A good guidebook is "Major and Mrs Holt's Battlefield guide to Normandy Landing Beaches" Includes maps, suggested tour routes and details of everything worth seeing, including the "not to be missed" highlights if you only have a few days there.
Its a fair point BDL, the Naval bombardment at its height was delivering 10 tons a minute on 6 June, incredible stuff, there is a place called the Maisy Battery just behind Pont du Hoc which I have not been to yet but I hear is an excellent visit
The naval bombardment was incredible indeed. One particularly amazing piece of shooting came from HMS Ajax which silenced the German batteries at Longues by placing six inch shells directly through the embrasures of two of the four gun casemates. Sharp shooting indeed!
went with the family a couple of years ago,i couldn't get over how huge normandy is. thought is was going to be like driving around kent and that we'd see everything that we wanted to, big mistake.
we stayed on the long coast opposite jersey, fabulous quiet empty beaches, the tide went out for miles never seen anything like it then the locals appeared and filled their buckets with mussels, kids all had a great time.
did mont st michel, very busy but well worth a visit as was bayeaux. cherbourg had a good nautical museum.
d-day poi was all very well signposted with the different tours you could take, we visited omaha and the caen museum, all very humbling stuff, the kids took a lot out of it all
only fault was that we found it all quite expensive but we all want to go back there as we had such a great holiday
My girlfriends parent live in Normandy and i visited them for the first time the week before Christmas last year. On a day out they asked of i would like to visit some of the D-Day beaches, how could i turn that offer down! Wonderful place, although very eerie as the sun set and it makes you imagine what went on, you also wonder how it has taken me so long to go there, QatarNapsy has a point about schools visiting there, it would make the younger generation more aware, and hopefully appreciative of our History. I cant wait to go back to visit the beaches we never got to, Have a great trip Glosfan.
I did in the eighties so not sure how much has changed. What really hit me was massive battle damaged German guns facing the channel. Loads of museums and if you have the time, worth the Bayeux Tapestry is worth a visit - it isn't far away. When I went, it was also possible to get a flight around the key areas.
Then lets hope that we never have to face the evil of National Socialism and all it brought again, so right that we remember the events of 6 June 1944 and also the fall of Rome 68 years ago today.
Special mention to the 79th Armoured Division led by Percy Hobart, only the British could come up with some of his "funnies" on the beaches that day and they certainly proved their worth. lest we forget
Nice one SE7toSG3 . my father was a 'Hobart Funnie' and belonged to the Lothian & Border yeomanrypart of the 79th landing at Lion sur mer on D-Day +3 . he drove a Sherman flail tank all the way to Germany ( not the same one I might add).
Last year the male members of the family did the Normandy tour and we took him with us (albeit his ashes as he sadly died in 2009) every bar we went in we ordered a beer for him which we passed around the lads in salute. It was a great trip and on the night of the 4th June there was fantastic thunderstorm and light show out to sea which replicated the bad weather of 1944. lest we forget
Nice one SE7toSG3 . my father was a 'Hobart Funnie' and belonged to the Lothian & Border yeomanrypart of the 79th landing at Lion sur mer on D-Day +3 . he drove a Sherman flail tank all the way to Germany ( not the same one I might add).
Last year the male members of the family did the Normandy tour and we took him with us (albeit his ashes as he sadly died in 2009) every bar we went in we ordered a beer for him which we passed around the lads in salute. It was a great trip and on the night of the 4th June there was fantastic thunderstorm and light show out to sea which replicated the bad weather of 1944. lest we forget
Kind of ironic that the Americans were too proud to accept the offer of "funnies" - apart from the DD's which of course performed least well on the day due to the weather. The other funnies proved major life-savers
Kind of ironic that the Americans were too proud to accept the offer of "funnies" - apart from the DD's which of course performed least well on the day due to the weather. The other funnies proved major life-savers
The Duplex Drives were less effective for the Yanks because they launched them too far out. We told them that they must not launch them more than 3 kilometers (I think) from the beaches, we also told them not not to turn them sideways across the current, they didn't listen to both pieces of advice and its no coincidence that almost all the tanks sank killing most of the crews at Omaha beach which lead to the deaths of 3000 men. The DD tanks at the British beaches more more successful because we knew what we were doing. This is one of the main reasons that Gold, Juno and Sword (all British and Canadian) beaches were taken with relatively light casualties, Omaha was a bloodbath and Utah less so, but only after good work by the 82nd and 101st Airborne (The Band of Brothers) who came from behind the beach to reinforce the landing brigades. I often wonder what went through Jerry's mind's when they saw floating tanks coming out of the water?
Lovely story Clivey, Lothian & Borders Horse were a cracking unit, you should be very proud, the US duplexes I think were told to aim for a steeple, this was meant to be once they hit the beach, they lined up with the steeple some distance out (too far as already mentioned) and the tide just filled them up and sank them, tragic.
I once took a lad from the 4/7 Dragoons back, he showed me the bunker that his crew were told to rush straight up too, stick the 75mm through the slit and keep firing till an infantryman appeard and told them to stop!
Of all Hobarts creations, the armoured bull dozer was reckoned to be the most useful on D-day, not as glamorous as the DD's, AVRE's firing petard mortors or a flame belching Crock but a very practical workhorse
You say that Hugo, and you are right that the yanks often turned their noses up at the funnies, but my father's regiment was seconded to the US 84th Infantry Division army for the very first attack on German soil at Geilenkirchen (Operation Clipper) in November 1944, when they needed the British flail tanks to make a path through the minefields before the infantry attack. They did get to be presented to Eisenhower afterwards and then even the famous Clark Gable, who alledgedly' said to my dad " you've just held the hand that held the kn** b that sh**ged Carole Lombard .............he was a story teller though , but I kind of believe it
I didn't say it was in Gelschenkirchen , the actual battle was in Geilenkirchen in Germany just inside the German border, no idea exactly where or when his Regiment was presented to Eisenhower and Gable, but in the Official History of the 79th Armoured it mentions that the Lothians and Border Yeomanry were indeed presented to Eisenhower, it may have been after the war, but Dad said Clark Gable was also presented to them , so just passing it on as it was to me. no matter
Comments
As it happens I was mixing up the two nearby and similar sounding places so no big deal.
: - )
we stayed on the long coast opposite jersey, fabulous quiet empty beaches, the tide went out for miles never seen anything like it then the locals appeared and filled their buckets with mussels, kids all had a great time.
did mont st michel, very busy but well worth a visit as was bayeaux. cherbourg had a good nautical museum.
d-day poi was all very well signposted with the different tours you could take, we visited omaha and the caen museum, all very humbling stuff, the kids took a lot out of it all
only fault was that we found it all quite expensive but we all want to go back there as we had such a great holiday
Have a great trip Glosfan.
Never forget, never again.
Special mention to the 79th Armoured Division led by Percy Hobart, only the British could come up with some of his "funnies" on the beaches that day and they certainly proved their worth. lest we forget
Last year the male members of the family did the Normandy tour and we took him with us (albeit his ashes as he sadly died in 2009) every bar we went in we ordered a beer for him which we passed around the lads in salute. It was a great trip and on the night of the 4th June there was fantastic thunderstorm and light show out to sea which replicated the bad weather of 1944.
lest we forget
I often wonder what went through Jerry's mind's when they saw floating tanks coming out of the water?
I once took a lad from the 4/7 Dragoons back, he showed me the bunker that his crew were told to rush straight up too, stick the 75mm through the slit and keep firing till an infantryman appeard and told them to stop!
Of all Hobarts creations, the armoured bull dozer was reckoned to be the most useful on D-day, not as glamorous as the DD's, AVRE's firing petard mortors or a flame belching Crock but a very practical workhorse
Whatever would Clark Gable be doing in Gelschenkirchen? I thought he was in the USAAF.