Normandy. D-day landing beaches.

[Atticus_Finch]

Some of you who have been here a long time may remember me visiting Ypres and the Somme a couple of years back with my old man. Well, we've decided to take another trip and this time we're doing WW2 and going to visit the landing beaches of Normandy and some of the battle sites too.
We've booked a couple of tours while we're there and we're really looking forward to it.
Has anyone else done anything similar? If so, got any tips they'd like to share?
http://www.battlebus.fr/Band_of_Brothers_and_101st_Airb.html

http://www.battlebus.fr/British_Highlights_Tour.html

 

[Farneyman]

Never been but def. a trip I want to make sometime soon. Enjoy your trip.

 

[Basher]

Went many, many years ago on a school trip to France. Quite memorable.
My son went on a similar trip last month and did much the same as detailed on the tour in your link.
I've been fascinated by the 2nd World War ever since I was a kid and plan to go back as an adult.

One thing my son did tell me which made me proud was that, imagine a busload of schoolkids arriving at the War Cemetery. He said EVERYONE walked around in silence. I think the quantity of headstones overwhelmed every one into silence as they imagined just how many brave soldiers never came home.
Very poignant experience for him. When he was telling me I welled up thinking about it.

We have a hell of a lot to be grateful for and owe a huge debt of gratitude to the brave servicemen who fought there. Many came back, but many also never got to see our shores again.

Enjoy the trip, I know it's an experience. For someone like myself, your imagination will give you the picture of how it must have been.

 

[madandra]

I think EVERY school should send trips to where so many fell. Perhaps if they appreciated what our elders went through then they would contribute more and give the older generation the respect they deserve.

 

[haplesshacker]

I visited the Canadian beach near Caen a couple of years ago. I just stood on the beach speechless. The wife just knew to take the sprog and leave me alone for a while. Very humbling.

Shame the French kids that were on a school trip didn't think the same. The buggers were dropping litter everywhere and generally being very disrespectful. These weren't children either. About collage age.

My two will definately be going when they're old enough to understand.

I would say have a good trip. But it's not really the right choice of words.

 

[Basher]

I would say have a good trip. But it's not really the right choice of words.

Dunno Hapless, after all, it's a trip to learn and pay respects. If the efforts of our war heroes are learnt about and remembered, you could possibly say that you've enjoyed it.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Went there a few years ago (well about 20) and I think as someone else said its the sheer number of identical headstones that makes you realise that so many gave their life in the battle. It is a humbling place and really does remind you how much we all take for granted in our own lives.

 

[Canfordhacker]

I went many years ago and it made a huge impression. My (13 year old) son is going on a school trip next month, and I hope it will have a similar impact on him. Personally I fail to see how anybody can gop there and not be moved.

 

[mancity101]

I can only echo what everyone else has said on here about the experience and the debt we all owe to the fallen. Ypres at dusk with the last post playing at the Menin Gate is truely emotional.
The French went up in my estimation with the way they keep the cemetrys and memorials and the respect they show.
We went to Montreuil a smallish town near the Somme area (where Gen Haig was safely esconsed) and a minibus turned up with about 4 old soldiers in, they had their medals on, went to the cenataph there then walked over to sit at the bar i was in, the waiter came over took their order, 4 small beers the boys drank them called him over to pay and he wouldnt accept their money, he said they had paid enough over the years, he wouldnt take their money. I was touched.
Then I saw in tha papaer this weeken an Islamic extremist has spray painted on a war memorial " Islam will rule the world" or something similar, the courts let him off scott free - they said wasnt racially based! the council had to pay 500 to clean it up.
Which country has the bestter society and respect France or UK?

 

[viscount17]

I went to Arromanches a few years ago. It's where my Dad went ashore (on the back end of a liberty ship that broke up in the gale around D+10 - he was probably the only marine on leave for d-day).
There's a D-Day museum there, not big but not a bad starting point (there's another bigger museum near Caen cemetry). Bits of the Mulberry harbour still there of course.
We did a run along the invasion beaches. Seeing them from the perspective of the German positions is chilling, especially Omaha. Did Pointe d'Hoc too - the one the US Rangers climbed but the guns weren't there, you can see the bomb craters.
We did a run up to Pegasus bridge too (it's the one in the field). (Incidentally, the tank by the side of the road is a Royal Marine Centaur IV.)
The cemetry at Caen just stops you cold. I was taking photos everywhere else, couldn't do it there. Driving down the coast roads through the villages you can find odd grave sites, in corners of fields, in the middle of a village, on a road junction - all tended.

 

[Fyldewhite]

Want to do Normandy one day, let us know how it goes. I traced and visited my grandad's best pal's grave on the Somme last year. For me it was the sheer number of cemetaries seemingly in every field in some areas that brought home the enormity of what happened there. Certainly sobering and puts some of the trivial stuff we moan about today in perspective.

 

[Atticus_Finch]

Thanks for your replies guys, I'll try and remember to take plenty of photos.
I wasn't really prepared for the Menin Gate MC101.
We all went together in the afternoon, but we sort of drifted our different ways with our own thoughts once we got there. I think it was the sheer number of names of the men missing that got to me.
The Tynecot cemetery had the same effect later on that day.

http://www.ww1cemeteries.com/ww1cemeteries/tynecotcemetery.htm

Let's hope the ash cloud stays away from Newcastle for at least a couple of days though or I'm going nowhere.

 

[DMC]

I havent been to the D-Day beaches,but i have visted many of the battle fields from WW1. Both my great grandfathers were killed in the great war,feel the least i can do is honour theres and all the others memory.