Anniversary of D Day and British Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer, led by John Hamill

Independent travel to London St Pancras for the mid-morning Eurostar service to Paris Gare de Nord. On arrival we transfer to Paris St Lazere station for the TGV service to Bayeux. It’s just a short drive to the Mercure Omaha Beach where we check in for a five night stay. Dinner is served in the hotel each evening.

The beach landings codenamed Operation Neptune took place in the early hours of June 6^th. Today we visit Sword Beach where we see the Piper Bill Millen Memorial, and Juno Beach where Canadian forces suffered 50% of their losses in the first hour. At Arromanches we see the remains of the portable Mulberry Harbour. We also visit the iconic Pegasus bridge, Café Gondree and Ranville War Cemetery, which is the final resting place of many that lost their lives on D-Day.

On the Anniversary of D-Day we visit the Bayeux Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery. The largest Commonwealth cemetery of the Second World War in France, Bayeux War 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 will participate in a Act of Remembrance honouring 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.

Today’s tour visits Gold Beach where almost 25,000 men of the British 50^th Division landed on June 6^th. They included Stan Hollis and here we’ll learn about the actions of the only man to win a Victoria Cross on D-Day. On a hillside above Gold Beach, the newly opened British Normandy Memorial* stands in a place where history was shaped. The columns of this poignant memorial are inscribed with the names of 22,442 servicemen and women who lost their lives on D-Day and during The Battle of Normandy. Our final visit is the Cemetery at La Cambe, which is the largest German military cemetery in Normandy.

*Note: Visit subject to the British Memorial opening at the beginning of June

Today we focus on the US assault with a visit to Omaha Beach. Surrounded by steep cliffs and heavily defended, Omaha was the bloodiest of the D-Day beaches, with some 2,400 US troops killed, wounded or missing. The American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer sits atop a bluff overlooking the ‘Easy Red’ sector of Omaha Beach and here we will remember the fallen. We also stop at Pointe du Hoc where U.S. Army Rangers scaled 100-foot high cliffs that were one of the most dangerous German defensive positions on the Norman coast. Sainte-Mere-Eglise was the first town of Cotentin in Normandy liberated by Allied forces. Plaques and monuments erected in honour of the liberators include the ‘zero milestone’ opposite the Town Hall, which symbolises the starting point of the ‘path to freedom’.

After breakfast we check-out of the hotel and transfer to Bayeux Station for the TGV service to Paris and Eurostar service to London St Pancras.