D-Day Normandy Tours: The Best Way to See The Sights of the Normandy Campaign

The Tours

The five day tour gives an overview of the allied landing visiting the principal sites and museums including our local museum at St Martin des Besaces. A walk through a small part of the bocage will allow you to appreciate some of the difficulties the soldiers faced in close combat in Normandy.

Sectors

On the tours we visit the landing beaches. At Omaha, the site of the most fierce fighting where the Americans paid the highest price in life, when you stand at the water's edge you will immediately appreciate the difficulties these young American soldiers faced.

As well as the many well known museums dedicated to the Allies and the German occupation, there are also many smaller privately owned museums and collections. All these museums offer a wealth of information and artefacts for the visitor. We will visit the Airborne Museum at St Mere Eglise with the famous town square and mannequin of John Steele, the soldier whose parachute snagged the roof of the church, and who is remembered to this day by having a street named after him. We also visit the excellent Dead Man's Corner Museum dedicated to the 101st Airborne.

Just go a few kilometers further south and you can visit the museum of occupation at St Marie du Mont, the first village to be liberated by the Americans. This small, privately owned museum gives a fascinating insight into life under occupation with original German murals still painted on the walls.

At St Martin des Besaces, yet another museum depicts life under the occupation as well as the Bocage breakout. This was one area where the Americans and the British rubbed shoulders. During the 60th anniversary year a memorial was placed at Le Tourneur dedicated to Captain Hugh Dormer, who was the highest ranking officer of the Guards Armoured Division to be killed in the Normandy campaign. In 1942 this officer parachuted twice into France with the S.O.E. He was awarded the DSO for his courage.

The above are just brief examples of the varied and fascinating history that will be shared with you during your stay with us.

Whilst the tours are pre-planned we pride ourselves on being able to change to meet individual requests. Every group member will receive a personalised memento in the form of a booklet describing all the sites visited, as well as the more detailed verbal information shared with you during your trip.