"Suggestions for a day visit to the Normandy beaches?" Topic

I have the opportunity to pay a day trip to Normandy next week with a few mates, arriving at Calais from the UK. Do you have any suggestions on which part of the Normandy coastline offers the best opportunity to view some interesting WWII fortress fortifications and get the most out of a short visit?

Thanks in advance

Blues 4

All the assault beaches are very well worth a visit, and Major Holt's guide will tell you most of what you need to know. Sword beach is a favourite of mine. If you go, please give my regards to Colonel R P H Burbury, CO of 1st South Lancs, who was killed leading his battalion over Queen White, and now lies as right marker in the 3rd Div cemetery behind Sword. His widow used to be my landlady.

All the best,

John.

there is such a lot to see in the area…..!

I presume you will have some sort of transport to shuttle yourself about…..

I found Omaha beach very interesting, and the war cemetary above it very moving. iirc the anti tank pill boxes covering the draws still have german guns in them, and a bit of research before you go will pay dividends.

Then lunch at Arromanches, where you can not only see the remains of the mulberrys, but explore the D-Day AFVs and artillery pieces which are just dotted about the streets as you wlk around. You can park in the centre and there is a really good lunch restaurant opposite where you can sit and look out on the Mulberries. You cant miss it, its full of locals, which is a good sign. There is a museum dedicated to the landings and especialloy the mulberry harbours there, but with just a day Id give that one a miss.

If you want an American experience in the afternoon, pop along the coast to St Mere Eglise is worth while, where they hang a dummy from the church spire, and there is a very good museum.

Otherwise Bayeux, where there is also a good D-Day museum, lovely old town centre, and a bonus 1066 tapestry if youo fancy moving off period.

If you can fit it in, Point du Hoc is also very stimulating.

dont forget to leave time for a crepe!

As you are pootling to and fro make sure you keep to the road that runs along the coast, so you pass all the beaches. You can stop anywhere that takes your fancy. If you stop for an ice cream at Port en Bessin you will not only find a nice Normandy fishing village, but see the location where the filmed the Free French attack in "The Longest Day" – you know the bit, with the aerial filming and the nuns trotting across the battlefield. There are some emplacements overlooking the harbour.

Finish your day with a drive out via Benouville and Pegasus bridge. They built a new bridge a few years ago but kept the old one a few yards away as a memorial. Have a look at the landing zones. Incredibly close to the objective.

You've only just touched the surface in a day of course. You could spend hours at the Merville battery, for example.

I hope the weather keeps good for you, Im sure you will have a great time and want to go back. The locals love it if you try your French out on them, even if its naff. Making the effort goes a long way, and the Gens Normandes dont call them French! are very warm and welcoming. Oh yeah, bring back a bottle of Calvados!

Bloody hell, I took my cadets to his grave (among others) in 2011! :o)

Blues, bear in mind that Calais to Normandy is a LONG way to go, do something constructive and get back again in one day! I'd also ignore the satnav and go via Rouen rather than Le Havre and the Pont de Normandie – it's a lot cheaper on the tolls and is only about five minutes slower.

I'd suggest that you keep it realistic and just visit the easternmost sites, so you maximise your time visiting rather than driving. Assuming a bloody early start and arrival at Caen for around 1000hrs (so you need to leave Calais at 0500hrs), my itinerary would be:

1. Pegasus Bridge, including the excellent museum.

2. Ranville War Cemetery (or pick another cemetery at some other point in the tour – Hermanville is the one mentioned by John).

2. Merville Battery (superb!).

3. Cafe Gondree for tea/lunch as you pass back over Pegasus Bridge.

4. The Grand Bunker, Ouistreham or Strongpoint Hillman.

5. Sword Beach – I'd got for Hermanville – take the right fork at the Centaur tank and park next to the square just beyond.

6. Juno Beach – There's lots of choice, as it's a big beach, but the 'Canada House' and/or Courseulles-sur-Mer is a good bet. I'd avoid the 'Centre Juno Beach' unless you like the modern style of 'peace museum', with lots of interactive stuff and very few artefacts.

7. Gold Beach – take the right fork at the Sexton SP Gun in Ver-sur-Mer and follow the sandy lane to the 'Green Howards Hut' (an old railway halt/bus-shelter-type-thing), where Stan Hollis VC landed. The famous photos of 7th Armoured Division were taken here.

8. Mulberry Harbour – for the best view, stop at the large car park on top of the hill between Gold Beach (Asnelles) and Arromanches. There is also the 360-degree cinema here, which I'm told is very good.

9. Arromanches – excellent place to stop for a meal or buy souveiniers. The Musee de Debarquement is excellent, with fantastic models of the Mulberry Harbour components.

10. Longues-sur-Mer Battery – excellent site and free! Don't forget to follow the path from the guns to the cliff-edge to see the OP bunker that featured in 'The Longest Day'.

11. Bayeux War Cemetery & Memorial to the Missing. Park in the museum car park and walk the 200 yards to the cemetery. I'd give the museum a miss – nowhere near as good as it used to be since Georges Bernage pulled his collection out.

12. If it were me I'd stay in Bayeux before heading back. Lots of cheap and good hotels – I'd recommend the La Reine Mathilde in the centre of town. The Bayeux Tapestry is open into the evening and well worth seeing. I'd recommend the Le Drakkar Restaurant on the main street for excellent and cheap food.

Im getting quite jealous now just thinking about these places!

Man, Ive got to get back there soon!!

Sun screen.

If you go to Ranville Cemetery give my regards to great-uncle Jack (Paras) – killed in the aftermath of D-Day during a German counterattack. We took in most of R Mark Davies' suggestions plus a few of interest to one of our party of 4 – he'd been an RN engineering petty officer with a flotilla of LCTs carrying American troops and jeeps. The skipper of the one he was on got it stuck on the beach and they had to sit it out until the tide came in. Luckily there was pretty scant opposition and he spent D-Day having another go at the engine problem they'd "jury-rigged" a couple of days before.

You will actually pass one of the best items of fortification shortly after you leave Calais. Battery Todt has a massive casemate and houses a very interesting museum, unfortunately it is closed in January.

My advice would be that once you have a shortlist of sites you want to visit check all of them to make sure they are open at this time of year.

Martin,

What a shame I didn't know that two years ago, before my father-in-law passed away. He was the senior RN engineering Petty Officer with one of the landing craft flotillas and was on one of the six LCT(E)s involved in D-Day.

Excellent advice from Andoreth that I hadn't considered, as I normally go in the spring, summer or autumn:

1. Merville Battery isn't formally open until March, but it's possible to wander around the site out of hours.

2. Strongpoint Hillman is an open-access site, so no problems there. There is a single bunker that the local restoration group open up on saturdays in the summer, but tours can sometimes be arranged at other times of the year if you contact them. link

3. You've just missed the Grand Bunker – they're shut from 1st January to 1st April.

4. La Musee du Debarquement is closed in January.

5. The Memorial Pegasus Museum at Pegasus Bridge is closed until February. I'm also pretty sure that the Cafe Gondree will also be shut, as I've just remembered that she told me last year that she was closing at the end of October last year. Of course, you can still visit the site.

6. The Longues-sur-Mer Battery is completely open and accessible all year round.

7. The Museum of the Battle of Normandy in Bayeux closed on New Years Eve and won't be open until February.

8. The Bayeux Tapstry is closed from 7-31 January.

9. Obviously, the beaches themselves and war cemeteries are completely open.

Look on the bright side, as this will allow you time to visit more sites! Extend your visit west: from Longues-sur-Mer, head for Omaha Beach. I would split this into three visits:

a. Head first for 1st Division's landing site (Colleville) and park at the beach. Be warned that it's easy to miss the turn in Colleville, as it's a tiny road and not normally part of the tourist-trail (if you reach the cemetery roundabout, you've gone too far). Walk up to the 1st Division Memorial (the pinnacle on the bluff to the west) – you'll first cross an anti-tank ditch and will then pass a hammerhead-shaped weapons pit, connected to a zig-zag trench to a concrete shelter. This was where two 17 year-old soldiers, with one MG42 and 20,000 rounds of ammunition, caused an estimated 2,000 casualties on the attackers. As you move up the hill, you pass more trenches, craters and concrete bunkers and emplacements, including two large gun bunkers that have been hammered by Shermans and close-in direct fire support from destroyers.

b. From the memorial, you can either walk straight into the US Cemetery, or you can go back to get your car first and drive round to the cemetery car park. The US Cemetery at Omaha Beach needs no introduction.

c. From the cemetery, drive back to the main east-west road and turn right at the roundabout, following the road west. At the next roundabout turn right, this takes you down to the western half of Omaha Beach and you can drive along the sea-front. Stop at Vierville-Plage, on the western end of the beach (where the road turns left, to go up through the cliffs. This is the scene that everyone knows from Saving Private Ryan, where an engineer won the MoH postumously for breaching a concrete wall to create an exit from the beach and the newly-arrived Rangers were ordered to 'Lead the way!'. Some truly-hammered AT bunkers here, including an 88mm PaK 43 still in residence (and a 75mm PaK 97/38 being used as a bollard if you look closely). There are also parts of Mulberry 'A' that was wrecked during the Great Storm.

d. Go up the hill and turn right when you reach the main road. The Pointe du Hoc Battery is a few miles along the road on the right and is open all year round. There is a nice little cafe just before the turn if you're feeling hungry/thirsty. This is a truly incredible site.

e. I doubt you're going to have enough time to see much else, so head back to join the motorway. If by some miracle you do have time, the German Military Cemetery at Cambes is right at the side of the motorway where you rejoin it to head back toward Caen.

Guys,

Thank you very much for your hugely informative answers to my question.

With the Pas de Calais and Normandy regions expected to be basking in 5C winter sunshine next week, it looks like its game on. First, we just have to get through the Kent snowfields en route.

From your replies and good natured envious comments about going there yourselves, perhaps TMP(UK) ought to arrange a small coach trip for interested TMPers to do likewise later in the year. I for one would welcome blah-blahing and jar-jaring with you guys in Normandy.

Thanks again.

Blues 4

I use up all my brownie-points with the Memsahib taking the cadets away… :o(

Hey Blues, send SITREP when all done. I've been around the beaches quite a few times. Anyone of them will be a good visit. Bayeux is good and you can also do the Norman 1066 Tapestry.

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Not in January you can't :o)

Oh that's a shame, bleeding Froggies spoiling it as usual.

So how was the trip? Where did you go and how was it?