Research: How it happens; Why it Matters

This trip was originally going to be an opportunity to let my mind rest from a brutal four months at work and just explore the small towns of the European countryside. I quickly realized though that there are 3 things I look for when I travel: 1. new foods 2. new beer/wine 3. history.  The first two are a given anywhere in this area. Then I acknowledged that there is no way I am going to travel over 3,000 kilometers over four European countries to new cities and towns without experiencing a tremendous amount of underappreciated history. So I developed the following priorities for determining where to go and what to see:

1. Visit American cemeteries and pay respects to the fallen. Also pay respects to fallen enemies (more on this later)
2. Visit American battle monuments
3. Visit battlefields
4. Try new foods and beer/wine

This is what happens to your living room wall when it's time
to plan a cross-continent journey of exploration.

The first part of this process is to identify areas where fighting took place. Well that is the easy, but at the same time sad part... These two wars covered the continent. There are very few areas of Northern France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany that were not touched by at least one of these two cataclysmic wars. Battlefields are a dime a dozen. So I looked at locations where significant events took place and where units I have been  assigned to or people of interest to me fought. My primary resource for this part of the planning was my growing library of history books. I have more than two dozen books related to history and about half of them relate to the two world wars. Surely I was going to find good information in them.

The second phase in planning this trip involved (and to this moment still involves) identifying what locations can practically be lumped together in a trip that takes less than a week. Honestly it would take at least month to travel the expansive battlefields on the Western front and really appreciate them with the time they rightfully deserve. For this trip I narrowed my destinations to locations near sites operated by the American Battle Monument Commission. The ABMC is the agency that operates and maintains the overseas cemeteries and monuments for US Government. The reality is that the soldiers buried in the permanent cemeteries are there because they generally died in that area (with exceptions). This accounts for the significant concentration of American cemeteries in Belgium/Netherlands for WWII and Eastern France for WWI.

The Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer  is located
just  above the D-Day landing zone code named Omaha Beach. It is
one of the most famous American battle monuments in the world.

I have already visited several ABMC locations in France and Luxembourg so I understand the amount of valuable information contained at these locations. Wars are fought by people. Every person has a unique story. There are millions of stories begging to be told. This is the mission of my trip: Learn about the human experiences of the world wars and develop a greater appreciation for those that died defended freedom.
amount of information and resources available.

For this trip I took an extra step in the research process by reaching out to the experts that run these ABMC locations and they have been gracious enough to meet with me one on one and discuss some of the unique stories that their sites have to tell. For me this will be the highlight of the trip. If there is anything I enjoy more than a good history book, it is an expert whose job it is to study the events and people that make a place famous. When exploring history anyone can use Google. But the real excitement comes in hearing the stories that are not in the history books or Wikipedia.

So why is such in depth research necessary? Let me give you an example...Anyone can go to Paris and visit the Eiffel Tower. But what is the point of visiting this obscure mass of iron it if you do not know the story of why it was built, why it has remained in place this long, and what its future holds? I will not tell you that story here. Do some research and you will find that it is much more exciting than anything you could have imagined.

There are tremendous stories to be told not just the history of Europe but almost anywhere. Whether it is Henri-Chapelle France, Nuremberg Germany or Lansing, MI, USA--there are fantastic stories of people and experience that deserve to be told. I invite you to look into the history around the place you live. I'm sure you will find them just as exciting as the places I get to visit in my area of Europe.

Please share a comment here with a unique piece of history from the area where you live!