Private Tours NORMANDY D-Day landing beaches
Advised tours : D-DAY LANDING BEACHES
These programs are given as an example, they can be modified depending on the pick up location and on your interests.
TOUR 1 : AMERICAN SECTORS
Sainte-Mère-Eglise / Utah Beach / Pointe du Hoc / Omaha Beach / American Cemetery
TOUR 3 : BRITISH AND CANADIAN SECTORS TOUR
Peace Museum in Caen / Pegasus Bridge / Commonwealth military Cemetery in Ranville / Sword Beach / Via Juno et Gold, the Artificial Harbour of Arromanches
TOUR 2 : BAND OF BROTHERS AND THE AMERICAN AIRBORNE DIVISIONS
La Fiere bridge / Beuzeville-au-Plain / Ravenoville and the Marmion’s Farm / Brecourt Manor / Sainte-Marie-du-Mont / Hiesville / Angoville-au-Plain / Dead Man’s Corner / Carentan
TOUR 4 : THE BREAK THROUGH OF AVRANCHES and MONT SAINT MICHEL
Saint-Lô / Avranches / Mont-Saint-Michel
NORMANDY : D-DAY LANDING BEACHES
On the 6th of June 1944 starting at 6:30am, Allied forces landed on the coast of Lower Normandy to start the liberation of Europe from the Germans. Re-live in one or more days the principal events and battles that made up the Battle of Normandy with a personal private tour of the sites that interest you. Follow, more than 60 years later, the same roads taken by the Allied armies in the summer of 1944. Our guides, passionate about the history and the region of Normandy, will take you to the landing beaches themselves, the inland battlefields, the cemeteries of all three principal armies, the museums and explain the stories and history behind each. “Bloody Omaha”, the Pointe du Hoc, Pegasus Bridge, the American cemetery at Colleville, the Norman Hedgerow countryside that gave the Allied armies so much trouble, the church steeple at Sainte Mere Eglise where John Steele got caught up, the massive artificial harbour at Arromanches, are just a few of the places to visit. Relive the film “The Longest Day” or the series “Band of Brothers” and follow the battles of the 101st airborne division, the famous “Screaming Eagles”. These emotional visits to the places where history was made will be something that you will never forget from your time here in Normandy.
Advised toursUTAH BEACH :
The first beach secured by the Allies in the early hours of Operation Overlord, Utah Beach is best known for both its light casualties and its famous commander, Theodore Roosevelt Jr, son of the President of the same name. Before the landings started, the Germans had already dispatched their best troops to the interior away from the beach to look for the paratroopers that had been dropped earlier. As a result of this, the troops of General Barton’s 4th Division faced only very light resistance. At the site of La Madeleine, the centre of the landings on Utah, you can see the remains of the German bunkers as well as various different pieces of Allied equipment beside the monuments to the American divisions who opened the “Road of Liberty”.
SAINTE-MERE-EGLISE :
During the night of the 5th and 6th of June 1944, more than 16,000 paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions landed behind Utah Beach to assist the seaborne landings. Navigational errors meant that although most of the troops were dropped near their landing zones, a lot more were dropped up to 25 miles off course. By getting caught on the church steeple, John Steele ensured the lasting fame of the village, being immortalised in the film “The Longest Day”. These landings are commemorated in two of the stained-glass windows now to be seen in the church of Sainte Mere Eglise.
AIRBORNE MUSEUM OF SAINTE-MERE-EGLISE :
This museum holds numerous uniforms and objects of equipment used principally by the American Airborne Forces, including things found on the Battlefields behind Utah Beach. You will have a chance to see one of the fragile Waco gliders used by the American forces, exhibited in one part of the museum and a C-47 transport plane used on the 6th of June 1944 to bring both paratroopers and a glider to Normandy from England. There are also numerous photographs and films of the Allied troops in France shown in the museum.
OMAHA BEACH :
Approximately 34,000 soldiers of the 1st, 2nd and 29th Infantry Divisions landed on this beach on D-Day. The beach was covered in anti-tank and anti-landing craft obstacles. Nearly all of the pre-invasion bombardment had missed the fortifications along the beach and the geography of the beach itself, consisting of 80 to 100-foot bluffs rising up from the shore, was very easily defendable terrain for the Germans. One of the only good-quality front line Infantry Divisions available to the Germans was also present on the beach, purely by coincidence. This made the assault the most difficult of all the beaches on D-Day, earning the nickname “Bloody Omaha”. Only a few days after the landings, the Americans had transformed nearly the entire beach into a vast artificial harbour, code-named “Mulberry A”. It was used for less than a week before it was destroyed in a very heavy storm between the 19th and 22nd of June 1944. There is only one piece of this harbour left to be seen today.
AMERICAN CEMETERY :
Overlooking the eastern end of Omaha Beach, the American cemetery holds the bodies of 9,387 soldiers who came from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean to liberate Western Europe from the Germans. This immense place of memory and reflection will impress you with its calm and serenity. You can see the graves of some of the 307 unknown soldiers or visit the resting places of the more famous, such as the Niland brothers, the family who inspired the film “Saving Private Ryan” as well as the three Medal of Honor winners, one of whom is General Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
POINTE DU HOC :
Re-live on this exceptional site the exploits of the 2nd Battalion of the US Rangers. After having scaled the 100-foot cliffs under heavy enemy fire, the Rangers pushed on through this lunar landscape to capture and destroy the 6 heavy guns capable of firing their shells to a maximum range of nearly 15 miles. Colonel Rudder and his men only realised upon capturing the battery that the Germans, under the orders of Rommel, had moved the guns half a mile inland and hidden them while bunkers were being constructed to protect them. The taking of Pointe du Hoc was a long and laborious fight, with the Rangers being left to fend for themselves two days longer than had been planned. The 2nd Battalion suffered very heavy casualties during the two and a half days they were at Pointe du Hoc, only 90 of the original 225 still fighting when they were finally relieved.
GERMAN CEMETERY :
The main German Military Graveyard in Normandy, this cemetery initially started out as one of a number of temporary American cemeteries. Between the end of the war and 1947, the American bodies were transferred to the Cemetery at Omaha Beach or back to the United States. After coming in through the narrow entrance you emerge into the very sombre surroundings of this place. There are more than 21,000 soldiers buried here who paid with their life for Hitler’s order to “Never Retreat, Never Surrender”. When face-to-face with these casualties of war, it will allow you to think of the German as well as the Allied losses of the Second World War.
ARROMANCHES :
Realising the difficulties of capturing intact an enemy held port, the British, under Churchill, opted for the mammoth task of building two artificial harbours, one for the American 1st Army at Omaha, the other for the British 2nd Army at Gold. However, following a very severe storm lasting from the 19th to the 22nd of June 1944 which completely destroyed the American Mulberry harbour, the British artificial port at Arromanches was left alone as the main supply channel for all of the equipment needed by the Allied soldiers fighting in Normandy.
LONGUES-SUR-MER :
The battery at Longues sur Mer was composed of four guns of 152 mm calibre, capable of firing shells to a maximum range of 15 miles, allowing them to reach not only Omaha Beach, 8 miles to the west, but also the British landing zone of Gold Beach, 5 miles to the east. The Allies had tried to knock out this battery with aerial bombardment leading up to the landings, but it was not until D-Day itself that the guns were finally silenced by the off-shore Allied Navies. The damage inflicted on the guns themselves can still be seen clearly today. The battery at Longues sur Mer is the only heavy gun battery in France that still has the original cannon in the bunkers, untouched since 1944.
BERNIERES-SUR-MER :
See at Bernieres the sector of Juno Beach where the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada and le Regiment de La Chaudiere landed on the 6th of June 1944. This sector is very special for the Quebecois who, for the most part, had come to liberate the home of their ancestors. You will see along the length of the beach the remains of the defences built by the Germans, and especially “The Hotel”, the famous house seen in so many newsreel clips of the landings, known now as “The Canadian House”.
THE ARDENNE ABBEY :
A masterpiece of architectural design dating from the 12th century, this Norman Abbey was, in the early years of the German occupation, a focal point for the local French Resistance. But situated between the strategic points of Caen and Carpiquet airfield, the Abbey was fortified and used by the 12th SS Hitlerjugend Panzer Division as their headquarters during the early part of the Battle of Normandy. Its unfortunate reputation nowadays, however, is as the site of execution of Canadian prisoners of war by the child soldiers of the Hitler Youth Division.
SWORD BEACH :
Starting at half past seven in the morning, the first of 28,000 soldiers to come ashore on this beach landed to start the liberation of Western Europe. With them were the 177 Free French soldiers serving under Commandant Philippe Kieffer, who was born and raised in the town of Ouistreham where they landed. They were the only French soldiers to be involved in the assaults on D-Day. One of the first tasks allotted to the forces here was the destruction of a German artillery battery composed of five 155mm cannon and other associated German defences near the beach, as well as the famous Casino which had been heavily fortified and to capture what is now called by the locals “Le Grand Bunker”, a massive German fortification over 5 storeys high. After having achieved this, the 3rd British Infantry Division was to push rapidly inland to surround the town of Caen from the east. Although the British forces had attained nearly all of their D-Day objectives by nightfall, they had failed in their most important task which was the encirclement and capture of Caen in conjunction with the Canadians forces landed on Juno.
PEGASUS BRIDGE MUSEUM :
The capture of Pegasus Bridge and its sister bridge nearby by elements of the 6th Airborne Division was the most complete and successful operation carried out on D-Day. It was vital for these bridges to be captured intact in order to deny the Germans a crossing point over the Orne River and canal, which together run parallel to the sea from Caen. This kept this important artery open to the British to ensure the successful securing of the eastern flank of the Allied landings in Normandy. The inhabitants of Benouville, the village that sits beside the bridge, were the first French civilians to be liberated on the morning of the of June 6th. Just after midnight the gliders under the command of Major John Howard landed less than fifty yards from their targets, allowing the men contained in them to take possession of the bridges with a minimum of casualties and destruction. The paratroopers held their position despite numerous enemy counter-attacks until they were joined by British troops advancing south from Sword Beach just after midday on D-Day. The Museum at Pegasus Bridge shows not only the assaults undertaken by the British 6th Airborne Division but the landing of the troops on Sword Beach as well. You can also see a full sized replica of the Horsa gliders used in the attack, as well as a Bailey bridge and the original Pegasus Bridge itself which no longer spans the canal.
BAYEUX :
Although it was the first large town liberated by the Allies in Normandy in 1944, Bayeux escaped serious damage during the Second World War, much of the delight of lovers of History. Bayeux also wrote its own page in French history in June 1944 at Place du Chateau when this became the first spot visited in newly liberated France by General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French, who announced officially the liberation of the first French town after four long years of German occupation.
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