On that miserable June 6, 1944 morning 2,700 British, 946 Canadian and 6,603 Americans, men and boys (many lied about their age to join the fight) made the supreme sacrifice on our behalf. As you gaze out over the Channel please bow your head in thanks.
The Landing Beaches
If the Normandy landings nearly failed anywhere, it was certainly on Omaha Beach at Colleville-sur-Mer. The heavy losses suffered by American troops on D-Day earned it the nickname "Bloody Omaha."
Your visit should begin at the Visitor Center where the details of Operation Overlord are explained. Outside, a viewpoint diagram placed in front of a water mirror, shows the beaches where the Allied forces landed. Looking to the West one can see the American Cemetery and behind it, a round chapel. The cemetery contains 9,387 gravestones.
On that miserable morning 2,700 British, 946 Canadian and 6,603 Americans, men and boys (many lied about their age to join the fight) made the supreme sacrifice on our behalf. As you gaze out over the Channel please bow your head in thanks.
Caen Memorial
This museum is worth a day itself.
Just in time for the 70th anniversary the room devoted to the Landing has been completely refurbished to place this major event in the broader context of the Battle of Normandy setting as the prelude to the liberation of France and Europe.
Few people know how Normandy suffered. 20,000 Normans died-1/3 of all French civilians killed during the Second World War. Many the result of Allied bombings.
Documents, articles, testimonials, relief map of operations you will discover the challenges and consequences of June 6, 1944.
Visit the memorial
Les Arromanches
Okay, so now you've landed but how do you get the jeeps, artillery and all of the other heavy material required to continue on the road to Berlin where there was no natural harbor to receive the giant transport ships?
Churchill had a solution-build an artificial port.
The British built huge floating concrete caissons codenamed "Phoenix" which, after being towed from England, had to be assembled to form walls and piers forming and defining the artificial port called the . These pontoons linked to the land by floating roadways. One of these ports was assembled at Arromanches and even today sections of the Mulberry Harbour still remain with huge concrete blocks sitting on the sand and even further out at sea.
By 12 June 1944 more than 300,000 men, 54,000 vehicles, 104,000 tons of supplies had been landed. During 100 days of operation of the port 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of material were landed. The best performance of the port was in the last week of July 1944: during those seven days the traffic through Arromanches exceeded 136,000 tons or 20,000 tons per day.
Ste. Mère Eglise/Airborne Museum
It was here that the comedian Red Buttons achieved permanent notoriety when he portrayed John Steele, the US paratrooper who landed on the roof of the local church in THE LONGEST DAY-miraculously he survived.
A mere 12 miles from
Bayeux in western Normandy, home to the tapestry depicting William the Conqueror's successful invasion of England in 1066, it is well worth the trip to experience the Airborne Museum. In full view of the church it has been created to honor those men who tumbled out of the sky, gathered up their parachutes(many of which became dresses for local women) and continued the fight.
D-Day to Berlin- A Personal Film by George Stevens
As a member of the Army Signal Corps, George Stevens (SWING TIME, GIANT, SHANE) was commanded by Gen, Eisenhower to film the landings and the march to Berlin. He didn't tell him to bring his own 16mm camera and rolls and rolls of Kodachrome film-this
44 minute personal documentary is not to be missed.
