthecamino

I've been retired from the Union Pacific Railroad since 2017. I've been planning to walk the Camino for about 6 months and can't wait to get started.

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