Your guide on your Private Normandy Battlefields Tour is passionate about the history and the region of Normandy. You will be taken 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 Steel got caught up, the massive artificial harbor 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". Emotional visits to the places where history was made will be something that you will never forget from your time here in Normandy.

Schedule Details

Departure Dates:

Daily

Departure Point:

Tour departs from Bayeux or Caen train station

Departure Time:

9:00am

Return details:

Tour returns to original point of departure at approximately 6:00pm

Hotel Pickup:

Hotel pick up is available from centrally located Bayeux and Caen hotels. Please advise your full hotel name and address at time of booking.

Itinerary:

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 immortalized 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.

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 Beach 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.

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 realized 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 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 harbor, 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 harbor 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 their Nazi oppressors. 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.

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.

Arromanches

Realizing the difficulties of capturing intact an enemy held port, the British, under Churchill, opted for the mammoth task of building two artificial harbors, 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 harbor, 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.

Additional Information

Inclusions:

• English speaking driver/guide
• Transportation in air-conditioned minivan

Exclusions:

• Entrance fees
• Food and drinks
• Optional gratuities
• Hotel pick-up and drop-off

Additional Info:

• This tour must be booked at least 48 hours in advance of travel.
• Confirmation for this product will be received within 48 hours of booking, subject to availability.
• Tour is operated in English unless otherwise specified.
• The expert escort drivers / guides are all Normandy natives and have grown up listening to the WWII stories told by their parents or grand parents who endured four years of German occupation and lived through the days of the Liberation. They bring to their guiding that "special touch" that you will not get from someone from the outside, who might know History but not "la petite histoire"... The tragic or sometimes comic little details that make this tour a special and long remembered one.

Terms and Conditions:

The following conditions apply to cancellations:

• between 8 and 14 days before the tour, 25% of the total cost
• between 3 and 7 days before the tour, 50% of the total cost
• between 2 days before the tour and the 1st day of your tour, 100% of the total cost

Local Operator Information:

Complete Operator information, including local telephone numbers at your destination, are included on your Confirmation Voucher. Our Product Managers select only the most experienced and reliable operators in each destination, removing the guesswork for you, and ensuring your peace of mind.

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