The Normandy Campaign: 100 Days Battle

You will join your group at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, where we will begin our journey to Normandy, stopping en route to see German General Erwin Rommel’s forward headquarters at La Roche-Guyon. At this site, you will have an opportunity to discuss the situation the Desert Fox faced as he sought to defend the coast of France from Allied invasion. After leaving Rommel’s headquarters, we proceed to Bayeux.

Today you will see the places where the Sixth British Airborne Division—known as the “Red Devils”—and other British troops fought to hold the left shoulder of the invasion against some of the most determined German counterattacks in Normandy. Sites in this area will include the outstanding Pegasus Memorial Museum at Ranville and the Merville Gun Battery, where, against impossible odds, British paratroopers took out a German battery position that threatened to wreak havoc on Allied forces landing on Sword Beach.

You will then visit Bréville and the Chateau St. Come where the weary paratroopers repulsed repeated German armored attacks for almost a month. From the left flank of the landings, you will travel to the magnificently preserved Hillman Redoubt, the critical German fortification that blocked the way to the D-Day objective of Caen. The final stop of the day will be Biéville and Perriers to discuss the attack by the 21st Panzer Division on the evening of June 6 that almost threw the Allies back into the sea.

Travelers to the D-Day beaches rushing to get to Omaha Beach, Sainte-Mère-Église, or Pegasus Bridge often overlook the Canadian landings at Juno Beach. It should be remembered, however, that Juno beach was the second costliest of D-Day and that no other Allied contingent advanced further inland than the Canadians on June 6.

You will start your day at the world-class Juno Beach Centre, Canada’s Second World War museum at Courseulles-sur-Mer. In addition to the artifacts and displays, you will have an opportunity for a guided tour into some of the best preserved German beach defenses in Normandy. From Courseulles-sur-Mer, you follow the exact route the Canadian forces took as they battled toward Montgomery’s D-Day objective at Caen. Along the way, you will stop at Authie and the Ardenne Abbaye, where the SS executed 20 Canadian POWs, and Carpiquet Airport, the key to the city of Caen. This was the scene of some of the most intense fighting of the Normandy Campaign.

After finishing up with the Canadian battlefields, you will make a few stops along Gold Beach to discuss the struggles in the drive to Bayeux and the linking up of the U.S. and British forces. Sites will include the location of Stan Hollis’ VC actions; the battlefield of Crépon, the remains of the temporary British harbor at Arromanches-les-Bains, the massive German gun battery at Longues-sur-Mer, and the oft-forgotten British Commando fight for the village of Port-en-Bessin-Huppain.

Today you will explore some of the desperate armored battles fought between Allied and German tank crews as the Allies attempted to get into Caen. You will then see how the Germans fought for their lives in Normandy in their attempt to prevent the Allied breakout into the heart of France. You will study the armored battles associated with the fighting around Caen, including Operation Goodwood and the first appearance of the dreaded King Tiger tank. Next, is Operation Epsom and the battle for Hill 112—one of the bloodiest fights of the entire Normandy campaign.

You will also visit Villers-Bocage, where, on June 13, 1944, Panzer ace Michael Wittmann single-handedly destroyed a British armored battalion with just one tank. Credited with 138 tank kills, Wittmann survived the day and stopped one of Montgomery’s best chances of getting into Caen.

Even though they suffered the worst casualties of any Allied unit on June 6, 1944, the fighting was not over for the men of the 29th Infantry Division. Your day will begin at the Overlord Museum just behind the Normandy American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. Here, you will have an opportunity to see one of France’s most outstanding collections of rare tanks and vehicles, including rare examples of the German Mark IV and Mark V Panther tanks that were staples of German forces in Normandy.

After visiting the museum, you will begin an extensive tour of Omaha Beach. You will see all five draws off the beach and fighting areas immediately inland from the coast.

You will then stop at the site of Frank Peregory’s epic single-handed attack on German positions outside Grandcamp-Maisy, for which the young Virginian earned the Medal of Honor. Next, you will stop at the bridge at Isigny-sur-Mer, where the 29th was finally able to secure a link-up between the forces landing at Utah and Omaha Beaches. The group will follow the route taken by elements of the division as they relieved the Rangers on Pointe du Hoc.

As the 29ers did, you will then push on toward St. Lo, stopping to visit the 29th’s battlefields along the Elle River and atop Purple Heart Hill. Our day will finish at the Major Thomas D. Howie Memorial on the edge of St. Lo.

None of the sacrifices made on June 6, 1944, would have meant anything if the Allies were not able to seize Cherbourg; the vital port that Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower needed to keep his armies supplied as they advanced into the heart of Nazi controlled Europe. You will follow VII Corps drive from Utah Beach to cut the Cotentin Peninsula and isolate the port and then follow the push to Cherbourg itself.

The day will begin at “Camp Patton,” the field where Third Army was activated in August 1944. Then it is on to Hill 145 and its rare and preserved Luftwaffe Bunker. It was on Hill 145 that Maj. Gen. Manton S. Eddy’s 9th Infantry Division was able to defeat a major German counterattack and clear the way into Barneville. You will then proceed into Barneville to the memorial that marks the exact spot where the 9th was able to cut the Peninsula on 17 June. Moving inland, the next stop will be Maupertus Airfield to explore the remains of the extensive German bunker complex of Osteck, which was held by Kampfgruppe Rohrbach as it attempted to hold off the Americans. Maupertus airfield will also provide an opportunity to discuss the critical role played by the 9th U.S. Air Force in the campaign. You will also visit the Azeville Battery Museum.

Hemmed in by the dense terrain of the Bocage and determined German resistance, the Allies fought a brutal attritional battle from the beginning of June and into July. Desperate to end the deadlock and move inland, by mid-July 12th Army Group Commander Omar Bradley had prepared a massive offensive thrust aimed at breaking out of the bocage and driving into Brittany. Known as Operation Cobra, the offensive was preceded by a massive bombardment by waves of B-17 and B-24 bombers that blasted Germans from their defenses. As soon as the bomb loads had been dropped, eight infantry and three U.S. Armored divisions advanced on the shell-shocked remnants of the Seventh German Army.

You will follow this decisive American offensive from the start line to Marigny, where you will visit the German Cemetery and discuss the battle for the town. Following in the path of the advancing Americans you will enter Notre-Dame-de-Cenilly, where quick thinking GIs from the 82nd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion shattered a surprised German defensive force. La Lande des Morts (The Region of the Dead), where Capt. W.C. Johnson’s I Company, 41st Armored Infantry destroyed a retreating German armored column will also be visited. Entering Avranches, there will be an opportunity to stop at the Third Army Memorial in the center of town and discuss the battle here. Whilst in Avranches there will be an opportunity to see the renown Avranches World War II Museum. You will finish your study of Operation Cobra at the historic Pontaubault Bridge, which was seized by Patton’s armored columns on August 1st, opening the door to Brittany.

Having contained the Allies in Normandy throughout June and July, by the end of the month, the Germans understood the end was near. Unwilling to admit defeat however, Adolf Hitler ordered Field Marshal Gunther von Kluge to gather the remaining armored forces in Normandy and launch a drive toward Avranches. On August 6, 1944, some 300 German tanks, all that remained of the four panzer divisions committed to the attack, launched Operation Luttich into the lines of the 30th U.S. Infantry Division.

You will follow Operation Luttich from start to finish. Beginning at St. Barthelmy, where elements of Lt. Col. Robert E. Frankland’s 1st Battalion, 117th Infantry, stood alone against German armored columns, slowing the Germans down and gaining valuable time for the rest of the 30th Infantry Division to prepare a defense. Next will be the Abbaye Blanche roadblock where a mixed platoon of American soldiers performed a textbook defensive action against an overwhelming number of German troops. You will then travel to the area of the Mortain-le Neufbourg railway station, where famous photographs taken just after the fight remind us of the intensity of the fighting around Mortain. Your battlefield study will finish with the 30th Division’s epic defense of Hill 317, where the Germans were stopped once and for all.

Your day will conclude at the Brittany American Cemetery at St. James, where we will pay our respects to the 4,410 Americans buried there.

Watch of Canada stumbled upon the 1st SS Panzer Division and in the course of a few brutal hours disappeared. From the start line of Operation Totalize you will follow the largest Canadian armored force ever assembled into the enemy defenses.

Having discussed the Anglo/ Canadian approach to Falaise, today’s focus will be the drive by the American 90th Infantry Division to seize Bourg St. Leonard, the strategically vital town which had to be seized as a jump off point for the final push toward Chambois and Trun and the closing of the Falaise pocket. Following “Tough Hombres” of the 90th Infantry Division’s footsteps as they fight their way into Chamois and then standing at the exact spot where, on 19 August 1944, U.S. Major Leonard C. Dull from the 359th Infantry Regiment met Lt. Wladyslaw Klaptocz of the 1st Polish Armored Division met. The junction of US and Polish forces symbolized the closer of the Falaise Gap and the end of the Normandy campaign.

Having visited several sites associated with the linkup, you will make a final stop at Mount Orme, better known to the Poles as “The Mace,” where for three desperate days, the men of MG Maczek’s men held the final escape route for the Germans from Normandy and reeked tremendous havoc amongst the retreating Germans along the corridor of death. Your tour of the Mace will conclude with a visit to the outstanding Memorial Mount Ormel Museum. You will then travel to our hotel at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport for the group’s final dinner, and time permitting, we will stop at Ste. Foy Montgomery enroute to visit the location where, on July 17, 1944, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was critically wounded.

Overnight at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport hotel.

There will be one morning transfer to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) to catch your flight home.