National D Day Memorial

Today our sightseeing started with a stop at the Visitor Center for the Peaks of Otter at Milepost 86. There we visited Polly Wood's cabin which served as the first lodging for travelers through the area in the early 1830's.

Our next stop was Beford, Virginia where we stopped at the Visitor Center. We did a tour of the Visitor Center and while we were there we purchased a dual ticket for the National D Day Museum and Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest.

We then headed to Bedford, Virginia where the D Day Memorial is located. Bedford is the perfect place for this memorial since Bedford was the town that suffered the highest per capita D-Day losses in the nation.

The National D-Day Memorial honors the Allied forces that participated in the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 during World War II. The Memorial stands as a powerful permanent tribute to the valor, fidelity, and sacrifice of D-Day participants.

Our Guide For the Tour of the Memorial

The Guy Wildenstein family gave the sculpture below to the D Day Memorial in appreciation for the United States involvement in World War II.

As we wandered through the memorial and read the various plaques, the scale and sacrifices of those that took part of the D Day landing just overwhelmed us. The fountain/sculpture of the D Day landing is especially poignant.

In June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 ships and 11,000 aircraft supported the invasion, and by day’s end, the Allies gained a foot-hold in France. The D-Day cost was high with more than 9,000 Allied soldiers killed or wounded as the march across Europe to defeat Hitler began."

 

 General Eisenhower's famous speech on D Day.