D-day landings visit

BigJohnsPens

BigJohnsPens

Well-known member
Thinking about visiting some of the beaches and key areas re the d-day landings plus the Somme in the spring. Has anyone done something similar and do you have any advice? What about hotels and how far would you recommend that we travel each day? Are there any must go’s? Thanks
 
I think if I was visiting the Somme and the D-day landing beaches, I would split the holiday into two. I would suggest doing your homework and planning your day accordingly on what you want to see.

We stayed in Mortain (further inland), which was a site of an American battle, and on the hill that the Americans held, you can still see the fox holes, etc. Not a great deal to see here though.

We also stayed in a cottage at Ecausseville near Sainte-Mère-Église. We went into Sainte-Mère-Église to see the paratrooper hanging from the church roof and it looks like one of them soldiers you use to get from the £1 shop.

The American war cemetery at OMAHA (Colleville-Sur-Mer) is worth a visit but I would also take in Merville Battery and then move onto Pegasus Bridge (Ranville).

Normandy American Cemetery | American Battle Monuments Commission

For questions regarding the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 2024, please visit our D-Day 80 landing page or contact us at dday80@abmc.gov.
www.abmc.gov www.abmc.gov

Musée de la Batterie de Merville • Une véritable immersion dans l'histoire

Visitez 6 bunkers aménagés en musée à la Batterie de Merville et un avion mythique, le Douglas C-47 ayant participé au D-Day, en Normandie.
www.batterie-merville.com www.batterie-merville.com

Mémorial-Pégasus

musee.memorial-pegasus.com musee.memorial-pegasus.com

en.wikipedia.org

Operation Lüttich - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
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You could go into museum after museum but most are showing the same thing. I would suggest driving along the coast and stopping at the different towns and villages. A lot of the points of interest are signposted and others you will stumble across.

I do highly recommend the Merville Battery museum though. Read up on this first and you will be amazed at what the para's achieved and then went onto support their colleagues at Pegasus Bridge.
 
In 1983 I went on a school trip to Normandy and we visited a few war museums and war grave cemeteries. The 50+ year old me so wishes i'd paid more attention and taken it all in at the time instead of pi***ng around and not listening. Kids eh? :)
 
My Uncle and I did a similar trip at the end of 2019 to places where my Grandfather had fought.

We started at the Commando Memorial in Fort William (he was in No 4 Commando), then got the Ferry from Hull To Rotterdam and visited the Memorial at Flushing Beach, then drove down to Dunkirk (he was evacuated from Dunkirk when he was in the Royal Artillery before he joined the Commandos).

We stayed the night in Dieppe and visited the memorial there, seeing Orange Beach and the Hess Battery.

We then spent the next day in Normandy, vising Sword Beach and the museum at Pegasus Bridge and the Commando museum at Oustream.

We got the overnight ferry from Oustream to Portsmouth.

A great trip, and the roads in Holland Belgium and France were all very good, although I did get a speeding ticket one one of the French toll roads.

Hotel wise, I booked them all through Booking .com and got some pretty good deals at some nice places that I suppose were not mainstream hotels.

If you want to PM me. i can send you some more details etc.

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1673954386016.png
 
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I also did the school trip, and whilst I did do a bit of the messing about, I did take a lot of it in (we did a proper Blackadder 4 style 'over the top' at the request of the teachers, which may not have been in the best taste in hindsight!) and it did have a pretty big effect on me. We went to a few of the beaches and the cemeteries, can't remember which ones. All interesting stuff though. Then we played rounders.
 
We spent a couple of days visiting the D-Day beaches on our way back from holiday a few years back and we stayed in a Ibis hotel in Port en Bessin. Hotel was nothing flash but decent rooms and was clean and respectable, perfect for what we needed. Its right on the quayside of the port but had a resident car park round the back and there were plenty of places to eat in the town.
It was a great location for exploring as it sits between Gold and Omaha beaches and the town is a small fishing port and nice for for a wander round.
 
I would recommend the Caen Memorial Museum which is ideally placed at approx 10kms from the ferry at Ouistreham (from Portsmouth). You'll need a full day there, but I'd suggest avoiding school holidays when it is packed.

As suggested above it's best to just wander along the coast visiting those cemeteries and museums that interest you. The american cemetery at Omaha is very popular and the beach is fantastic. A german cemetery is also worth a visit with the black crosses a contrast to the allied cemeteries.

Accommodation is cheap and easy to find except perhaps in the high season - plenty of B&Bs and cheap hotels, but best to research and book in advance. A double room in a two-star hotel should normally be under 50 euros unless prices have gone up drastically since I last used them. Travel unfortunately is best by car as public transport will be restricting, unless you are a cyclist and have lots of time. :)

The museum

From the origins of the Second World War to the end of the Cold War, the Caen Memorial Museum present the history of the Battle of Normandy and the history of the 20th century.
normandy.memorial-caen.com normandy.memorial-caen.com
 
BigJohnsPens said:
Thinking about visiting some of the beaches and key areas re the d-day landings plus the Somme in the spring. Has anyone done something similar and do you have any advice? What about hotels and how far would you recommend that we travel each day? Are there any must go’s? Thanks
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Can I recommend for the D Day beaches staying in Bayeux. it’s a great little town with nice restaurants and bars and of course the tapestry is great if you haven’t seen it. From there it takes no more than 10-15 minutes to drive to the coastal areas. Places that should be on your itinerary

Arromanches and the museum at the top of the hill re Port Mulberry

American Cemetery at Omaha beach is stunning and a must see

The new British Normandy Memorial at Ver sur Mer.
Pegasus bridge at Blainville

Museum at Caen

Turning to the Somme without the best place to stay to see the Somme is Arras. Great place with a lovely town square. There go and see the Wellington tunnels. Cemeteries are all over the region.

Then go from there out towards the Canadian Monument and the trenches near there.

Thiepval to the south is an absolute must to visit.
 
Billy69_uk said:
My Uncle and I did a similar trip at the end of 2019 to places where my Grandfather had fought.

We started at the Commando Memorial in Fort William (he was in No 4 Commando), then got the Ferry from Hull To Rotterdam and visited the Memorial at Flushing Beach, then drove down to Dunkirk (he was evacuated from Dunkirk when he was in the Royal Artillery before he joined the Commandos).

We stayed the night in Dieppe and visited the memorial there, seeing Orange Beach and the Hess Battery.

We then spent the next day in Normandy, vising Sword Beach and the museum at Pegasus Bridge and the Commando museum at Oustream.

We got the overnight ferry from Oustream to Portsmouth.

A great trip, and the roads in Holland Belgium and France were all very good, although I did get a speeding ticket one one of the French toll roads.

Hotel wise, I booked them all through Booking .com and got some pretty good deals at some nice places that I suppose were not mainstream hotels.

If you want to PM me. i can send you some more details etc.

View attachment 51113

View attachment 51114
Click to expand...
That trip sounds incredible.
 
Hello there - I did a walking tour in an attempt to trace my dad's route inland from D-Day and I found this book invaluable.


He landed on Gold with the Green Howards at Ver-Sur-Mer with all the other Boro boys (I think there's a memorial there now) and you can walk the routes inland to Crepon (where the aforementioned Stan Hollis memorial is). The book shows you exactly where Hollis performed the antics that got him the VC, some of which aren't obvious and I'd have missed them without it.

Plenty of decent gites to rent and B&B's and it's a lovely place - total belies the carnage that occurred there.

The routes inland from the beaches are preserved as public footpaths by the French, even though it feels weird to be tramping through working fields. A lot of the gun emplacements are relatively intact. I can't recommend the local moules and frites highly enough :)
 
Zoophonic said:
Can I recommend for the D Day beaches staying in Bayeux. it’s a great little town with nice restaurants and bars and of course the tapestry is great if you haven’t seen it. From there it takes no more than 10-15 minutes to drive to the coastal areas. Places that should be on your itinerary

Arromanches and the museum at the top of the hill re Port Mulberry

American Cemetery at Omaha beach is stunning and a must see

The new British Normandy Memorial at Ver sur Mer.
Pegasus bridge at Blainville

Museum at Caen

Turning to the Somme without the best place to stay to see the Somme is Arras. Great place with a lovely town square. There go and see the Wellington tunnels. Cemeteries are all over the region.

Then go from there out towards the Canadian Monument and the trenches near there.

Thiepval to the south is an absolute must to visit.
Click to expand...
This reflects a trip we did almost in its entirety. Finished in ipres in the end too.
 
Zoophonic said:
Can I recommend for the D Day beaches staying in Bayeux. it’s a great little town with nice restaurants and bars and of course the tapestry is great if you haven’t seen it. From there it takes no more than 10-15 minutes to drive to the coastal areas. Places that should be on your itinerary

Arromanches and the museum at the top of the hill re Port Mulberry

American Cemetery at Omaha beach is stunning and a must see

The new British Normandy Memorial at Ver sur Mer.
Pegasus bridge at Blainville

Museum at Caen

Turning to the Somme without the best place to stay to see the Somme is Arras. Great place with a lovely town square. There go and see the Wellington tunnels. Cemeteries are all over the region.

Then go from there out towards the Canadian Monument and the trenches near there.

Thiepval to the south is an absolute must to visit.
Click to expand...
I can second Arras, it is a lovely little town with plenty of bars and restaurants. I also believe there is a hotel on the main square.

In this region, you will also find a lot of little cemeteries at the side of the road that are easy to drive past.
 
A visit to Albert and their museum is worth it nice town as well. You can go to the Lochnagar Crater the size of which is astonishing given that its partially filled in
 
Just quickly looked at the ferry crossing prices (Portsmouth - Ouistreham) for two adults in a standard car going in June and back in July. Prices vary with the cover offered but have not risen as much as expected. Around £125 - £155 each way at the cheap tariff. They're still offering the two crossings, night and afternoon - the latter being the cheaper (docks 9.30pm). Two bunk basic cabins with shower (good for getting your head down after a long drive) cost £28 per crossing.
 
I can recommend Montormel which commemorates the closure of the Falaise Gap and effectively the end of the battle in Lower Normandy. Particularly poignant as the men who fought there were Poles for whom the end of WW2 did not really result in the liberation of their country. Many did not return to Poland at the end of the war and some were stripped of their citizenship of Poland including their leader General Maczek.
When I first visited during the 1980s there was just a memorial but later a small museum, subtely built into the hillside, was added.

MÉMORIAL DE MONTORMEL. LA DERNIÈRE BATAILLE DE NORMANDIE. AOÛT 1944

MÉMORIAL DE MONTORMEL. LA DERNIÈRE BATAILLE DE NORMANDIE. AOÛT 1944
www.memorial-montormel.org www.memorial-montormel.org

en.wikipedia.org

Stanisław Maczek - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Edit: If you want to do some reading on the battle I'd recommend John Keegan's 'Six Armies in Normandy'. A different approach and very readable.
 
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