The motorhome diaries: D-Day beaches

I’ve seen the cinematic recreations so many times (thank-you History Channel); the doors on the boats open and the allied soldiers hit the beach; sand, water and flesh shredded by thousands of German bullets.

But now that I’m standing at the shore where it took place, even with Steven Spielberg's assistance, I actually find it difficult to imagine.

The beaches are still referred to by their Operation Overlord code-names. We camp a short ride from Juno, the beach where the Canadian soldiers landed.

We drive around to Arromanches, a small seaside town where a surprising amount of Port Winston - one of the Mulberry harbours the allies established for unloading cargo - is still intact.

Continuing west, we come to Omaha, where the Americans landed and the heaviest fighting took place. My military-strategy training starts and ends at playing Command and Conquer, but if I had to choose between manning a machine gun in the dunes and storming the beach from the boats...I wouldn’t want to be playing this mission as the Allies.

65 years after D-Day (Jour-J in French) there’s not much to mark these beaches apart from any other; the odd crater, a few concrete bunkers and some remaining hardware. Of course there are memorials scattered all along; including a giant, shining-silver monstrosity on Omaha that’s just way too abstract. Even with the thousands of white crosses in the American military cemetery, it is difficult to contemplate just how much blood was spilled here in such a short amount of time.