D-DAY TOURS Full Day Tour E-1 Utah Beach
TOUR E-1 : UTAH BEACH + US AIRBORNE AND OMAHA BEACH(Full Day Tour)
Here you can visit some of the sites where the greatest amphibious landing in History took place on the coast of Normandy on D-Day. This detailed program will allow you to see the main sites of this historic action where the American forces fought on this famous day. You will not only be visiting the two beaches where the United States First Army stormed ashore but also the impressive fortifications built by the Germans to repel this inevitable attack. You will also be given time to visit the American Cemetery and its moving Interpretive Centre, situated to overlook Omaha Beach where you can honour the soldiers who did not return home after the war.
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 now commemorated in two of the stained-glass windows now to be seen in the church of Sainte-Mère-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.
UTAH 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 center 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”.
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 or back to the United States. After coming in through the narrow entrance you emerge into the very somber 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.
LA 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.
OMAHA BEACH :
Approximately 34 000 soldiers of the famous 1st 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 :
Surplombant la plage d’Omaha, le cimetière américain recense 9 387 soldats venus d’outre-atlantique pour libérer l’Europe de ses occupants. Cet immense lieu de culte et de mémoire vous étonnera par sa sérénité et son calme. Recueillez-vous sur la tombe de l’un des 307 soldats inconnus ou des quelques célèbres soldats tels que Theodore Roosevelt Jr ou encore des frères Niland de la fameuse famille qui inspira le film « Il faut sauver le soldat Ryan ».
LONGUES-SUR-MER gun battery :
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 clearly be seen today. The battery at Longues-sur-Mer is the only gun battery in France that still has the original cannon in the bunkers, untouched since 1944.
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