Just under 30 years ago, I was near the end of a four year tour at an air base in England. It was summer and I had leave scheduled, so the wife and I loaded the car, drove to Dover and got on hovercraft ferry (car and all) and “flew” to Boulogne, France. It was great to drive on the “correct” side of the road again - we headed to Normandy to tour the countryside and visit the historic sites/museums, including the invasion beaches.

We found Omaha Beach and walked around by the water’s edge looking at the view towards the low bluffs just inland. Not much if any sand as I recall - it was all rocks. As I looked down at the rocks, I saw this one and it caught my eye. It had two concave areas on opposite sides with a near perfectly round hole going through the middle. My only thought was it had to be a bullet hole. After looking around more closely, I found several more rocks with similar holes, but not as well defined as this one. I got out my pin gauge set before writing this and found the biggest I could get to go through was .291” - just a hair over 7mm.

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Considering the hundreds of thousands of rounds that were fired by both sides on D-Day, I’m sure this rock is probably not uncommon, but I keep it as a reminder of what the men who landed on these beaches accomplished that day and the tremendous adversity they overcame. Hope you find it interesting, posting it today seemed appropriate.

OVW

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Old Vark WSO,

Not doubting you at all but it surprises me that a bullet would penetrate that and leave such a perfect hole.

It's a great find if that's what it is. I'm wondering if the rock might have formed with some iron or other salt water soluble inclusion that subsequently rusted/dissolved out.

I would suggest another idea -

Hitler made a serious effort in the construction of his Atlantic Wall.
All kinds of construction, bunkers, gun emplacements of all sizes, barbed wire entanglements, etc.
This might be a part of that wall, having been drilled with some kind of rock drill, to hold fencing or some barrier in place. Having the same hills/coast bombarded and bombed by the Allies, pieces of the wall were obviously destroyed. Bits and pieces flew everywhere. Yours might be such a piece.

I doubt that rock was penetrated by a bullet, it would either have ricochet off or shattered/cracked it.

That appears to be drilled to me, could it have been something that was manmade?

I did a Google search and there’s something called Hag Stones which are stones with naturally occurring perfectly round holes in them and found only in a few places in the world with Normandy being one of them.

Hag Stone

Weight for a net. Drilled and tied to the bottom edge of a net. Floats on the top edge.

Cheap local ballast.

What weapon would that even have come from? The German Mausers used 7.92mm bullets. Our M1 Garands used 7.62mm (30.06).

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Weight for a net. Drilled and tied to the bottom edge of a net. Floats on the top edge.

Cheap local ballast.

I'm with Mike here.

As many rounds that were fired on that beach I don’t think it is outside the realm of possibility that the rock could have been shot with a bullet. If it were drilled would it have that crater on both sides? I suppose it could if it were used as a weight or something but there are probably a few rocks that managed to end up with bullet holes.

Why do I feel like I'm watching Pawn Stars...

Okay - it does look like the fishing net weights in the above photos. I was never 100% convinced it was a bullet hole, but - I did pick it up on Omaha Beach. And realizing I mixed up the dates - it was over 30 years ago. Just something I hung on to and wanted to share.

If you ever get a chance to go to that part of France, there are a lot of historical things to see from the war - and earlier (my wife convinced me we should go see the Bayeux Tapestry - it worth the effort).

OVW

quote:

Easily distracted by shiny things

with round holes in them.

quote:

Originally posted by Old Vark WSO:
Okay - it does look like the fishing net weights in the above photos. I was never 100% convinced it was a bullet hole, but - I did pick it up on Omaha Beach. And realizing I mixed up the dates - it was over 30 years ago. Just something I hung on to and wanted to share.

If you ever get a chance to go to that part of France, there are a lot of historical things to see from the war - and earlier (my wife convinced me we should go see the Bayeux Tapestry - it worth the effort).

OVW

It's all in good fun, hope you know that, love to go to France and Normandy, Omaha, it's a bucket list thing.

That is a cool find. The location you found it makes it even better.

Dual use, net weight and peep site to look through at the Germans without exposing your face.

It’s still part of THAT beach.

Cool find.

I enjoyed your post. Thanks for sharing.

That was one of thousands used by the Allies for their ships. So, it really was part of D-Day.