Canadians in Normandy, led by Andy Johnson

Independent travel to Ashford International Hotel to meet your guide and join our private coach for the tour. It’s a short drive to Folkestone from where we’ll take a Eurotunnel service arriving in Coquelles mid-morning. As we drive towards Dieppe, we learn about the events of 19th August 1942 when over 6,050 infantry - predominantly Canadian, were part of an Allied assault on the Port of Dieppe known as Operation Jubilee.  We make a brief stop at the Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery where most of the 707 Canadian burials were victims of the Raid on Dieppe. There will be a short time at leisure for lunch in Dieppe before continuing to Caen. We arrive early evening and check-in to our hotel for a 6-night stay. A welcome dinner will be served in the hotel.

Breakfast is served in the hotel each morning. Today’s tour focuses on D-Day. We’ll explore the significant role of the Royal Canadian Navy during the night of 5 - 6 June 1944 and on the first day of operations during the Normandy Landings. Our tour takes us to Café Gondree and Pegasus Bridge. We’ll learn about the mission of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion who landed behind enemy lines in the early hours on June 6th and successfully destroyed bridges in Varaville and Robehomme helping prevent German reinforcements from reaching Allied beachheads at Sword and Juno beaches. We then visit Juno Beach where the Canadian Army’s 3rd Infantry Division and 2nd Armoured Brigade landed as part of Operation Overlord. Our final visit is to Juno Beach Centre. Canada’s Second World War Museum pays homage to the 45,000 Canadians who lost their lives during the war. They included 5,500 killed during the Battle of Normandy and 359 that fell on D-Day. Photographs, documents, first-hand accounts, multimedia, maps and artefacts give a fascinating insight into different campaigns in which Canadians fought.

The focus of today’s full day tour is the advance from Juno Beach towards Caen. The towns of Norrey-en-Bessin, Bretteville-l’Orgueilleuse and Putôt-en-Bessin were part of the objectives of the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade on June 7th, 1944. After initially meeting only light resistance from the unprepared Germans, they became the scene of fierce fighting against the fanatical 12th SS Panzer Division, the majority of whom had been drawn from the Hitler Youth. We’ll learn about the courageous Canadian resistance before visiting the garden at Ardenne Abbey where 20 Canadian soldiers were massacred in June 1944. We visit the site of a former airfield at Beny-sur-Mer where a small monument is the only reminder this was once an important Allied temporary invasion airfield. Constructed just 10 days after D-Day, B - 4 became the main base of the 126 wing of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Finally, we pay our respects to the fallen at Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery, which is the final resting place of more than 2,000 Canadian soldiers that lost their lives on June 6th or during the early days of the advance towards Caen. This evening is at leisure.

Bayeux Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth cemetery of the Second World War in France. The cemetery contains 4,144 Commonwealth burials, 338 of them unidentified. Opposite the cemetery the Bayeux Memorial bears the names of more than 1,800 men of Commonwealth land forces who died in the early stages of the campaign and have no known grave. Here we’ll honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice. The afternoon is at leisure in Bayeux and a chance to visit the Bayeux Tapestry before we return to the hotel where the evening is at leisure.

This morning we explore the Battle of Caen and the intense fighting in July 1944. In Carpiquet we see the Canadian Memorial to those who fought in Operation Windsor as they attacked Carpiquet Airfield and we’ll learn about the Anglo-Canadian offensive codenamed Operation Charnwood. We visit the Mémorial de Caen and museum, which gives great insight into the summer of 1944 and the suffering the city endured. Our final visit is to Noyers Bocage Typhoon Memorial. The Tyhpoon aircraft was used in low level flying during the Normandy Campaign and of the 151 pilots listed on the monument, at least 41 were Canadian. The evening is at leisure.

Today’s tour focuses on the later stages of the Battle of Normandy. We’ll learn about the Battle of Verrières Ridge including the bloody Canadian-led clash on the eastern flank of the bridgehead, known as Operation Spring. In St Aignan-de-Cramesnil we question whether German gunner Michael Wittman, a member of the SS and claimed to be one of the Nazi’s most prolific commanders with 140 tank kills to his name, was killed by Canadian or British tanks. By the middle of August 1944, the German Seventh Army was in full retreat in Normandy. Close to being totally encircled and captured as a whole, they retreated towards a small opening close to the town of Falaise that came to be known as the Falaise Gap. We’ll visit St. Lambert-sur-Dives where less than 200 Canadians held off attacks by literally thousands of Germans for three days playing a significant role in closing the Falaise Gap, which signalled the defeat and destruction of the German Seventh Army. For his courage in the battle David Currie, a major in the Canadian Army was awarded the Victoria Cross. Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery contains 2,958 Second World War burials. The majority are Canadian who died during the later stages of the Battle of Normandy, the capture of Caen and thrust southwards. A private Act of Remembrance is a chance to honour the fallen. This evening a farewell dinner is served in the hotel.

After checking out of the hotel we drive to Calais stopping to visit the Calais Canadian War Cemetery. The 770 graves include 581 Canadians, most of who were killed in September 1944. We’ll take the late afternoon Eurotunnel service from Coquelles to Folkestone before continuing our journey to Ashford arriving early evening.