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Ereignisse > 2013 > NEIN zu Offshore-Windkraftwerken vor den Landungsstränden der Alliierten in der Normandie
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Verein „Basse-Normandie Environnement (BNE)“
Verband „Fédération Environnement Durable (FED)“
Europäische Plattform gegen Windkraftanlagen (EPAW)
6. Juni 1944:
Die größte Armada aller Zeiten mit 6939 Schiffen.
150 000 Soldaten der alliierten Streitkräfte waren an den Operationen „Neptune“ und „Overlord“ zwecks Landung an der normannischen Küste und Etablierung eines Brückenkopfs beteiligt.
Arromanches, auch „Port Winston“ genannt, war der Schlüssel zur Befreiung Europas und befand sich im Zentrum der Operationen, die den Weg zu Freiheit, Demokratie, europäischer Hoffnung und Frieden bahnten. Der künstlich angelegte Hafen war von Juni bis November 1944 in Betrieb und trug zum Erfolg der Unternehmungen der Alliierten bei.
Heute gehören die Strandbereiche Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno und Sword zu den Gedenkstätten des Zweiten Weltkriegs, und ein Antrag zur Aufnahme ins Weltkulturerbe der UNESCO läuft.
„Port Winston“, seine Überreste und seine maritimen Kulturgüter stehen unter Denkmalschutz.
Arromanches befindet sich erneut im Mittelpunkt des Zeitgeschehens.
Das Projekt der geplanten Offshore-Windkraftwerke vor den Landungsstränden der Alliierten ist zurzeit in der Phase öffentlicher Debatten.
Durch die 75 Windkraftanlagen, die 170 m hoch und 10 km von der Küste entfernt aufragen sollen, wird der freie Blick auf den Horizont von den Landungsstränden aus verstellt:
Gold: britischer Landungsstreifen, Juno: kanadische Landung,
Sword: franko-britischer Landungsstreifen, Omaha und Utah: amerikanische Landungen.
Der Ausgang der Debatten liegt klar auf der Hand.
Der Beginn der Bauarbeiten ist für 2015 vorgesehen.
Unsere Organisationen sind einhellig der Meinung, dass diesen Stätten der Erinnerung, an denen zahlreiche Soldaten ihr Leben gelassen haben, dadurch schwerer Schaden zugefügt wird.
Wir appellieren an die internationale Gemeinschaft.
Wir bitten Sie um Ihre Unterschrift, um dieses Offshore-Windkraftprojekt zu stoppen und die Landungsstrände ins Weltkulturerbe der UNESCO aufzunehmen, damit diese Strände endgültig vor der Industrialisierung geschützt werden.
Internationale Petition
NEIN zu Offshore-Windkraftwerken vor den
Landungsstränden der Alliierten in der Normandie
Unterzeichnen Sie bitte die Petition
D-Day landing beaches may be desecrated by a wind farm Liberté - Parc éolien de Courseulles : "Vivement l'Unesco" The Vancouver Sun - Canadians' views sought on wind farm Stars and Stripes - Paris pressing ahead with planned windfarms off Normandy beaches The Chronicle-Journal - Juno Beach wind turbines proposed France 3 : « Des opposants de poids au projet du futur parc éolien marin de Courseulles-sur-Mer » The Times - Wind farm threat to D-Day beaches
Wind farm invasion - Proposal for up to 100 turbines off D-Day beaches
Marketplace - French wind farm faces opposition from D-Day veterans
The Financial Times - Operation Dynamo triggers Overlord beaches furore
Mail Online - D for Desecration: A giant off-shore windfarm's being built overlooking the D-Day beaches...
CTV News - D-Day vets angry over plans for Juno Beach wind farm
Mail Online - 'Attack on memory of Allied troops': Sarkozy under fire after approving massive wind farm off...
Courrier international - Tempête sur les plages du débarquement
Mail Online - Fresh battle at D-Day beaches as veterans say French plan for huge offshore wind farms is...
BFM TV - Éoliennes au large des plages du Débarquement
TF1 - Arromanches : le parc éolien offshore divise la population
Ouest-France - À Bayeux, l’assoc. Port Winston dit son opposition aux éoliennes au large des plages du Débarquement
Le Parisien - Des éoliennes indésirables près des plages du Débarquement
June 6, 1944 – June 6, 2013
May 1, 2013
by David Chazan
Wind farm threat to D-Day beaches
Every year thousands of people make a pilgrimage to the D-Day beaches in Normandy to remember the Allied troops who landed there to liberate France from Nazi occupation.
Nearly 70 years after the assault that changed the course of the Second World War, however, the beaches face an invasion of another sort — wind turbines.
The plan to build a huge offshore wind farm within sight of land has upset veterans and their families and has triggered protests from environmentalists. But it is being welcomed by many local people because it would create thousands of jobs.
“The veterans don’t like this kind of thing,” said John Phipps, of D-Day Revisited, which funds and organises visits for British veterans who took part in the largest amphibious landing in history.
Signposts to the beaches still bear the code names used on June 6, 1944: Sword, Gold , Utah, Omaha and Juno. “It wouldn’t be quite the same with wind farms,” Mr Phipps said.
Seventy-five wind turbines, each nearly twice the height of Elizabeth Tower, would be built six to nine miles out to sea. Construction is to begin in 2015, a year after the 70th anniversary of the landings.
The companies leading the project — EDF, of France, Dong Energy, of Denmark, and wpd offshore solutions, of Germany — say that it would be difficult to move the wind turbines out of sight from the coast because the water is too deep and they would encroach on fishing grounds and shipping lanes.
“This is a sacred site that must not be spoilt,” said Admiral Christian Brac de la Perrière, the head of the official French D-Day Committee, the Comité du Débarquement de Normandie, which organises commemorations.
“Every year on June 6, we gather local schoolchildren on the beaches to make them feel what the young British, American and Canadian soldiers felt when they fought their way ashore,” he said. “How will they understand if they are looking out at wind turbines?”
Thousands of people have signed a petition initiated by the European Platform Against Windfarms, an environmental group that is lobbying Unesco to list the D-Day beaches as a World Heritage Site.
“This is a massacre of the beaches,” Jean-Louis Butré, the chairman of the organisation, said. “A former RAF group captain phoned me and said that if the wind farm is built, he would be prepared to bomb it.”
Last year the Government cancelled another wind farm project in Normandy on land just within sight of Mont-Saint-Michel, one of most popular tourist destinations in France, after Unesco threatened to suspend the world heritage status of the ancient abbey that stands on a rocky tidal island.
Public debates are being held in Normandy to discuss the £1.5 billion project, which was approved in 2011 by President Sarkozy. It was shelved in the run-up to elections last year, then revived by President Hollande.
One debate, in Arromanches on June 12, will be held in both English and French. The independent commission organising the meetings wants British veterans or their representatives to take part or make their views known.
A plan to build a wind farm on the site of a First World War battlefield in Loos, also in northern France, has been put on hold after public opposition.
January 29, 2011
by John Lichfield in Paris
We'll fight the wind farms off the D-Day beaches...
The view from the Normandy landing beaches is to be transformed – critics say "desecrated" – by an immense offshore wind farm.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced this week that one of the most poignant sea and beachscapes in the world – the Calvados coast, between Juno and Omaha beaches – had been selected as the site for one of five vast wind farms to be built off the French Atlantic seaboard from 2015.
British veterans at Sword Beach - © David Sandison
Officials insist the generators, two-thirds the height of the Eiffel Tower, will only just be visible from the coast. But the leader of an official commemorative association and a militant ecologists' group said yesterday that France was failing in its duty to preserve the memory of D-Day, and the "essential character" of the five landing beaches on which 2,500 allied soldiers died on 6 June 1944.
The choice of the site, 11 kilometres off Courseulles-sur-Mer (Juno Beach), was "inappropriate and incoherent", Admiral Christian Brac de la Perrière, the president of the Comité du Débarquement, the official French body for commemorating D-Day, said yesterday.
"The French government says it wants the whole stretch of the Norman coastline from Utah Beach to Sword Beach to be declared a Unesco world heritage site," he said . "At the same time, it wants to build these generators in the very centre of the landing areas of 1944."
Jacky Bonnemains, president of Robin des Bois (Robin Hood), a militant French ecological group, said: "I find it extraordinary no one in government grasps that this will change forever the character of a place of sacred memory. They just don't seem to care." In future, the seascape would be "desecrated" by rows of wind generators, he added.
"The promoters and the government say the generators will be hardly visible but this is not so," he said. "They will easily be visible on a clear day and they will generate light pollution at night." Mr Bonnemains, whose group opposes all offshore wind farms, said there was already fear about unexploded wartime munitions near two wind farms off the northern Norman coast. "The seabed in the approaches to the D-Day landing beaches must be carpeted with unexploded bombs," he said.
France has no large offshore wind farms and wants to catch up with Britain and Germany. President Sarkozy announced on Tuesday a €10bn plan to build five giant arrays of generators off France's western coast from 2015. The sites – two off the north Norman coast, one off the D-Day beaches and two off the Breton coast – will generate as much electricity as two nuclear power stations.
The precise location of the D-Day wind farm has yet to be decided. An initial 50, and then at least 80, windmills will be built in the waters "off Courseulles-sur-Mer" or a little farther to the west. This would put the wind farm off Juno Beach, the landing place for 21,000 Canadian and British troops in 1944; or Gold Beach, stormed by 25,000 British troops; or even, conceivably, in sight of Omaha Beach, the bloodiest of the five landing areas, which was finally captured by the Americans on the evening of 6 June.
The offshore generators would be 160 metres high. The official proposals say the "impact on the maritime landscape" seen from the coast would be "limited". Only 24 per cent of the sweep of the horizon would be affected, the proposals say. Seen from 11 kilometres away, a 160m-high wind generator is "equivalent to a 1.6cm tall object (roughly a matchstick) seen from a metre away". Critics say 80 "matchsticks" along the maritime horizon at the D-Day beaches would be highly intrusive. The local councils have welcome the D-Day wind farm which will, it is promised, bring thousand of jobs to the area. Laurent Beauvais, the Socialist president of Lower Normandy, "rejoiced" at the choice, and said the wind park would have "no impact on fishing or tourism".
Link: www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/well-fight-the-wind-farms-off-the-dday-beaches-2197779.html
« Energie sollte dort erzeugt werden, wo sie benötigt wird - Die Zerstörung von Natur und Kulturlandschaft darf nicht das Ergebnis... »
#1,444 - May 13, Bernd Leube, Germany
« Energie sollte dort erzeugt werden, wo sie benötigt wird - Die Zerstörung von Natur und Kulturlandschaft darf nicht das Ergebnis "umweltfreundlicher" Energie sein. »
« La spéculation sur l'énergie éolienne est inacceptable. Il s'agit d'un objet idéologique en perte de vitesse et dont l'image elle même se... »
#1,375 - May 10, Martha Laurent, France
« La spéculation sur l'énergie éolienne est inacceptable. Il s'agit d'un objet idéologique en perte de vitesse et dont l'image elle même se dévalorise maintenant que le grand public est de plus en plus informé de la faiblesse de la productivité et de l'ampleur des bénéfices artificiels des promoteurs éolien. Il faut arrêter le massacre »
« Les pido que no permitan, bajo ningún concepto, la destrucción del entorno del lugar donde se inició la liberación de Francia y... »
#1,356 - May 10, Pedro Antonio Serrano, Spain
« Les pido que no permitan, bajo ningún concepto, la destrucción del entorno del lugar donde se inició la liberación de Francia y Europa Occidental y que no autoricen nunca ninguna central eólica que destruya ese entorno histórico, donde miles de personas dieron su vida por salvar las de millones de europeos. »
« Ce serait réellement scandaleux de voir aboutir un tel projet à cet endroit, là meme ou de nombreux hommes y ont laisser leurs vies !... »
#1,342 - May 10, Bruno Pezzotta, Belgium
« Ce serait réellement scandaleux de voir aboutir un tel projet à cet endroit, là meme ou de nombreux hommes y ont laisser leurs vies ! Il y a bien longtemps que ces plages devrait etre classées au patrimoine mondial. »
« My dad and two uncles were in the invasion force that swept ashore on 6 June 1944. When we visit the beaches we DO NOT... »
#1,340 - May 10, George Kirkpatrick, Canada
« My dad and two uncles were in the invasion force that swept ashore on 6 June 1944. When we visit the beaches we DO NOT WANT to see more of those ugly Wind Turbines. »
« My father and his two brothers fought in Normandy in 1944 and my uncle Edward G. Styffe was killed in Maizieres where the main... »
#1,263 - May 08, Edward Styffe, Canada
« My father and his two brothers fought in Normandy in 1944 and my uncle Edward G. Styffe was killed in Maizieres where the main street now bears his name. It is sad to think that anybody could desecrate the sacred landscape of Normandy with windfarms which are of questionable economic value and which will have a detrimental impact on visitors and citizens alike.Sincerely, Edward »
« I have visited the beaches several times, I will find it very unethical to put wind turbines on or near the beaches. »
#1,261 - May 08, KLaus Østergaard, Denmark
« I have visited the beaches several times, I will find it very unethical to put wind turbines on or near the beaches. »
« I am a retired RAF full Col (Gp Capt). My father was one of the 55,573 who died in Bomber Command. Bomber Command did much... »
#1,253 - May 08, Patrick Tootal, United Kingdom
« I am a retired RAF full Col (Gp Capt). My father was one of the 55,573 who died in Bomber Command. Bomber Command did much to ensure the sucess of the D Day landings.The Normandy landings were a great human endeavour and should be maintained as a shrine to those who died. »
« I am the author of "The Wind Farm Scam" which clearly shows that wind power not only has a harmful aesthetic impact but also... »
#1,218 - May 08, John Etherington, United Kingdom
« I am the author of "The Wind Farm Scam" which clearly shows that wind power not only has a harmful aesthetic impact but also contributes very little to reducing fossil fuel consumption (and carbon dioxide emission). »
« Please do not let a new invasion take place on the beaches anywhere in the world. The windturbines do only have a symbolic value... »
#1,212 - May 08, Henrik Wachtmeister, Sweden
« Please do not let a new invasion take place on the beaches anywhere in the world. The windturbines do only have a symbolic value. They are totaly worthless for the worlds energiproduction today and tomorrow. »
« By now it should be clear to all- wind power is a brazen fraud. It exists purely for political reasons. Wind turbines generate political... »
#1,195 - May 07, Frank Campbell, Australia
« By now it should be clear to all- wind power is a brazen fraud. It exists purely for political reasons. Wind turbines generate political, not electrical power. They also generate misery, loss, and sleaze. But they do kill irritating eagles, hawks and bats. »
« One of the first offshore wind farms built was the 25 MW Arklow Bank off Ireland's east coast in 2004. It now only produces 10.9... »
#1,193 - May 07, Pat Swords, Ireland
« One of the first offshore wind farms built was the 25 MW Arklow Bank off Ireland's east coast in 2004. It now only produces 10.9 MW in a gale, two of the seven turbines are broken, the others are seizing up. When the EU Commission is requested officially for the performance data for offshore windfarms, they don't have it. The whole policy is based on 'political consensus' and press releases. Proper legal assessments (UNECE Aarhus Convention) have been bypassed. The whole wind programme is technically, economically and environmentally a disaster, futhermore it is completely non-compliant with the law. »
« It is a pitty that all these projects are only supported by financial and political motivation unless of being handled with a risk based... »
#1,098 - May 04, Catherine Lefebvre, France
« It is a pitty that all these projects are only supported by financial and political motivation unless of being handled with a risk based approach integrating a worldwild strategy. This is with such non rationnal projects that we have today implementation of nuclear plant in sismic countries. Politicians are not motivated by a long term approach for the earth. That is what our yougest children will have to intergrate in the future when they will vote. »
« The Isle of Wight was at the very heart of the D-Day preparations. Our government also wants to degrade the Heritage Coast of... »
#1,049 - May 03, John Nash, United Kingdom
« The Isle of Wight was at the very heart of the D-Day preparations. Our government also wants to degrade the Heritage Coast of the Island with a huge offshore windfarm which will also blight the neighbouring World Heritage Jurassic Coast of Dorset. »
« Let's not slap in the face all the men who fought and died to FREE EUROPE from oppression. Let's not add anything more to the... »
#941 - May 02, Garland Mathews, FL
« Let's not slap in the face all the men who fought and died to FREE EUROPE from oppression. Let's not add anything more to the BLOOD and TEARS that will always remain on those beaches. HONOR these men!! »
« My Dad was among the first troops to land on the Beaches of Normandy on D-Day. I sign this petition to honor his memory and that... »
#902 - April 30, Ellen Landauer, MA
« My Dad was among the first troops to land on the Beaches of Normandy on D-Day. I sign this petition to honor his memory and that of the other brave men who fought for our freedom. We have a new battle on our hands… The march of industrial wind turbines and the many ways they destroy peoples' freedom, health and quality of life must be completely and irrevocably ended. May they never desecrate the beaches of Normandy or any other beautiful place on earth! »
« My Father died in 1945 as an Essex Scottish Reg. Sgt. I spent 30 years in Canada's Airforce, tours in Germany and France in the... »
#645 - April 26, Gil Charlebois, Canada
« My Father died in 1945 as an Essex Scottish Reg. Sgt. I spent 30 years in Canada's Airforce, tours in Germany and France in the 1960s. I cannot believe that is sacrilage will take place. France should be ashamed to allow this to happen after what the world did to Liberate them. »
« I am 82 years old and knew young men who went to fight in France including some who did not return. My late husband, an... »
#571 - April 26, Angela Kelly, United Kingdom
« I am 82 years old and knew young men who went to fight in France including some who did not return. My late husband, an architect, was in the Royal Engineers and fought in the Battle of Caen. He cared deeply for the environment and was committed to the battle against industrial wind farms till he died in 1999. An electricity supply that imposes great damage on the environment and its ecology, needs a secure back-up supply, but doesn't produce power when you need it is worse than useless. Shame on the French government that they don't respect the memory of the thousands who gave their lives. I continue to campaign. www.countryguardian.net »
« My father fought on this site and in no way do I want to see windfarms put there. This is sacred land and should stay that way!!! »
#492 - April 25, Linda Swab, OH
« My father fought on this site and in no way do I want to see windfarms put there. This is sacred land and should stay that way!!! »
« As past commander of the Seattle Nisei Veterans organization, I would urge those in the decision making process to reconsider the... »
#428 - April 24, Keith Yamaguchi, WA
« As past commander of the Seattle Nisei Veterans organization, I would urge those in the decision making process to reconsider the proposed site for a windfarm. These very shorelines should be a special place in the hearts and minds, not only of the French, but of all European Countries. On these very beaches, many brave men made paid the ultimate price to insure the freedom you enjoy today. Thanks you for your consideration. Keith Yamaguchi »
« 1944, it was due to the courage and the will to win of the Allies and the Resistance, that the world was freed from a plague from... »
#409 - April 24, Marco Bernardi, Germany
« 1944, it was due to the courage and the will to win of the Allies and the Resistance, that the world was freed from a plague from Germany. Today, 66 years later, you are again confronted with this challenge, but this time with German friends at your side. »
« Éolien : Affairisme doublé maintenant par de l'ignominie. Après le saccage du Mont Saint Michel, des parcs naturels, les promoteurs... »
#13 - April 21, Jean-Louis Butré, France
« Éolien : Affairisme doublé maintenant par de l'ignominie. Après le saccage du Mont Saint Michel, des parcs naturels, les promoteurs éoliens s'attaquent maintenant aux lieux de mémoire tels Arromanches. Au soir du 6 juin 44, 156 000 hommes avaient pris pied sur le sol normand : 17 000 parachutés, 56 000 débarqués sur Utah et Omaha et 83 000 débarqués sur le secteur anglo-canadien. Les pertes alliées s'élevaient à 10 300 hommes dont le tiers de tués. Au nom du respect de ceux qui se sont sacrifiés pour délivrer la France, ne laissons pas faire un tel sacrilège. »