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Ambassador Louise V. Oliver with Fellow UNESCO Ambassadors Commemorating the 64th Anniversary of D-Day
June, 2008
Ambassador Louise V. Oliver with Fellow UNESCO Ambassadors Commemorating the 64th Anniversary of D-Day
Ambassador Louise V. Oliver with Fellow UNESCO Ambassadors and Colleagues Commemorating the 64th Anniversary of D-Day
© U.S UNESCO / Robin Taylor

On Friday, June 6, 2008, Ambassador Louise Oliver took a group of fifty UNESCO Ambassadors and delegation members to Normandy to commemorate the 64th anniversary of D-Day. The group, representing thirty-eight countries, visited three of the most important sites involved in Operation Overlord, the Allied assault that took place on June 6, 1944, on five beaches along the coast of Normandy.

The group’s first stop was at the beautiful American cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer that overlooks Omaha Beach. The visit to the American Cemetery and Memorial included a tour of the newly-opened Visitors Center that highlights the extraordinary achievements of some of the individuals that participated in the Allied assault, and helps to explain why there are 9,387 young Americans buried in the soil of France.

After a very enjoyable lunch at the Hotel du Casino, located on Omaha Beach in Vierville-sur-Mer, the group visited Pointe du Hoc, where 225 men of the 2nd Ranger Battalion climbed a 100-foot cliff to disable the massive German guns that threatened both Utah and Omaha beaches. Bomb craters and the remains of German gun batteries can be seen on the 30-acre site, which looks almost exactly as it did when the two-day battle finally ended on June 8th. Both the American cemetery and the site at Pointe du Hoc are maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission.

The group ended its trip with a visit to the D-Day museum at Arromanches, the site of the artificial harbor that was built to provide the provisions and supplies that enabled the Allied forces to be successful in the Normandy campaign. The museum explains how the numerous elements for breakwaters, wharves and floating causeways were towed across the English Channel and assembled off the beach at Arromanches.

The trip enabled many of the Mission’s UNESCO colleagues to have a better understanding of what happened on D-Day sixty-four years ago, and to appreciate the extraordinary courage, teamwork, and sacrifice of the Allied forces.

Links of interest


Letter from Ambassador Oliver to Her Colleagues at UNESCO, Inviting Them to Join Her in Commemorating the 64th Anniversary of D-Day

D-Day Anniversary Trip Photo Gallery

Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

New Normandy American Cemetery Visitor Center Opens

Pointe du Hoc Monument

American Battle Monuments Commission
 
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