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The beach at Vierville-sur-Mer is the "dog green" sector of Omaha Beach, made famous in the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. The Vierville Draw was one of 5 draws along Omaha Beach where vehicles could easily move inland after landing. For this resaon the Germans heavily fortified this area. The bluffs which housed the German defenses are very close to the beach resulting in the horrific casualties suffered by the 29th infantry at this location, primarily as a result of heavy machine gun fire. One of the LCVP landing craft lost 29 of 30 men to machine gun fire the moment the ramp went down. One can still see the remains of the German concrete fortifications built in the bluffs. These have an eerie similarity to the ones seen in the landing scene of Saving Private Ryan proving Tom Hanks did his homework.Vierville-sur-Mer is comprised of a few small shops and restaurants sitting just off the beach at the base of the draw. There are a few private homes along this stretch of Omaha beach as well. There are also a few memorials scattered along the sea wall. There is easy access to the beach. Walking along the beach was the highlight of the visit. In the span of just 200-300 yeads of beach front directly in front of Vierville over 500 US soldiers gave their lives for their country. I would suggest timing your visit to come at low tide. It adds to your visit to be able to walk out toward the surf and look back to imagine what landing troops experienced as they landed.
A visit to Vierville-sur-Mer is a must for any tourist with interest in military history.
Travel Tips from people who've been to Vierville-sur-Mer
003Interessant für die, die sich für den 2. Weltkrieg interessieren. Hier ist man direkt an den Landezonen der Amerikaner und man kann sich viele Museen zu dem Thema angucken.
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