标签 诺曼底 下的文章

埃特尔塔海岸的白垩悬崖，诺曼底，法国 The chalk cliffs of Étretat, Normandy, France (© MarcelloLand/Getty Images)

诺曼底登陆日 Remembering D-Day

诺曼底登陆日

第二次世界大战期间，1944年6月6日，经过数月计划和无数次的拖延，盟军在法国诺曼底海滩登陆，诺曼底战役由此拉开序幕。这是历史上最雄心勃勃的军事袭击之一，为盟军战胜轴心国奠定了坚实基础。

今天的诺曼底与战争中的战壕和雷区相去甚远。这里是一个美丽的旅游区，吸引着世界各地的游客前来品尝芳香的卡门贝干酪，同时饱览激发了伟大印象派画家灵感的风景。但这里仍然散落着过去的痕迹，时刻提醒着人们要记住和纪念在诺曼底登陆行动中逝去的生命。

D-Day remembered

On June 6, 1944, after months of planning, Allied forces descended on the beaches of Normandy, France, for the start of one of the most ambitious military attacks in history. Codenamed Operation Overlord, the Battle of Normandy was an operation to free Western Europe from Nazi occupation during World War II. This military action would play a pivotal role in the Allies' win against the Axis powers.

Today's Normandy is a far cry from the battlefields of war. This beautiful region draws travelers from around the world, who feast their eyes on landscapes that inspired the great Impressionist painters, while sampling the famous local cheese, Camembert. However, blunt physical reminders of the past remain scattered about the region, a lasting reminder of the thousands of lives lost during the D-Day operation.

圣米歇尔山，法国诺曼底 The island of Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, France (© DaLiu/Getty Images)

一个神圣的愿望孕育了第一个小教堂 A saintly vision inspired the first chapel

Mont-Saint-Michel

The stunning sight of Mont-Saint-Michel rising out of the bay is unforgettable. And visiting the island will be too, if you time it right. The paved causeway is accessible only when the tide is out; otherwise, you're at the mercy of the muddy flats, dangerous quicksand, and the quickly rising tide.

Today's visitors are following in the footsteps of pilgrims who for centuries traversed Europe to pray at the sacred site. The local bishop of Avranches built a chapel on this rock in 708 after the archangel St. Michael visited him in a dream, and the rest, as they say, is history. Now the island, half a mile off the coast of Normandy in northwestern France, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its permanent population is fewer than 50 people, including a dozen or so monks and nuns, but more than 3 million visitors cross over to the island most years.

圣米歇尔山

圣米歇尔山从海湾升起的壮观景象令人难忘。如果时间合适的话，去岛上游玩也会很愉快。铺砌的堤道只有在退潮时才能到达；否则，你将任由泥泞的平地、危险的流沙和快速上涨的潮水摆布。

今天的游客正追随几个世纪以来穿越欧洲、在圣地祈祷的朝圣者的脚步。公元708年，大天使圣迈克尔在梦中拜访了阿夫兰切斯的当地主教，之后他在这块岩石上修建了一座小教堂，其余的，正如他们所说的，已经成为历史。现在，这个岛距离法国西北部诺曼底海岸半英里，是联合国教科文组织的世界遗产。该岛的常住人口不到50人，其中包括十几名僧侣和尼姑，但大多数年份有300多万游客前往该岛。

阿罗芒什莱班的桑树港，法国诺曼底 Mulberry Harbour in Arromanches-les-Bains, Normandy, France (© agefotostock/Alamy)

On this shore, history was made

As the sun sets on a beach in Normandy, France, what appear to be working barges and boats offshore are actually the remnants of Mulberry Harbours, temporary portable harbors created by the Allies during World War II. Their story begins 47 years ago today, on D-Day, when the first of the Allied troops touched down on the Nazi-occupied beaches at Normandy. After the Allies successfully held the beachheads, the Mulberries were towed into place so the artificial harbors could provide the port facilities necessary to offload the thousands of men and vehicles, and tons of supplies necessary to sustain the effort to drive the Germans out of France.

Two Mulberry Harbours were built for D-Day. The one known as Mulberry A was constructed off Omaha Beach to aid US forces. Mulberry B was built here, off Gold Beach at Arromanches to supply British and Canadian troops. Mulberry A was destroyed in a storm just a few days after it was built, but Mulberry B was operational for 10 months after the landings, providing crucial infrastructure to the Allied operation. The innovative feat of military engineering enabled the largest seaborne invasion in history, which in turn laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front.

在这片海岸上，创造了历史

当太阳落在法国诺曼底的一个海滩上时，看似在海上工作的驳船和船只实际上是桑葚港的残余物，桑葚港是二战期间盟军建立的临时便携式港口。他们的故事开始于47年前的今天，也就是诺曼底登陆日，当时盟军的第一支部队在诺曼底登陆了纳粹占领的海滩。盟军成功占领滩头阵地后，桑葚被拖到适当的地方，这样人工港口就可以提供必要的港口设施，卸载成千上万的人和车辆，并提供数吨必要的物资，以维持将德国人赶出法国的努力。

为D日建造了两个桑葚港。这座名为“桑葚A”的建筑是在奥马哈海滩附近建造的，目的是帮助美军。Mulberry B是在阿罗曼奇斯的黄金海滩附近建造的，为英国和加拿大军队提供补给。桑葚A号在建成后几天就在暴风雨中被毁，但桑葚B号在登陆后的10个月内仍在运行，为盟军的行动提供了至关重要的基础设施。军事工程的创新成就促成了历史上最大规模的海上入侵，进而奠定了盟军在西线取得胜利的基础。

诺曼底入侵后的桑树港遗址，法国诺曼底Arromanches les Bains / Remains of Mulberry Harbour from the D-Day invasion, Arromanches les Bains, Normandy, France (© Javier Gil/Alamy)

Engineering an artificial harbor in Normandy

For the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the beginning of the end of WWII, we're focusing on the remains of the Mulberry Harbours—one of the most impressive military engineering feats of the war. Knowing that the ability to land huge numbers of men, vehicles, and supplies would be crucial to the Allies' success of the invasion of Normandy, Winston Churchill challenged his forces to come up with an artificial harbor that could be towed into place and operational within days of the initial landings.

Over 40,000 men were involved in the creation of two harbors that were installed at Omaha and Gold beaches beginning on June 9, 1944, and which were completed just six days later. The harbors included breakwaters comprised of sunken decommissioned ships, pre-built concrete caissons, 33 jetties, and over 10 miles of roadways. A violent storm on June 19th destroyed the harbor at Omaha beach, but Mulberry B, at Arromanches, survived and by the time it was abandoned six months later it had landed 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of supplies into northern France.