REMEMBRANCE TOURISM GUIDE 2019 Grandcamp-Maisy


Ceremony at 11am organised by the Maisy Battery Museum. www.maisybattery.com


Sainte-Mère-Église


Parachute events at 11am and 1pm (weather permitting). Parade of airborne troops and vintage military vehicles at 5.45pm. Musical entertainment from 8.45pm.


Monday, June 10 Foucarville


Ceremony at the former German prison camp at 3pm.


Sainte-Mère-Église


Normandy Day picnic at midday followed by an afternoon of musical entertainment.


Saturday, June 15 Bretteville-l’Orgueilleuse Liberation Ball at 7pm.


Sunday, June 16 Sainte-Mère-Église Peace festival, solemn Mass, conference and polyphonic Mass.


CEMETERIES Normandy American Cemetery


Overlooking Omaha Beach, this 70-hectare cemetery hosts the graves of 9,380 soldiers, most of them killed during the invasion of Normandy and the ensuing operations. At the centre of the memorial is the bronze statue Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves. www.abmc.gov


Brittany American Cemetery The American Cemetery and Memorial at Saint-James covers 28 acres of countryside near the Brittany border (though still within Normandy’s Manche département) and contains the remains of 4,410 American war dead. Inscribed on the retaining wall of the memorial terrace are the names of 498 of the missing, while the granite memorial contains a chapel overlooking the burial area. www.cwgc.org


The Normandy D-Day Festival has been celebrated every year since 2007 Ranville Cemetery


The Ranville Cemetery lies 10km northeast of Caen. Ranville was the first village to be liberated after the capture of Pegasus Bridge (see Places to Visit). 2,411 identified casualties lie here, mostly British, alongside 76 Canadians and soldiers from Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, Poland and Germany. www.cwgc.org


Bayeux War Cemetery The largest Second World War cemetery of Commonwealth casualties in France, the Cimetière Militaire Britannique de Bayeux contains 4,144 Commonwealth graves. Some 500 fallen Axis soldiers, mainly Germans, are also buried here. www.cwgc.org


Canadian Military Cemetery The Canadian Cemetery at Bretteville-sur-Laize lies between Caen and Falaise. Of the 2,958 burials here, 2,782 are Canadian. There are also 80 British graves, plus four Australian and one each from France and New Zealand. Soldiers from nearly every unit in the II Canadian Corps are represented here. Other Canadians killed in the Battle of Normandy are buried near Juno Beach in the Bény- sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery. www.cwgc.org


MUSEUMS AND MEMORIALS


Each of the five landing beaches has its own museum:


Omaha Beach Memorial Museum This 1,200m2


nearest to Caen, stretches for five miles from Ouistreham to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer. The Ouistreham French-British Museum of Commando N°4 is unique in that it recounts the story of Philippe Kieffer’s French contingent of commandos that stormed Sword Beach that day. www.musee-4commando.fr


museum recounts


in harrowing detail the day that changed the war, through dioramas and an extensive collection of uniforms, vehicles and memorabilia. www.musee-memorial-omaha.com


Utah Beach Museum Built where the first American troops landed, the Utah Beach Museum tells the story of D-Day in 10 sequences, from the preparation of the landing to the final outcome. Among its rich collection is an original B26 bomber, one of only six left. www.utah-beach.com


Juno Beach Centre The Juno Beach Centre in Courseulles-sur-Mer pays homage to the 45,000 Canadians who lost their lives during the war, of which 5,500 were killed during the Battle of Normandy, and 359 on D-Day. It is manned exclusively by Canadian guides. www.junobeach.org


Gold Beach Museum Relive the most striking events as British troops advanced on Gold Beach, via scale models, slide shows and photographic documents. The America Gold Beach Museum is located a short walk from Gold Beach. www.goldbeachmusee.org.uk


Sword Beach Museum Sword Beach, the easternmost of the five landing beaches and the


Atlantic Wall Museum Housed in a 52ft restored German bunker, the Atlantic Wall Museum in Ouistreham has quite the backstory. German soldiers were held up inside for three days after the Sword Beach landing until British troops, literally, blew them out. www.museedugrandbunker.com


Overlord Museum In Colleville-sur-Mer, opposite the Normandy American Cemetery, is one of the newest and most comprehensive museums dedicated to the Battle of Normandy. Life-size reconstructions plunge visitors into the heart of the action. www.overlordmuseum.com


Museum of the Battle of Normandy


Based in Bayeux, the first large town to be liberated, this museum brings history to life through dioramas and archive footage for a full overview of the Battle of Normandy. www.bayeuxmuseum.com


Sainte-Mère Airborne Museum


Relive the parachute drops and brave fighting by the US paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. The image of John Steele of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) stuck on a church spire is an enduring one – and it happened here. He hung there for three hours pretending to be dead before being taken prisoner. The museum looks at the role of gliders, and shows troops boarding a C-47 plane at an English airfield bound for Sainte-Mère-Église. www.airborne-museum.org


❯❯ Apr/May 2019 FRANCE TODAY ❘ 145


IMAGE © M QUEMENER / OT BAYEUX INTERCOM


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