Operation Overlord Museum

In no other place in Europe (perhaps with the exception of Berlin) is the memory of the Second World War preserved so reverently as in the north of France. Almost every town or village in Normandy bears traces of the fierce battles of the summer of 1944 . Anglo-American troops landed here, opening the Second Front against Nazism. The forces of the French Resistance were active here.

There was also a large-scale construction of the “Atlantic Wall”, a system of coastal fortifications designed to throw the Allied landings into the sea. Therefore, the local region is especially rich in historical artifacts from the times of the war and the German occupation. Everywhere you can see monuments to the dead - both small commemorative plaques inside cathedrals and squares, and noticeable monuments.

Along the coast of the English Channel, German bunkers stand in dead concrete boxes. There is an abundance of military literature in local bookstores.

All this strongly resembles those historical traditions to which we are so accustomed in Russia. Before the 70th anniversary of the Victory, there were many discussions, the essence of which boiled down to the following question: isn't the Great Patriotic War taking up too much space in the historical consciousness of Russians? After all, even patriotic citizens were often dissatisfied with many dubious actions, more reminiscent of tasteless and inappropriate kitsch.

In this sense, the example of Normandy is very indicative and curious. After all, this is precisely the Europe that seems to be quite different from us in terms of the perception of the recent past, the eyewitnesses of which are still alive. However, here these differences become hardly obvious and we can observe a picture of the formation of the historical and cultural image of the region within the framework of a spiritual climate similar to ours.

However, there are still differences. A significant place in the formation of the historical and cultural landscape here in France is occupied by private initiative. First of all, of course, this applies to the organization of museums. There are dozens of them in Normandy. Every hotel or tourist office is littered with promotional brochures calling for a visit to a particular museum. Their founders are collectors, veteran associations, public organizations. Of course, there are also state museums, but they are also readily involved in the struggle for their visitor.

Locations of the main museums dedicated to the Second Front in Normandy

This competition, uniting history and business, has a positive effect on the thematic diversity of museums. Everyone wants to stand out, to offer something unique. Somewhere it is told about the combat path, for example, exclusively of Canadian units, somewhere mainly tanks and other military equipment are presented, someone took aviation as a basis. Competitiveness is also manifested in different approaches to the interactive component, scale, etc. For example, one of the museums in its advertising brochure stated that it was able to restore in its pavilion several streets of French cities from the time of the Allied landings, and visitors can truly feel the spirit of history by walking along them.

During my recent trip to Normandy, I happened to visit the Overlord museum. It is one of the newest in Normandy and was opened on June 5, 2013.

The Overlord Museum is based on the personal collection of the Frenchman Michel Leloup, which he collected for almost half a century. The beginning of the collection was laid by his first finds in August 1944, when he, still a 15-year-old boy, a native of a local village, began to collect fragments of a great war on the battlefields. Over time, his hobby turned into a life's work.

The crowning achievement of the collection was the German armored personnel carrier SdKfz 251 bought by Michel. Falaise cauldron, in which German troops ended up at the final stage of the battle for Normandy. At the beginning of the 21st century, he conceived a complete restoration of the museum with a significant expansion of the exposition.

Unfortunately, Michel did not manage to see the finale of his works; he died in 2011. The work was completed by his associates and his son Nicolas. The opening of the new museum was attended by five British and American veterans.

What is the Overlord Museum today?

First, from a former cheese factory in Falaise, he moved to a separate facility on Omaha Beach in the immediate vicinity of the American military cemetery. The new building blends in harmoniously with the surrounding landscape. From the outside, it looks like a huge hangar or bunker, immediately sending visitors to the militarized landscapes of Europe in the first half of the 1940s. Tanks and armored personnel carriers were placed on pedestals around the building.

Secondly, now the museum is dedicated not only to the Falaise pocket, but to the entire military campaign on the Western Front: from the D-Day landings to May 1945. The exposition has expanded significantly; now you can see various types of armored vehicles, weapons, uniforms, everyday items of German and allied soldiers.

The concept of the museum is somewhat different from what we are used to seeing in Russia.

It is striking that key attention is paid to the interactive component. The museum is designed to immediately involve the visitor in the atmosphere of wartime through realistic expositions with figures of soldiers in full growth and real military equipment of tanks, armored personnel carriers, landing ships, etc.

Instead of the usual silence of the museum halls, shots and explosions rumble from hidden speakers, commands of officers and screams of soldiers are heard. A fairly simple solution, however, it works due to the sound itself, and a stunning immersive effect is achieved.

The main thematic unit of the museum is a ready-made exhibition depicting a certain aspect of the battle for Normandy. A kind of Borodino panorama, but in volume. There is no bloody naturalism, however. The uniforms of all are clean, and on the faces of the mannequins there is an emotionless expression of thoughtfulness. There are also traditional showcases with exhibits.

As one would expect from France , a lot of space is devoted to the activities of Charles de Gaulle.

Many French museums sin with the presence of only one French language on the signatures to the exhibits and other useful information. There are no such problems here; each signature is duplicated in English.

Unfortunately, many visitors to this wonderful museum who have arrived from Russia may be a little upset by the fact that very little attention is paid to the Eastern Front of World War II . Mentioned, and then in passing, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 , the attack on the USSR , the end of the Battle of Stalingrad and the victorious May 1945. Moreover, the pact with Germany is interpreted as a full-fledged military alliance, which, to put it mildly, is not entirely true. After visiting the museum, I expressed my comments to one of the employees, who promised to study this issue.

However, apparently, our tourists rarely visit this place. In the memory of the employee to whom I pestered with my criticism, we were the first Russian guests of the museum. Although, probably, her memory fails her a little (or there was not her change), there is one review of a tourist from Russia on the Tripadvisor website. By the way, positive.

How many of our citizens know about other theaters of operations of World War II , besides the Eastern Front?

Having lost tens of millions of people in that war, we, not without reason, consider it our own, considering everything that happened outside our latitude as local clashes, fading before the steel avalanches of the Kursk Bulge, the grandiose artillery preparation for the assault on Berlin and the critically short average lifespan individual fighter in Stalingrad.

Meanwhile, our Great Patriotic War was important, probably the most important, but still part of the huge confrontation that swept the whole world in 1939-45. When we reproach the French, British or Americans for writing their own history of the war, we forget that, in fact, we ourselves are in a similar plane, seriously limiting the space for dialogue. It is difficult to say whether there will ever be a common approach to the Second World War for all countries, whether a common collective memory will be formed around it, at least within the framework of the main participating countries. In any case, this should not stop us from getting new knowledge about it, generously cutting off the tendentious forms of their presentation.

Therefore, I personally would very much like our tourists to visit museums like the Overlord Museum and enjoy the fascinating presentation of the most interesting material. Even if you don’t like something and you can justify it with arguments, there is always the opportunity to be heard by the organizers and administration.