France-Normandy : A guided tour of the D-Day beaches – 80 photos.

 

 

Re-live the differents actions that made June 6th, 1944 ” The Longest Day”. Come and discover the historical sites where the courage and the sacrifice  brought freedom back to the European continent. Enjoy the voyage back in time….

 The Atlantic Wall Museum.

Just a stone’s throw from the beach and the Ouistreham ferry terminal,
and only 5 minutes away from Pegasus Bridge, the Atlantic Wall
Museum is housed in the former German Army HQ that controlled the
batteries guarding the Orne Estuary. Built from 5,000 tonnes of steel
and concrete, this massive 17 m tower, overlooking the quaint
seaside villas of Riva-Bella is unique of its kind.( Read more )

Features : Guenine PA 30-31 landing craft on display that featured in Steven Spielberg’s 5 Oscar-winning movie, Saving Private Ryan.

Situated on the beach where the Canadians landed in June 1944, alongside other Allied forces, the Juno Beach Centre portrays the role played by Canada in the Second World War.

The Juno Beach Centre is Canada’s Second World War museum and cultural centre located in Normandy, France. The Centre pays homage to the 45,000 Canadians who lost their lives during the War, of which 5,500 were killed during the Battle of Normandy and 359 on D-Day.( Read more )

Remains of the Mulberry harbour.

Built at the same place as the British artificial port and overlooking some of the remains lying just a few metres from the shore, this museum relates the incredible story of the building and operation of one of the two ” Mulberry Harbours ” that were to be the key to the Allies’s success.

Sir Winston Churchill.

 

 

The Atlantic Wall

This gigantic undertaking was commenced in 1942 by the Todt Organization.It was not actually complete by 1944, despite the best efforts of Field Marshal Rommel, who took over responsability for the whole sector from the Netherlands to the Loire in late 1943. The plan was to build 15,000 structures along the whole of the North Sea, Channel and Atlantic coastlines.

Contrary to the image painted by German propaganda, the « wall » was not one continuous sturcture but a series of four different types of fortification. These were fortresses, coastal artillery batteries, beachhead defences and barriers built on the beaches themselves or inland.

Many remains of the Atlantic Wall, more or less well preserved, are still visible today along the Normandy coast.

Longues-sur Mer is the only coastal defence battery on the Landing Besches to have been designated a «  Scheduled Monument ».

Located in the middle of the assault sector and at the top of a cliff overlooking the Channel, it played a strategic rôle during the Allied Landings of June 6th, 1944.

Today, it is the only battery  have retained its original guns. Located between Arromanches and Omaha Beach, the site has a panoramic view over the Landing Beaches.

The Braves, Omaha Beach, Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer.

This memorial stands on the beach known as Omaha Beach in the village St. Laurent-sur-Mer in Normandy, France and commemorates the soldiers that fell on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June6, 1944. The memorial was dedicated on June 5 2004, for the 60th anniversary of the invasion.( Read more )

 

Pointe du Hoc

Pointe du Hoc was one of the strategic points in the German fortifications along the Normandy coast. The task of taking it fell to the 2nd Battalion of Rangers.

Incredibly, they managed to scale the summit in just a few minutes, despite the slippery surface, ropes made heavy by seawater and ennemy fire.

Pointe du Hoc Monument

A granit pylon tops a bunker on a 100-foot cliff

It honors soldiers of the 2nd Rangers Battalion who scaled the cliff to disable German guns threatening Utah and Omaha Beaches.

The ferocious fighting that followed on the lunar landscape potted with deep craters was morer deadly than the ascent itself. Another surprise awaited the Rangers, when they discovered that the « guns » inside the bunkers were in fact wooden logs.

Today, the site contains the remnants of the German artillery battery and bears testimony to the bitter fighting of June 6th and 7th, which cost the lives of 135 Rangers.

World Peace Statue, Grandcamp-Maisy, Yao Yuan.

 

During this notorious night, paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne as well as some, by mistake, from the 101st were dropped on Sainte-Mère-Eglise. One of them will remain famous, John Steele, whose parachute got hung up on the church steeple. The Americans troops converged on the village and took hold of it. From this day forward, the village of Saint-Mère-Eglise will be the key to protecting Utah Beach.

 

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