102 D- DAY 75
With only minimal preparation and a later than last minute ferry booking, Scootering photographer Richie Lunt was off for a short trip to Normandy for the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day landings…
With only minimal preparation and a later than last minute ferry booking, Scootering photographer Richie Lunt was off for a short trip to Normandy for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings
Truth be told, I’d been wanting to attend the celebrations for some time, but money and time restraints looked like I’d be watching from afar. Then, at the last minute, the planets aligned, the pink elephant was viewed flying over the moon and I was heading south to catch a cross-channel ferry.
As I was so late and with no plans for accommodation, I elected sacrilegiously to throw the scooter in the back of a van so at least I would have somewhere dry to sleep as the weather forecast was looking slightly soggy. Arriving on the extreme eastern edge of the landing beaches, Ouistreham ferry port is ideally placed for quick tours of Normandy. As I’d already been over a number of times, I was most interested in watching the flypast and parachute jumps from 13 Douglas C47s that had grouped together as a memorial to the parachute drops that opened the early stages of the invasion.
I had a rough idea where some friends were staying, so I slowly made my way up the coast to the quaint little town of Port En Bessin with the hope of being able to book on to a campsite on the top of the hill. The others, family and friends of Mick from Magpie Motorcycles and Scooters near Coventry, had arrived a couple of days earlier and by a complete fluke I ended up with them as my next-door neighbours on the campsite.
Next morning found us making our way to the American Cemetery overlooking Omaha beach. I’d never been before, only visiting the British cemeteries in Bayeux and Ranville, but the degree of precision in laying out the resting places of the fallen was more than impressive, as whichever way you looked every grave radiated in a straight line. Setting off to head down the bluffs, one of the scooters had a slight case of ‘MuggyBuggy’ and fouled its plug. This wasn’t the first reliability issue with the group, as a series one had burnt its clutch out. One of the people following over was contacted and brought out a new clutch and tools, and a repair was made in classic rally style with the scooter on its side in a field.
A Model D had also given up the ghost with a suspected stator fault, and as a flywheel extractor wasn’t available, that was it for that particular machine.
Omaha beach is a huge open expanse of sand made infamous by the casualties incurred by troops storming the beaches. Today, however, it’s a quiet and pleasant beach usually full of families. As the tide was in we made our way over to Longues battery, which is situated on the high ground between Omaha and Avranches. Overlooking the channel, your mind cannot help wonder what the defenders manning the positions witnessed as the morning mist cleared, to reveal the thousands of ships sailing just offshore, followed by the effects of the massive barrage from all manner of heavy naval