GUIDED VISITS ALONG THE D-DAY LANDING BEACHES
Below are descriptions of the guided visits along the D-Day Landing Beaches which will allow you to discover this thread of history as it happened.
The D-Day Landing Beaches stretch across almost 56 miles (90 km.) and are divided into five sectors.
In theses guided visits, we will follow the the chain of events which happened on the D-Day Landing Beaches:
AMERICAN SECTOR
Utah beach
On the east coast of the Cotentin peninsula, this beach was added to the D-Day plans just a few weeks in advance.
The objective for American troops was Cherbourg.
Landing in the first wave of attack was Theodore ROOSEVELT Jr.
Let’s discover the westernmost assault beach together.
Ready for a guided visit of the landing beach ?
Type of visit: group, school or private
Length: 45 minutes
Sainte Mère Eglise
This small town is well known on account of the movie, “The Longest Day” which immortalized John Steel’s fall with his parachute onto the church bell tower.
The parachutists of the 82nd Division were dropped on Sainte Mère Eglise by mistake. Their mission was to prevent any counterattacks or reinforcements of German soldiers from reaching the landing sectors.
You wish a guided visit ?
Type of visit: group, school or private
Length : 30 minutes
Possibility to visit the Airborne Museum
La Pointe du Hoc
Arriving by sea, the Rangers, who were special forces, had to scale these 98 foot (30 m.) high cliffs to silence the cannons of the German battery.
This site is spectacular as the German bunkers and Allied bomb craters have been preserved.
Type of visite : group, school or private
Length : 1 hour
Omaha Beach
« Bloody Omaha »
This beach was the setting for incredible tragedies. In the fortifications of the hills were German soldiers equipped with machine guns, mortars, and cannons. On the beach were American youths who came in on the waves of the English Channel.
A must guided visit to a key D-Day landing beach.
Type of visite : group, school or private
Length : 45 minutes
American Cemetery
Overlooking Omaha Beach, this site was chosen as the last resting place for some of the American soldiers who died on the Norman battlefields. They numbered 9387, in addition to 1557 who disappeared.
Stories of individual soldiers combine to give the larger picture.
Type of visite : group, school or private
Length : 1 hour
German Cemetery
By an alley lined with maple trees in the small community of La Cambe, we will reach the cemetery where more than 22,000 German soldiers lie. The atmosphere, with its Peace Garden, is completely different from that at Colleville sur Mer.
Type of visite : group, school or private
Length : 30 minutes
BRITISH sector
Longues sur Mer
The only vestige of the Atlantic Wall which is a classified Historic Monument, this German battery has exceptionally kept its cannons. Four blockhouses and an advanced observation post help understand how naval batteries functioned.
Type of visite : group, school or private
Length : 45 minutes
Arromanches –the Artificial Port
The artificial port was built in England and transported across the Channel to assure necessary provisions for the troops to advance.
Concrete blocks weighing more than 6000 tons acted as breakwaters; unloading platforms were connected to the beach by floating roads.
Type of visite : group, school or private
Length : 30 minutes
CANADIAN SECTOR
Juno Beach
The Canadians landed at Courseulles and Bernières sur Mer.
They were the first to leave the beach in order to penetrate inland.
The Juno Beach Center is dedicated to them.
We will follow in the footsteps to the Abbey of Ardenne where 18 of them were massacred.
They rest in the Bény sur Mer cemetery close by.
Type of visite : group, school or private
Length : 2 hours
The franco-British sector
Sword beach
This beach is famous for being the site where the Scottish Lord LOVAT and his bagpiper Bill MILLIN landed, along with 177 French soldiers under Commando KIEFFR.
They faced a very urbanized part of the coast which was thus densely protected.
A guided visit of the easternmost D-Day Landing Beach.
Type of visite : group, school or private
Length : 45 minutes
Pegasus Bridge
On the east flank of the landing beach zone, British parachutists aimed for this bridge at the mouth of the canal linking Caen to the sea.
In order to land as closely as possible to their target, they used gliders and succeeded in the exploit of landing them within a few dozen meters from the bridge.
Type of visite : group, school or private
Length : 30 minutes
Possibility to visit the museum
These visits may be combined to make half or full day tours.
For all other requests, contact me at 33 (0)6 83 05 50 15 of by e-mail.
