Private Normandy Battlefields Tour - The Landing Beaches of Normandy

Re-live in the principal events and battles that made up the Battle of Normandy with a private tour of the sites that interest you, which could include Utah Beach, Sainte Mere Eglise, Pointe Du Hoc, Longues Sur Mer, the American and German Cemeteries.

Your guide on your Private Normandy Battlefields Tour is passionate about the history and the region of Normandy. You can see the landing beaches, the inland battlefields, some of the cemeteries of the principal armies, the museums and listen to the stories and history behind each.

As this is a private tour, your itinerary is flexible allowing you to see what you want and determine the amount of time you'd like to spend at each site.

Some of the sites you may like to see are as follows:

US Sector

• Sainte Marie du Mont
• Brecourt Manor
• Dead man's corner
• La Barquette Bridge
• German Cemetery

Canadian Sector

• Juno Beach
• Canadian Cemetery
• Ardennes Abbey
• Carpiquet
• The Falaise Pocket

British Sector

• Pegasus Bridge
• British Cemetery
• Sword Beach
• Hillman Bunkers
• Longues sur Mer
• Arromanches
• Gold

Schedule Details Departs: 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 5:00pm Hotel Pickup: Hotel pickup is available from centrally located Bayeux and Caen hotels. Please advise your full hotel name and address at time of booking. Itinerary:

Sample 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.

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.

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