This is so moving, Mathew. I've read quite a lot about D-Day from both journalists like Cornelius Ryan and historians like Stephen Ambrose, and much of it was still new to me. The passage on the dead cattle was especially vivid, and I like the way the piece opened out to be about more than Normandy and to deal with broader concepts like sanctuary.
I hope you'll consider reposting it or at least linking to it via a note every June 6. For years I've done that with a favorite quote from Ryan, the message broadcast on British ships to soldiers about to disembark: "Remember Dunkirk! Remember Coventry! God bless you all."
I didn't repost that quote on Substack today only because my Oprah post is still going strongly, and I've read that you can short-circuit such momentum if you stack one story on top of another. But I'm very glad to see you and others doing such good posts.
Thank you for this thoughtful piece. I have often driven through Normandy & thought of all the men who died there but I never thought of the poor civilians & their lost histories & humanity, sacrificed to the liberation. You have opened my eyes.
Thank you for a beautiful yet tragic moment of remembrance. Some 40 years ago I saw my French teacher weep as she read the only French poem I have committed to memory: Jacques Prevert's Barbara: http://www.boppin.com/poets/prevert.htm
Thank you so much, May. I don’t know that poem at all. I’m not surprised it made such an impression on you. How hard it must have been for your teacher to read it out.
Such a profound sense of the visceral, lived experience of Normandy in wartime (and of course its countless iterations elsewhere). All thanks for your most moving narrative, and especially on this day of remembrance…
This is so moving, Mathew. I've read quite a lot about D-Day from both journalists like Cornelius Ryan and historians like Stephen Ambrose, and much of it was still new to me. The passage on the dead cattle was especially vivid, and I like the way the piece opened out to be about more than Normandy and to deal with broader concepts like sanctuary.
I hope you'll consider reposting it or at least linking to it via a note every June 6. For years I've done that with a favorite quote from Ryan, the message broadcast on British ships to soldiers about to disembark: "Remember Dunkirk! Remember Coventry! God bless you all."
I didn't repost that quote on Substack today only because my Oprah post is still going strongly, and I've read that you can short-circuit such momentum if you stack one story on top of another. But I'm very glad to see you and others doing such good posts.
Thank you, Jan. I had intended it as a much narrower piece but somehow it got away from me. I’m glad it did!
I hadn’t thought ahead to future anniversaries, but I don’t see why not. I have toyed with the idea of expanding it into a book too.
Thankyou.
Thank you for this thoughtful piece. I have often driven through Normandy & thought of all the men who died there but I never thought of the poor civilians & their lost histories & humanity, sacrificed to the liberation. You have opened my eyes.
Thank you, Wendy. For many years, the same was true for me, to be honest.
Thank you for a beautiful yet tragic moment of remembrance. Some 40 years ago I saw my French teacher weep as she read the only French poem I have committed to memory: Jacques Prevert's Barbara: http://www.boppin.com/poets/prevert.htm
Rappelle-toi Barbara
Il pleuvait sans cesse sur Brest ce jour-là
Et tu marchais souriante
Épanouie ravie ruisselante
Sous la pluie
Rappelle-toi Barbara
Il pleuvait sans cesse sur Brest
Thank you so much, May. I don’t know that poem at all. I’m not surprised it made such an impression on you. How hard it must have been for your teacher to read it out.
A wonderful piece. Thank you.
This is a remarkable and moving piece.
Thank you, David!
Such a profound sense of the visceral, lived experience of Normandy in wartime (and of course its countless iterations elsewhere). All thanks for your most moving narrative, and especially on this day of remembrance…
Thank you so much!