WW2 D-Day Normandy Landing BeachesThis itinerary takes you on a self-guided tour of the Normandy Landing Beaches and some key sites related to Operation Overlord, the Allied Invasion of Normandy. Make sure you take advantage of the "Normandy Pass" scheme, which gives you a discount on entry to the museums etc. Ask us for details.
If you prefer to take a guided tour of the D-Day Beaches, there is a 4-5 hour tour which starts at the Caen Memorial; the tour guide takes you by coach from there to the Arromanches Museum, the German gun battery at Longues-sur-Mer, the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, Omaha Beach and Pointe du Hoc before returning you to the Caen Memorial. The price (69 euros in 2008) includes entry to the Caen Memorial; during October, November, December, February and March 1.00pm departure; from April to end of September 9.00am and 2.00pm departures.
Our suggested itinerary takes in all of the above (other than the Caen Memorial) and a number of equally interesting sites:- Pegasus Bridge 30 mins
- Le Grand Bunker 30 mins
- Arromanches 360o Cinema 30 mins
- Arromanches Museum 30 mins
- German gun battery at Longues-sur-Mer 30 mins
- American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer 45 mins
- Pointe du Hoc 30 mins
- Dead Man's Corner 30 mins
- Ste Mère l'Eglise 30 mins
This itinerary can be shortened according to the time available; as a guideline allow a full day, leaving at 8.00am and returning at 8.00pm, to see all of these. We mention several other places of interest that are near to these sites - obviously you can alter the itinerary to suit yourself.
If the history of the Resistance and the liberation of Normandy interests you, you may like to read this account of events as they affected Ancinnes in the wartime between 1943 and 1944.
Take the A28 autoroute from Junction 19 to Sées, where you turn onto the A88 motorway to Caen. The motorway will not go all the way to Caen until 2010 - take it as far as you can.
Arriving in Caen follow the ring road, called the 'Péripherique', signposted towards Cherbourg. Stay on the périphérique until Sortie No7 then, if you wish, turn off and follow the signs for the Mémoriel de Caen.
The Caen Memorial is dedicated to explaining the causes and consequences of the Second World War. This can take a couple of hours to visit and we prefer the smaller museums and exhibits further along the coast which give glimpses of the conflict on a human and intimate scale, on the spot where it happened. If you do visit the Memorial you may need to miss some of the other sites listed here. We suggest you skip this and continue towards Ouistreham.
The Memorial uses displays, models and archive film, covering the causes of the conflict, the Occupation, the Holocaust, D-Day and the aftermath of the war. We think the best parts are a short film on the Battle of Britain (though it lacks detail and ignores the vital role of the Hurricane in favour of the more glamorous Spitfire), a longer film using archive footage of the preparations for the allied invasion and D-Day and a section showing the everyday life of allied soldiers and examples of letters they wrote home.
Go back to the ring road (or continue past Sortie 7 if you do not visit the Caen Memorial) and continue in the direction of Ouistreham - look out for signs for the Car Ferry and at Sortie 3a take the D515 to the coast, following the river Orne in the direction of Ouistreham. Turn off for Benouville and visit Pegasus Bridge: this was the site of an audacious landing by gliders of the British 6th Airborne Division in dead of night on June 6th shortly before the sea invasion, in order to secure two vital bridges. Visit the Pegasus Bridge Museum where you can see a glider, one of the bridges and displays which illustrate this remarkable story.
Nearby at Ranville the cemetery holds the graves of many British servicemen who died in this area in the days immediately following the invasion but it is hard to find - it is actually near the church.
Continue along the D515 to Ouistreham and visit Le Grand Bunker, part of the German Atlantic Wall defences. It is located on Avenue du 6 Juin, which runs between the port and the Casino, parallel to the Boulevard Maritime. This small museum is well worth a visit.
Nearby is the British 4th Commando museum - sorry, we have not had time to visit it yet!
The beaches then run westwards from Ouistreham in the order Sword (British and French), Juno (Canadian), Gold (British), Omaha and Utah (American).
At Bernières-sur-Mer there is a large modern museum dedicated to the Canadians who took Juno beach; there is a Canadian cemetery inland on the road from Caen to Alençon.
Stop at Arromanches on the coast to visit the 360 degree cinema - a short 18 minute film in the round which cleverly mixes archive and modern footage - and visit the nearby Landing Museum built near the site of the Mulberry Harbours, which were constructed to aid the Allies in getting supplies ashore. There is a charge for parking at both the cinema and the Arromanches museum - park at one and walk to the other.
The Arromanches museum has excellent exhibits, films and models to illustrate the D-Day landings and the extraordinary creation of the floating harbours.
Before continuing along the coast to the American Sectors, you could detour to Bayeux to visit one of the numerous British cemeteries in this area; on the other side of the road from the Bayeux cemetery is the Bayeux War Museum which tells the story of the Battle of Normandy.
NB If you divert to Bayeux you may have to cut out a few of the other sites.
West of Arromanches is the German gun battery at Longues-sur-Mer, part of the Atlantic Wall defences.
Further along the coast at Colleville-sur-Mer you arrive in the American sector where you can visit the American Cemetery, overlooking Omaha Beach. NB It closes at 5.00pm each day.
From the American Cemetery continue along the coast to Point du Hoc - site of a daring raid by American Rangers who scaled the cliffs to attack a strategic German gun battery. You can see where the guns were and massive crater holes caused by the advance Allied bombardment - you also get panoramic views of the coast in both directions, this dominant position explaining why it was important that this battery was taken out early in the day.
Nearby at Grandcamp there is a small museum on the seafront road dedicated to the Rangers who took and held Point du Hoc.
Further along the coast past Isigny and Carentan you can visit Dead Man's Corner, a superb little museum near Ste Marie du Mont with an excellent memorabilia shop. This spot was named after an American soldier whose tank was ambushed by German guns on the corner where the house stands, and which was being used as a German command post on the important road from the coast to Carentan. The tank with the soldier's dead body hanging from the turret remained at this spot for some time until the Americans finally overcame the command post - hence the name of the site. The house is now a museum and contains a lot of personal effects donated by American soldiers and their families.
If time allows, in the neighbouring village of Ste Mère l'Eglise is the church where a wounded American parachutist famously hung from the belfry for hours before being dragged inside by German soldiers who were hiding there. A slightly macabre dummy hangs from the spire and there are a couple of beautiful stained glass windows commemorating the American parachutists who liberated the town after fierce fighting. There is also a museum dedicated to the airborne divisions who dropped in this area on D-Day, exhibits including a WACO glider and Douglas C-47 airplane.
Finally, if returning via Caen on the N13 try to stop off at the German cemetery at la Cambe (do not confuse it with a second German cemetery at Orglandes further west of St Mère l'Eglise - that will take you away from the route home!). The understated scale of the monuments and the sombre granite grave markers contrast strongly with those of the American cemetery.
For your information an extract from Wikipedia is reproduced below.Back to top A brief description of the D-Day Landings The following is an extract from the Wikipedia account of the D-Day Landings
The French Resistance
The BBC in its French service from London would regularly transmit hundreds of personal messages. Only a few of them were really significant. A few days before D-Day, the commanding officers of the French Resistance heard the first line of Verlaine's poem, Chanson d'Automne, "Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne" (Long sobs of autumn violins) which meant that the "day" was imminent. When the second line "Blessent mon coeur d'une langueur monotone" (wound my heart with a montonous langour) was heard, the Resistance knew that the invasion would take place within the next 48 hours. They then knew it was time to go about their respective pre assigned missions, which included destroying selected water towers, telephone lines, roads and railways.
Airborne landings
The British 6th Airborne Division was the first full unit to go into action, at sixteen minutes past midnight, in Operation Tonga. One set of objectives was Pegasus Bridge and other bridges on the rivers at the east flank of the landing area. The bridges were very quickly captured by glider forces and held until relieved by the Commandos later on D-Day. Another objective was a large gun battery at Merville. Although this larger glider and paratroop force was widely scattered, the battery was destroyed. However, the diminished assault team suffered 50% casualties in the attack.
The 82nd (Operation Detroit) and 101st Airborne (Operation Chicago) were less fortunate in quickly completing their main objectives. Partly owing to unmarked landing zones, radio silence, poor weather and difficult terrain, many units were widely scattered and unable to rally. Efforts of the early wave of pathfinder teams to mark the landing zones were largely ineffective. Some paratroopers drowned when they landed in the sea or in deliberately flooded areas. After 24 hours, only 2,500 of the 6,000 men in 101st had assembled. Many continued to roam and fight behind enemy lines for days. The 82nd occupied the town of Sainte-Mère-église early in the morning of June 6, giving it the claim of the first town liberated in the invasion.
Sword Beach
On Sword Beach, the regular British infantry got ashore with light casualties. They had advanced about five miles (8 km) by the end of the day but failed to make some of the deliberately testing targets set by Montgomery. In particular, Caen, a major objective, was still in German hands by the end of D-Day.
1 Special Service Brigade went ashore in the second wave led by No.4 Commando with the two French Troops first, as agreed amongst themselves. The British and French of No.4 Commando had separate targets in Ouistreham: the French a blockhouse and the Casino, and the British two batteries which overlooked the beach. The blockhouse proved too strong for the Commando's PIAT (Projector Infantry Anti Tank) guns, but the Casino was taken with the aid of a Centaur tank. The British Commandos achieved both battery objectives only to find the gun mounts empty and the guns removed. Leaving the mopping-up procedure to the infantry, the Commandos withdrew from Ouistreham to join the other members of 1st SAS Brigade (Nos.3, 6 and 45), in moving inland to join-up with the 6th Airborne.
Juno Beach
The Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach faced 11 heavy batteries of 155 mm guns and 9 medium batteries of 75 mm guns, as well as machine-gun nests, pillboxes, other concrete fortifications, and a seawall twice the height of the one at Omaha Beach. The first wave suffered 50 percent casualties, the second highest of the five D-Day beachheads.
Despite the obstacles, within hours the Canadians were off the beach and beginning their advance inland. The 6th Canadian Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars) was the only Allied unit to meet its June 6 objectives, when it crossed the Caen-Bayeux highway over nine miles (15 km) inland.
By the end of D-Day, 15,000 Canadians had been successfully landed, and the 3rd Canadian Division had penetrated further into France than any other Allied force, despite having faced such strong resistance at the beachhead. The 21st Panzer division launched the first D-Day counterattack between Sword and Juno beaches, and the Canadians held against several stiff counterattacks by the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend on June 7 and 8.
Gold Beach
At Gold Beach, the casualties were also quite heavy, partly because the swimming Sherman DD tanks were delayed, and the Germans had strongly fortified a village on the beach. However, the 50th division overcame its difficulties and advanced almost to the outskirts of Bayeux by the end of the day. With the exception of the Canadians at Juno Beach, no division came closer to its objectives than the 50th. No.47(RM) Commando was the last British Commando unit to land and came ashore on Gold east of Le Hamel. Their task was to proceed inland then turn right (west) and make a ten-mile (16 km) march through enemy territory to attack the coastal harbour of Port en Bessin from the rear. This small port, on the British extreme right, was well sheltered in the chalk cliffs and significant in that it was to be a prime early harbour for supplies to be brought in including fuel by underwater pipe from tankers moored offshore.
Omaha Beach
Omaha Beach was the bloodiest landing beach on D-Day. Elements of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division and U.S. 29th Infantry Division faced the German 352nd Division, one of the best trained on the beaches. Omaha was the most heavily fortified beach, and the pre-landing bombardment (from the Navy and Air Force) of the bunkers had proved to be ineffective. On the Eastern sector, 27 of the 32 DD tanks deployed never reached the beach. On the Western sector the DD's were landed directly on the beach, but suffered heavy losses due to German 88s defending the beach.
The official record stated that "within 10 minutes of the ramps being lowered, the leading company had become inert, leaderless and almost incapable of action (mostly every officer and NCO had been killed or wounded ...). It had become a "struggle for survival and rescue". There were about 1,000 killed (and overall more than 3,000 casualties), most in the first few hours. Commanders considered abandoning the beachhead, but small units, often forming ad hoc groups, eventually took the beach and pressed inland.
Pointe du Hoc
The massive, concrete cliff-top gun emplacement at Pointe du Hoc was the target of the U.S. 2d Ranger battalion. The task of the 225 men, led by Lt. Col. James Earl Rudder, was to scale the 100 foot (30 metre) cliffs under enemy fire with ropes and ladders, and then attack and destroy the guns, which were thought to command the Omaha and Utah landing areas. Only 90 or so of these men survived the onslaught of being picked off by Germans at the top of the cliffs, who bombarded them with grenades, bullets, and even rocks and bottles. The guns, unbeknown to the Rangers, had already been moved to a different position.
Utah Beach
Casualties on Utah Beach, the westernmost landing zone, were 197 out of around 23,000 landed, the lightest of any beach. The U.S. 4th Infantry Division was able to press inland relatively easily and succeeded in linking up with parts of the airborne divisions, which had helped secure the beachhead and distract the enemy before the landings.
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