The Answer my Friend is Blowin’ in the Wind

June 6th, 2009
The 65th anniversary of the Normandy D-Day Landings. Today there is a special, almost light-hearted atmosphere amongst the Normandy peoples and attendees, no matter what nationality. There is a calm, peaceful feeling with an underlying theme of expectant happiness, like a child about to receive an award. Everyone is happy. Strangers nod and exchange greetings and although it appears solemn, the feeling is of bon homie. Today the tour guides are resting – no one, unless invited, can visit the main sites of Normandy Landing Beaches on June 6th because of the security provisions preceding the visits of high level politicians and Heads of State. It is a deep irony that the security guards exclude the presence of the very people who made the occasion possible, unless they have been lucky enough to get a pass.

Preparations had been in progress for several weeks at the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-Sur-Mer, above Omaha Beach. Huge trucks curiously bearing license plates from Holland and Germany are seen to arrive to unload their cargoes of marquees, tables, chairs, matting, portaloos by the hundreds and all kinds of gear. Great sections of the car park are covered by hospitality units and roadies rush about, some with fork-lifts. Permanent cemetery signs saying “Silence and respect” are acutely violated. The Reflecting pool is drained and replaced by a raised platform supported by scaffolding. Media camera towers are set up and small groups of important looking people huddle together and run around the Cemetery like so many flocks of geese. The wreaths have arrived. The cost of all of this will be measured in millions.

One wonders what the permanent residents must think of this, if they could see it.

June 6th each year is usually just another day at the German Military Cemetery at La Cambe. No razzmatazz, ceremony or important people visit here. The people of this nation did not win the war and thus no commemoration is appropriate. This cemetery is distinguishable by the almost complete absence of colour. The sombre dark tablets blend with the grass and trees to create parkland. However, for the first time thousands of metal cornets bearing a sea of white flowers are seen in abundance, sporadically placed at the foot of grave tablets. The heart gives a lilt of expectation. This is a scene of great beauty, like a first fall of snow. Why only some, and not all? The answer quickly becomes apparent. Each bunch has been placed against the grave of “Ein Deutcher Soldat” a soldier, only months before a boy, whose life and identity have been removed by war.

The corporate wreath, or the simple posy of flowers?

The ceremonial trappings at the American Military Cemetery at Colleville were removed in a few days leaving the grounds as beautiful as before. The trucks hauled their cargoes away to attend some other festival. Today, as I write three weeks later the flowers still wave in the breeze at the German Military Cemetery at La Cambe.

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind, the answer is blowin’ in the wind.