The British D-Day Story - Normandy

Ferry to Calais and on to our hotel in Caen, where we stay on a bed and breakfast basis.

Accompanied by an expert battlefield guide, today’s excursions take us to some of the most significant sites of the Normandy Campaign. We begin at Juno Beach, where Canadian forces landed on D-Day and continue to the British Normandy Memorial. Inaugurated on the 75th anniversary of D-Day, it honours over 22,000 servicemen and women under British command who lost their lives in the summer of 1944. At its heart stands an evocative sculpture by David Williams-Ellis. We visit Gold Beach, one of the key Allied landing sectors, where our guide brings the events of June 6th 1944 to life and then the Arromanches D-Day Museum, where we discover the story of the Mulberry Harbour, as original testimonies and immersive displays provide us with a deeper understanding of this pivotal moment in history. Next is the impressive Longues-sur-Mer German Battery, one of the best-preserved coastal defence positions in Normandy, before our final visit of the day to the Bayeux War Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in France, a poignant reminder of the sacrifice made during the liberation of Europe.

After some free time to explore Caen’s lively Sunday morning market, we find out more about Normandy’s wartime history with visits to several key spots, again accompanied by an expert battlefields guide. We wander Caen Memorial Museum, where the story of the Second World War is placed within the wider context of 20th-century European history. We then visit Pegasus Bridge, site of one of the war’s most daring airborne operations and renamed in honour of the British 6th Airborne Division and their emblem, the winged horse Pegasus. Captured in the early hours of D-Day by glider troops, its seizure was crucial to protecting the eastern flank of the landings and preventing German reinforcements from reaching the coast. We pay our respects at the peaceful Ranville War Cemetery, the final resting place of many Allied servicemen and our day concludes at Sword Beach, where British forces came ashore on D-Day. 

After breakfast, we continue to Calais for our return ferry home.