You’re really interested in the events leading up to D-Day, but also all the little side stories that made this big endevour not just a main strategy but also a soldier’s war with many personal stories of men who fought for freedom, democracy and the hope that the Nazi regime would be ended. My 2 day tour allows you to go to the different sites without having that rushed feeling like you might have on a one-day tour when we try to see as many sites as possible !

With the 2 day tour, go at your own pace, with me as your guide, we will explore some non-visited sites by other tour companies and find out the stories behind this house, this river, this tree or this cross-road…

All inclusive means you don’t have to be worried about lunch, I will take you to eat at places where I eat when not guiding, we will enter the museums and not wait in line so we can maximise our time.

Tour starts at around 8.30 – 9.00 am and finished around 5.30 – 6.00 pm

Day 1 Airbone Sector & Utah Beach

La Fière (Merderet River)

PFC Charles Deglopper  325th GIR (MOH)

Aiborne Museum

Sainte Mère Eglise (story of the battle for the town)

LUNCH

WN 5 Utah Beach

Angoville-au-Plain (2 medics in a church)

Graignes (AKA the “Alamo of Normandy”)

Day 2 Rangers area &  Omaha Beach

La Cambe German Cemetery

Pointe-du-Hoc

LUNCH

Omaha Beach (seen from 3 to 4 different angles)

Omaha Beach Memorial Museum

American Military Cemetery

(+ visitor’s center if we have time)

Pick-up & Drop-off FREE for Bayeux (if further fee may apply)

Full D-Day Experience Tour Package 2 Days all inclusive : - pick up & drop off - museums and meals included

1 to 4 people € 960

5 to 6 people € 1050

7 to 8 people € 1250

Why not go for the all inclusive D-Day tour package? No waiting in line at the museum you’ve got “front of the line” status, and for lunch worried if they don’t take your credit card? don’t have any €uros just green bills? Lunch is included

The menu is in English and they speak English too.  More time to visit the museum and the sights less time stuck with a waiter who doesn’t speak your tongue, no waiting for that meal to show up !

It’s called the Essential Private Tour Package and it’s just you no one else, we would visit everything listed on the “Essential Tour”

This tour is private just for you !

Sainte Mère Eglise

Airborne Museum

Utah Beach

Lunch

Pointe-du-Hoc

Omaha Beach

American Military Cemetery

Number of people	1-4	5-6	7-8
Essential Private Tour Package (pickup & drop off fee, museum & lunch included) **	€520	€580	€650

 ** Carentan and Bayeux only for FREE pickup and drop off,  if further fees will apply

Coming soon the list of all the different activities for this year’s 69 Anniversary !

Just send me your pictures of you here in Normandy in front of some place that we visited that has importance to you or with you and me on same picture and I’ll post it here…

Greetings everyone,

 

I had the honor and privilege of meeting Don Casey recently and we finished the day by going to the American Military cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer where he paid his respects to 7 soldiers, 3 of them were men he knew, it was a very moving experience and very emotional too as it was his first time back in 68 years…

Donald (Don) Casey was born in 1923 in North Carolina.  He joined the army in 1942.  He traveled briefly to North Africa specifically Morrocco with the 238th and then went to England.

He landed at 8.30 am on Utah Beach

After the D-Day landings the 238th went through France, Belgium and Germany.   Mr. Casey was injuried in Belgium in January of 1945 and was evactuated to England.  He received the Purple Heart and was discharged later 1945.  The 238th laid 66 bridges in Europe including the first one built in Normandy just off of causeway number 2 near Utah Beach.

Below is a link to the group’s home page which has good map of where the 238th went in Europe.

http://238thengineercombatbtn.com/Home_Page.php

On June 4th 2012 in relation to what the area, the county, it’s population and the soldiers that came through the village,  Sainte-Marie du Mont will hold a religious ceremony in rememberance of what happened almost 68 years ago, at Utah/Sainte-Marie du Mont.

Starts at 09.30 am

 

 

At 10.30 am there will be a ceremony dedicated to Colonel D. Winters

 

At 6.00 pm a “Peace Ceremony” will be held at marker “0″ in front of the town hall in Sainte-Mère Eglise and later that evening a concert for peace will be celebrated inside the church of Sainte-Mère Eglise ( where in the movie “The Longest Day” John Steele a paratrooper of the 82nd Airborne gets caught up on the tower of the church after jumping out of his C-47 Skytrain on the night of June 6th 1944 )

 

June 3rd 2012

Mass in memory of the men who freed the village  68 years ago will be held in the church in Sainte-Mère Eglise.

Starts at 10.00 am

In the afternoon starting at 1.30 pm Airborne Parachute drop in the marshes by La Fière.

Get there early as parking will fill up very fast.  I hope the weather will be good as last year it was canceled due to bad weather.

At 4.30 pm there will be a ceremony at the La Fière Memorial

Later in the evening at 7.30 pm  there will be a “Liberty” dinner taking place at the “Marché Couvert”

(covered market) in Sainte-Mère Eglise.

This year on Saturday June 2nd in Sainte-Mère-Eglise they’re calling it “The Longest Night”.

For the 50th anniversary of the official theatrical release of “The Longest Day” in the town square by the church they are going to set up a gigantic wide screen for the movie that will be projected up against it. After the movie there will be fireworks and then the “Liberation Dance” will begin….

“The Longest Day” 1962 staring : John Wayne, Sean Connery, Robert Mitchum, Robert Wagner, Henry Fonda, Curt Jurgens and many, many more list too long, an all-star cast of the best actors of that era. ( American actors but also French and German, English too.)

Jay landed here…68 years ago

On Wednesday February 1st 2012 I had the privilege and honor of meeting Forest « Jay » Nichols, he prefers we him call him « Jay ».

His visit to Normandy, with his wife, Becky, son, Steven, and daughter in-law, Becky, coincided with the Airborne Museum re-opening its doors for the 2012 season.

Private Nichols’ story in Normandy began almost 68 years ago, at 1.30 am on the early morning of June 6^th 1944 (He was in Baker Company 502^nd of the 101^st Airborne). He landed near Turqueville.

Jay’s story, in his own words:

Around 1.30 in the morning our jump light, which was red ( the signal for the paratroopers to « hook-up ») turned green and the signal was given to jump. I didn’t feel like staying around because of the sound of flak exploding all around us and bullets zipping past us.

Out of my stick ( usually 18 paratroopers) only 3 of us managed to re-group together, my two buddies who had jumped right behind me as I went out of the plane, but I didn’t find them right away.

As soon as I hit the ground I hurried to get out of my parachute. When I checked for my gear after inspecting my carbine I realized that the impact upon hitting the ground had been so violent that I had snapped the folding mechanism and the stock so the rifle was useless.

I could hear some weird sounds

I could hear some weird sounds. After a moment that I realized I had landed in a field full of sheep! Not wanting to attract any unwanted attention I crawled at the height of the sheep and followed their movement so I could get across the field.

In the night crouching down in a ditch just behind a hedgerow I could hear voices approaching. I remembered to pull out my clicker ( a device given to us just before leaving England; we were told to produce one click and to respond by making two clicks ) and did one click. Now the sounds were turning into chatting, and not wanting to get shot when I finally distinguished after straining hard to listen that is was English that was being spoken. I made my presence clear by shouting « Hey I’m over here »

Boy was I happy to recognize those two voices!

…the enemy and they were all around us

After linking up with my two friends, and asking them if they had seen anyone else from our stick, we decided to make our way towards Sainte Mère Eglise. We proceeded to climb through the thick hedgerows — and believe me those things aren’t easy to get through — cutting up our hands and ripping our uniforms. We didn’t want to reveal our presence to the enemy and they were all around us.

Some of my buddie got killed, wounded and captured, becoming POW’s, that night.

We fought the Germans for several hours that night. We’d toss our grenades over the hedgerows at them and they would throw theirs. They had a grenade with a handle on it that we called a masher it made more bang than harm. When we finally made our way into Sainte mere Eglise with one wounded in tow, day light was breaking .Upon arrival in Ste Mere Eglise, sniper fire coming from the church made me crouch behind a stone with bullets ricocheting just above my helmet.

Having being miss-drop and scattered we were finally re-attached to the 505^th of the 82^nd Airborne ( the guys who took and secured the town that night).

My friends and I hung around Sainte Mere Eglise until June 11^th when I saw a truck from the War graves Commission filled with bodies. I knew they were paratroopers; you could tell by the way the bodies had been put in the back. Their heads towards the front and their feet sticking out the back, bodies were stacked three men high.

I told my buddies “hey lets hop on it and see where it takes us.” When it finally stopped we were on Utah Beach. Then we got back on an ammunitions truck and made our way to Sainte Come du Mont, where we re-grouped with what was left of our battalion. Then we headed toward Carentan and proceeded to take the town from the German opposition.

( Carentan was completely liberated on June 12^th.. It was vital to the Allied forces that Carentan was in American hands as this is the town where troops coming off of Utah Beach and Omaha Beach would link up to push south toward St. Lo )

“that’s pretty much it,son.”

We were told we’d be in Normandy for three days. We ended up staying for a little over a month. Then I boarded an LST back to England and later in September on the 17^th I parachuted again into Holland for Operation Market Garden.

Jay fell silent. He was teary-eyed — who wouldn’t be? — he looked up and said “that’s pretty much it,son.”

He told me « We were told there’d be some pretty French woman here in Normandy, but I never saw any civilians »

“Maybe they we being held in the cellars so as to not fall under the charm of these paratroopers.”

Jay, who is 91, said this would be his last visit to Normandy because “my voice is slow, my legs are weak, I’m worn out.”

I had a really great time in his presence and when I’ll be touring going through the Normandy countryside I’ll stop and tell people about the hedgerow and the fighting that went on around here 68 years ago, I will tell them about (Pvt.) Jay Nichols. He personifies what he and others did for us (so we didn’t have to) and they will never be forgotten … never.

T.STANDEFER

JUNE 2ND 2012

“Carentan Liberty March”

Arrival of the historical march, follow the footsteps of the 101st Airborne (about 100 re-enactors in full paratrooper gear) and re-trace history that took place 68 years ago. Departure at 9.00 am

Re-enactment of June 23rd’s armed assault happening at -Place De La Republique-

Organisation Carentan Liberty’s Group