Six Years After D-Day: Cycling Through Europe

By Marie Bennett Alsmeyer

In 1950, a young couple (both WWII veterans--a WAVE and an airman--and both with GI Bill journalism degrees) quit their jobs on a South Texas weekly newspaper and embarked upon a 1200-mile bicycle tour through Europe. "Such a trip made no sense at all in 1950," writes Alsmeyer, "but it was a gloriously crazy, senseless thing to do." Based on notes, diaries, and letters, the book is more than a mere travelogue. It chronicles the people and places of postwar western Europe-including the citizens of Vimoutiers, France, a town accidentally bombed by Americans. "One family with twelve children lived in one of the houses that fell during the first wave of the raid. The children crouched under a sturdy dining room table until the last of the bombs had hit. As rescuers went about their tasks in the smoldering debris, these twelve children--in single file--walked out of the rubble, hand in hand. They said that only the night before, their father had warned them that if there was ever a bombing raid, they must hide under the sturdy round table." Bicycle enthusiasts, war historians, sociologists, women's studies scholars, and readers of travel narratives will all find something of interest in this charmingly written narrative.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0929398823
• ISBN13: 9780929398822
• Release Date: April 1995
• Publisher: University of North Texas Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A European journey when Europe was still Europe.

I just finished this remarkable book this morning and I hope that many readers find this little gem of a travelogue. Personally, I morn the passing of "Old Europe"--something that has happened in my lifetime. Although this journey took place only six years after D-Day, I can read into Alsmeyer's words the changes that will soon overtake Citrons and Fiat 500s and Morris Minis and cities without graffiti and fashions that looked different in each country and border crossings where your passport was stamped with a contry's individual stamp, etc., etc., etc. . I realize these are the ramblings of an old romantic but I am unapololetic. I found this wonderful book more interesting in the middle chapters when she talks about the effects of the recently completed WW II. For instance on pages 72 and 73 she descibes the Nazi trick whereby American bombers laid waste an innocent French village because a carrier pigeon carried a forged message to airforce command. Then on page 84 she descibes the beautiful American Noremandy Beach cemeteries with their white crosses and nearby the German cemeteries with black crosses; I wonder if it is still that way--too blatant for my taste I'm afraid. I have a full page of notes about the many little "gems" that pepper her memoir, like seeing the QEI in port in Southampton before continuing her regular transatlantic crossing. If you are a contemporary historian and/or a traveler you will enjoy this fascenating, well writen book.

There should be more books like this

By giving us this book, Alsmeyer provides inspirtation and sets a splendid example for every woman who has lived long enough to have a sense of her own history. We can hope that many women who enjoy reading this book will come to the last page and then dig out their own boxes of memorabilia, recall the adventures of their lives and tell their stories.