A Dog Day Out - A D-Day Beach

Let me make it very clear at the start of this post that I absolutely didn't take Storm to Normandy today (insert your own 'Storming Norman-dy' joke here). No, instead we piled into the car and headed down to the New Forest for what I think might have been Storm's first look at the seaside.

And, in honour of this occasion, this British seaside responded in true holiday fashion with grey skies and rain that came in off the sea sideways. But we weren't to be deterred, not at all.

We'd come to Lepe Country Park and headed down the dog friendly part of the beach where Storm, all bravado, ran straight into the water. Then she ran straight out again when the waves were bigger than anticipated and the water tasted weird. So we played, Storm danced in and out of the surf and we enjoyed our time on the beach, despite the weather. She ran in the bushes behind  the beach, she chased, she sprinted and zoomed. She had a great time.

Then, as my military history geekness kicked in, we walked around the cliff path and down onto Lepe's very own D-Day beach. It was from here, almost exactly 69 years ago that the coast was carved up to play a part in the invasion of Normandy. Barges were filled with soldiers, equipment was loaded, the 'Mulberry Harbours' were assembled and floated towards France and the all important PLUTO, the pipeline under the ocean, pumped fuel to the beaches to power the Allied advance.

After all of the D-Day programming, tweets and news features of the last week, Lepe came alive for me today. As we walked along the concrete path, laid to get men and machines to the sea here, you could feel it. I'm not a believer in ghosts and spooky stories but something got to me today. The years fell away and despite the broken up remnants of D-Day littering the beach, it was there. And I could have cried and let the rain wash away my tears - for the men that didn't come back, for all the men, on all sides, who fought on those beaches.

Storm knew too. As she sat in the boot of the car, wrapped in a towel, I sat next to her and, as she so often does when I need her, she leaned on me.

Then she stood up and shook herself all over me and looked happily at me as I laughed into the rain.

These 'dolphins' were part of the pier used to load ships heading to Normandy

Ships tied up on these bollards whilst being loaded and the broken concrete allowed vehicles etc to drive to the waiting barges

The Mulberry Harbours were launched from these slipways

Storm investigates the site that held the floating harbours in place

Drying off!