or Normans, D-Day began with noise.
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Just before midnight the night before, hundreds of airplanes could be heard flying south over the Cotentin. Thousands of Normans woke to the “a ceaseless storm”—the rumble of plane engines and the distant roar of artillery. Soon the night was filled with strange sights as well as sounds: the landing of parachutes and gliders, the dancing lights of artillery, the red glow of villages in flames. These sights were frightening, but also oddly beautiful. Madame Hamel-Hateau, a schoolteacher who lived near Sainte-Mère-Église, was just falling asleep at midnight when she began to see “fantastic shadows, somber shapes against the clear blackness of the sky. Like big black umbrellas, they rain down on the fields across the way, and then disappear behind the black line of the hedges.” These umbrellas were, of course, paratroopers arriving to illuminate landing areas. They were the first Americans in France. In the days and weeks to come, Normans would not only feel the full force of war, but also realize the high price of their freedom.
