The image is astonishing.
For several days, on the beach of Omaha Beach (Calvados), emblematic site of the Normandy Landings, the sea sometimes reveals an enormous piece of metal and concrete, measuring more than 20 m long and 5 m wide!
“I have been coming every day for thirty years and I had not seen this play.
It’s fascinating to see that after eighty years, the sea suddenly reveals such an important vestige,” says Michel, 72, resident of Vierville-sur-Mer.
This impressive plate of scrap metal lies on the sand at low tide then disappears and does not always reappear at the next tide, covered again by immense movements of sand.
“A storage unit of History”
“This beach is constantly evolving.
So much so that from time to time we see objects emerge that no one has seen for decades.
It's as if the sea acted as a storage room for History.
There are more items buried under this sand than in any Amazon warehouse!
» assures Laurent Guérin, passionate about the history of Omaha Beach.
As you walk around, you can see the remains of one of the caissons which made up the artificial port built by the Americans, or even the remains of a D-Day barge.
And then for a few days, this “new” object which has mobilized specialists.
Because no one has yet identified this piece.
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“Several hypotheses exist.
It could be a piece of the artificial port from 1944 or a spare part from a material transport barge that landed here on June 6,” supposes Laurent Guérin.
“We are not even sure that it is linked to the Landing.
It could also be a ship part that has nothing to do with war.
The mystery remains.
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