Normandy Tours

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D Day Landing Beaches - Normandy

The planning and logistics behind the Normandy Invasion were unparalleled in history. On 6th June 1944, the largest and most powerful armada ever, part of Operation Overlord, landed on the shores of occupied Normandy, to begin the liberation of Europe from the west.

Overall, Overlord required a total of 3 million men in 47 divisions, 6,000 ships to transport the troops and equipment, with aerial cover provided by 5,000 fighter planes. It was some achievement. On D Day itself and  ubsequent days, the plan was to move about 130,000 men, nearly 13,000 vehicles and take a uniquely designed artificial harbour.

Why was the gathering of equipment and men, needed for the invasion, such a huge logistical challenge? Where could they be gathered without attracting the attention of spies? How could they be kept in areas in the south of Britain without the Germans discovering exactly what was intended? How could the thousands of boats needed for the invasion be assembled, readied and loaded without making the invasion too obvious?

Come and see how the Overlord was planned and executed. Visit the places where the major events of D Day unfolded, from the airborne invasion by elite paratroopers to the mass landings of infantry, local transport and military equipment on the beaches of Sword, June, Gold, Omaha and Utah.

This Tour consists of:

3 days guided visits to key D Day sites in Normandy. 2 nights at a 2 or 3* Hotel in Caen.

 Honfleur is a beautiful, old port, characterized by tall, narrow picturesque houses. It has been painted many times by artists, including Courbet and Monet. The Honfleur School contributed to the development of the Impressionist movement in art. The Church of St Catherine is the largest church made out of wood in France, with a roof that was designed to look like an upturned boat on the inside. Originally a fishing and trading port, it is, today, one of the prettiest coastal towns in France.

 Day One

8:00  Depart for tunnel crossing to France.

10:00 Crossing

2:00  Lunch and window shopping in Honfleur. See above.

4:00  Depart Honfleur for  Merville Battery Museum. Pegasus Bridge and museum. Café Gronde.    Ranville Cemetery.

7:00 Arrive in Hotel in Caen

8:00 Evening free for dinner in Caen centre.

The city of Caen, the capital of Lower Normandy, was full of historical buildings, many built during the reign of William the Conqueror who is buried here, although most of his bones have long since been scattered. However, about three quarters of the city was destroyed in the Battle of Normandy in 1944, by the heavy fighting and bombing that took place in order to flush out the Germans. Today, Caen is a modern town with few large old building, such as the Castle, which was built around 1060 and is one of the largest medieval fortresses of Western Europe and the Abbeys. The Abbaye aux Hommes (1063) and the Abbaye aux Dames (1060) were both built by William to repent marriage to his cousin Mathlida. The church of St Peter, dating from the early 13th Century, and bearing the bullet marks and other scars of more recent battles, stands in the city centre. In 1988, the Memorial for Peace was built to remember the events of the war and D Day as well as presenting ideas about peace today.

Day 2

8.00  Breakfast

9:00  Visit German War Graves Cemetery at La Cambe. 

10:00 Ste Mere Eglise. Visit Airborne Museum and town

1.00 Snack Lunch in Bayeux

2.30 Visit WW2 Museum or Tapestry in Bayeux.

4:00 Free time after booking into hotel in Bayeux.

7.00  Dinner  

The Pegasus Bridge area is where the British Airborne troops landed to take control of the Eastern flank of the invasion beaches. It was vital they succeeded, so that the Germans could not so easily batter the exposed seaborne troops. See where the first Allied soldier, Den Brotheridge, was killed, and find out more about his story. Have a drink at Café Gronde, the first building to be liberated and possibly meet a veteran or two!

 Sword Beach was a British landing site on the eastern flank of the invasion force. The attack on Sword Beach began at about 03:00 with the aerial bombing of German defences and artillery sites, followed by a naval bombardment a few hours later. At 07:30, the first units reached the beach. Juno Beach was the Canadian landing site, where they faced a heavily defended 7 km section with batteries, as well as machine-gun nests, pillboxes, other concrete fortifications, and a seawall. The first wave suffered 50% casualties.

Day 3

8.00 Breakfast

9:00 Coach to Pointe du Hoc.

11:30 Tour of Omaha Beach and Colleville Cemetery.

1:30 Snack Lunch at Arromanches

2:30 Visit Arromanches and Museum.

3.30  Visit to Gold Beach

 5.00 Return to Calais

Anyone who has seen Saving Private Ryan has a good idea of what happened to the American troops who had the misfortune to try and land on Omaha Beach, facing strong German defences, part of the Atlantic Wall and high cliffs. Stand on the actual site and visit Colleville Cemetery where many of those who died that day are buried.

 The grave of Theodore Roosevelt Junior, son of President ‘Teddy' Roosevelt, and a distant cousin to the then current President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR.

 See the remains of the Mulberry harbour at Arromanches and find out exactly how it was created, transported and used.

 Monument to the paratroopers of the 82 US Airborne who landed in the area, and to John Steele whose parachute was caught on the church spire.

 At 1 am, American paratroopers of 82nd and 101st Airborne jumped onto the Cherbourg Peninsula at the western end of the landing beaches. The low cloud caused difficulties and some missed their target drowning in flooded swamps while others were unfortunate to encounter Germans in the town of Sainte Mere Eglise.

 Following the Invasion, Bayeux was one of the first French towns to be liberated. General De Gaulle came here 10 days after D Day and gave a speech. The buildings in Bayeux were fortunately more or less undamaged during the Battle of Normandy as the German occupiers had to go and help defend Caen. As well as being home to the famous Bayeux Tapestry, the town contains the largest British war cemetery in Normandy.

                                       Tours available on request;

The price does not include lunches and dinners in France as you will have free time to choose your own restaurants or cafes.

Our Company Insurance is included. However, you need your own holiday insurance, as well as your EHIC - European Health Insurance Card (formerly E111) in case of personal injury requiring hospital treatment (or adequate insurance cover). See booking terms and conditions.