I had the opportunity to spend four days in Normandy a couple of years ago. The museums were well done of course, and deeply moving, as was the time spent at the cemetery and in the towns along the coast.
What seemed so surreal to me was the road to Omaha, where the enormous shell craters remain unfilled, many grown over with grass; others now used as BMX ramps by nearby kids.
I also thought about how the people of Normandy rebuilt so many of the fences, churches, walls and homes using the original stones that had been scattered all over town by the bomb blasts.
What took place there 70 years ago remains one of the most incredible efforts in human history in my book. The enormity of it is incomprehensible. Yet even more difficult to imagine is how the world might be today had those gallant men failed.
We owe them all our gratitude.
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