History jumps off the page when a boy can feel the ocean breeze, hear the waves crashing, and understand the gravity of what took place on the sand at his feet.
No textbook, movie, or museum could replicate what Christ School’s World War II history trip got to experience Monday – Normandy on Memorial Day.
The group consisting of students, faculty, and family members spent time at Omaha Beach and the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial after starting out at Pointe du Hoc, a strategic location for the D-Day invasion. Pointe du Hoc was where a series of German bunkers and machine gun posts provided heavy resistance to Allied forces. It was overtaken on D-Day by a U.S. Army Provisional Ranger Group that scaled cliffs for its attack.
The 80-year anniversary of D-Day – the military operation that was a major turning point in World War II – is June 6.
History instructor and Cuningham Head of House Mark Thompson is one of the chaperones for the World War II history trip and said that Monday was an all-around amazing day. He said the time in the cemetery was especially powerful and moving for everyone.
A full photo gallery from the World War II history trip can be viewed at this link.