The sea is so voracious that the photo on the recent information brochure for the Pointe du Hoc, in Normandy, looks out of date. The rocky spur separated from the cliff is now more pointed, making the area appear like the cliffs at Etretat. The vow of the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), the organization responsible for managing monuments dedicated to American service personnel around the world, including Pointe du Hoc, is inscribed on the same brochure: "Time will not dim the glory of their deeds." But erosion, accelerated by climate change, now seems set to wash away the memory of battles. On June 6, 1944, when a commando of 225 rangers scaled the rocky promontory to neutralize a German artillery battery, the rock formed a single block. The water has since pushed the cliff back some 10 meters.

"It's clear to us that there are now more storms, and they're more intense. We think that within five to seven years the tooth [point] will disappear," said Scott Desjardins, zigzagging between shell craters and signs prohibiting access to the trail that is now too close to the edge. In his post since 2017, the ABMC superintendent for Pointe du Hoc has had to redevelop the site following a succession of landslides. In November 2023, the "Rudder" bunker, named after the colonel who led the assault, was closed to the public. But "the view is very important," stressed Desjardins. It's the view that Colonel James Earl Rudder had from his command post. "It's a sacred place. If we don't have a site, the history of the rangers will disappear."

"With the combined effect of rising sea levels and stronger storms, the coastline will retreat inland everywhere," believed Benoît Laignel, co-chairman of the Normandy IPCC, the group of experts tasked with preparing the region for the consequences of climate disruption. According to the Normandy and Hauts-de-France Coastal Observation Network, a public interest group that brings together the two regions, the French government and the Coastal Protection Agency, the retreat of dunes and cliffs has so far been moderate along the 80 kilometers of D-Day beaches. However, rising sea levels will also lead to more frequent and more intense flooding. By 2100, following the current warming trajectory of +2.9°C, the sea is set to rise by almost a meter, covering the low-lying coasts, and therefore the D-Day beaches.

Jean-Pierre Olard no longer recognizes the beaches of his childhood. He was born and has lived all his life in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, right beside Omaha beach. He was nine years old on D-Day.. He is one of the last to "keep the memory" of the coast and its bunkers, over which "the sea is still advancing. On a nearby beach, one fell."

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