80th Anniversary of D-Day: D-Day to the Rhine

Day-By-Day Itinerary

DAY 1 Flight to London

Guest travel independently to London on an overnight flight from USA.

DAY 2 London

Arrive in London and check into the hotel where the entire group will gather for an evening welcome reception. Our historian will treat us to our first lecture, with introductions all around.

DAY 3 London

The morning will feature key sites in London that figured prominently in the War. We then proceed to the Churchill War Rooms, the underground nerve center for Britain’s war effort. We will also visit the Imperial War Museum, which houses authentic examples of World War II weaponry, tanks and aircraft and an exhibit of WWI trench warfare. We will have free time to enjoy London in the evening.

DAY 4 Portsmouth

Depart for Portsmouth, the seaside town that became the staging center for the D-Day invasion. Here the Allies assembled the armies and equipment for the massive undertaking. Besides the hundreds of thousands of men, there were thousands of armored vehicles and the assemblage of sea vessels: landing craft of all kinds in addition to warships that made up the flotilla for the English Channel crossing. Nearby, General Dwight D. Eisenhower set up the advance command post of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, where he, Naval Commander Ramsay, Army Commander Montgomery and staff would meet to plan the invasion.

DAYS 5 - 9 Normandy

We will spend days 5-9 in Normandy (five nights) where guests will visit all the key sites mentioned below and attend the official 80th Anniversary of D-Day Ceremonies at the Normandy American Cemetery. Once you are assigned to a departure date and historian, we will send more detailed information and itineraries specific to your group.

• Following breakfast, we will board the cross-channel ferry and embark for Normandy as the troops did in 1944. In the afternoon, we will begin our visit to Normandy at Ste-Mere-Eglise, one of the villages where the American Airborne Division descended on D-Day. Here we will view and explore the iconic church where John Steele and his landing on the steeple are memorialized. We also visit La Fiere Bridge where the 82nd Airborne Division successfully delayed a German Panzer counter-attack against the Allied landing forces.

• We will begin “The Longest Day” at Brécourt Manor where Lt. Dick Winters with members of Easy Company successfully silenced German artillery firing on American troops landing at Utah Beach. From there we will visit Utah Beach itself, where the 4th Division landed, and the Invasion Museum that depicts their heroics. Next we will stop at Ste-Marie du Mont where the unique Renaissance-style steeple used as an observation post by the Germans still stands. From there, we will proceed to the town of Carentan where we will follow the exact steps taken by American Paratroopers during the Battle of Normandy.

• There will be a visit to Pointe-du-Hoc, where Rudders’ Rangers scaled the cliffs to neutralize heavy German guns defending the expanse of beaches on D-Day.

• We’ll spend the morning at Omaha Beach where the Americans landed and faced the strongest German resistance of the day and incurred the greatest losses. We will walk the beach and visit some of the German defense fortifications. We explore these sands from the tide’s ebb to the distant dunes to understand the emotions of the young soldiers of the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions as they approached the “gates of hell.”

• We will pay our respects at the American Cemetery with its 9,387 American soldiers’ graves stretching along the top of the bluff overlooking the beach. In the afternoon we will view the battery at Longues-sur-Mer, a fine example of the great defenses that made up Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. We will proceed along the British Beaches from there to Pegasus Bridge, where the first shots were fired on D-Day. Here the British Sixth Airborne led by Major John Howard with a miraculous glider landing carried out a surprise attack that yielded great success in overtaking this crucial bridge across the Caen Canal.

DAY 10 Compiègne

After a half day of final site visits in Normandy, we work our way to the Netherlands with an overnight stay in historic Compiègne, France.

DAY 11 Arnhem

After an early breakfast, we board a high-speed train to Brussels and begin our study of Operation Market Garden, the early attempt by the Allied forces to strike directly for Berlin. Control of the bridges at Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem was essential for the push into Germany. We drive “Hell’s Highway” where the 101st and 82nd Airborne Division broke through to connect with the British in Arnhem. We visit Nijmegen to see the daring crossing of the Waal River by the 82nd Airborne Division. From there we proceed to Arnhem where again we cross the “Bridge Too Far.”

Our historian will recount the desperate three days that the British 1st Airborne under General John Frost held it. Afterwards, we finish at the Airborne Museum at Oosterbeek.

DAY 12 The Ardennes

This is where Hitler put everything he had into his only counter-attack. On December 16, 1944, Lt. Lyle Bouck was one of the first people to see the German columns coming on. We’ll make our first stop in the Ardennes at Lanzereth, the town where Bouck and a platoon of 19 men held off a full strength German SS Battalion under the infamous Joachim Peiper for an entire day. We’ll visit the American positions and hear their story, a breathtaking tale of heroism.

On December 17, 1944, the second day of the offensive, the Germans had several breakthroughs and many Americans surrendered near the town of Malmedy. Outside the town, Peiper’s SS lined up about 150 GIs and fired at them point blank. Less than half escaped alive. We will view the site of the massacre and the American Memorial at Malmedy. From there, we have a scenic drive through the Ardennes Mountains to our evening lodging.

DAY 13 Luxembourg

We’ll drive to Bastogne where the Americans rallied and stopped the German attack. Here we’ll view the route of the initial American retreat and the place where the 101st Airborne Division and elements of the 10th Armored held off fifteen German divisions for six days. Our group will visit key sites in and around this historic crossroads town. We’ll also go to General McAuliffe’s HQ where he replied to German surrender demands with one word: “NUTS.” After our visit, it’s a short ride to Luxembourg. This afternoon affords some relaxing free time in the center of this bustling but charming old world city.

DAY 14 Frankfurt

We drive to nearby Hamm and the American cemetery and the site of General George Patton’s grave. America’s foremost WWII field general rests here among his men.

We’ll drive to the Siegfried Line to see remnants of the German communication trenches, pillboxes and dragon’s teeth that American GI’s fought so hard to take in late 1944. This evening we gather for a farewell dinner and discussion after an enriching campaign into history

DAY 15 Home

Early morning airport transfer to Frankfurt International. If you are interested in extending your tour, we are offering two post-tour extensions: Nuremberg & Berchtesgaden; or Berlin.

OPTIONAL POST D-DAY TOUR EXTENSIONS

Guests on the 80th-anniversary tours have the option to book one of two post-tour extensions. These extensions start in Frankfurt.

Berlin

• 4-nights
• $2,390 per person based on double occupancy
• If rooming alone, the single occupancy supplement is $690.
• Highlights: Reichstag, Topography of Terror Museum, Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, Karlshorst, Soviet War Memorial

Nuremberg & Berchtesgaden

• 3-nights
• $1,790 per person based on double occupancy
• If rooming alone, the single occupancy supplement is $490
• Highlights: Nuremberg, Dachau Concentration Camp, Berchtesgaden, Eagle's Nest and Munich