REMEMBRANCE TOURISM GUIDE 2020


WORLD WAR II The French Ministry of


Culture has applied for the D-Day Landing beaches to be included on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites. The organisation is still considering its response and a meeting is planned for this year. Its recognition would help preserve these sites and transmit the universal messages they represent to future generations. With its many museums, historical sites, cemeteries and cultural and teaching facilities, Normandy is like an open-air history book. Today, 27 cemeteries hold the remains of 110,000 dead, including 9,386 Americans, 17,769 British, 5,002 Canadians, 650 Poles, and tens of thousands of Germans.


CEMETERIES Normandy American Cemetery


On a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach stands this 70-hectare cemetery, lined with the graves of 9,380 fallen soldiers, most of them killed during the invasion of Normandy and the ensuing Allied military operations. The memorial consists of a semi- circular colonnade with a loggia at each end containing large maps and narratives of the military operations; at the centre is the bronze statue entitled ‘Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves’. www.abmc.gov


Brittany American Cemetery The Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial covers 28 acres of countryside in the Manche département and contains the remains of 4,410 American war dead. Along the retaining wall of the memorial terrace are inscribed the names of 498 of the missing, while the granite memorial contains a chapel and two large operations maps with military flags overlooking the burial area. www.cwgc.org


Ranville War Cemetery The Ranville War Cemetery for


Gold Beach on June 6, 1944, via scale models, slide shows and photographic documents. The America Gold Beach Museum is a short walk from Gold Beach. www.goldbeachmusee.org.uk


Head to the museum at Utah Beach to learn more about the events of 1944


Commonwealth soldiers lies 10km northeast of Caen. The village was the first to be liberated following the capture of Pegasus Bridge. Here lie 2,411 identified casualties, mostly British, alongside 76 Canadians and soldiers from Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, Poland and Germany. www.cwgc.org


Bayeux War Cemetery The largest WWII cemetery of Commonwealth war casualties in France, the Cimetière Militaire Britannique de Bayeux contains a staggering 4,144


Commonwealth graves. Some 500 fallen Axis soldiers, mainly Germans, are also buried here. www.cwgc.org


Canadian Military Cemetery This cemetery is near Bretteville- sur-Laize, between Caen and Falaise. Of the 2,958 burial sites, 2,782 are Canadian, 87 of whom remain unidentified, together with 80 British, four Australian and one each from France and New Zealand. Soldiers from nearly every unit within the Canadian Corps are buried 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,


MEMORIALS AND SITES OF INTEREST Each of the five landing beaches


Gold Beach Museum Relive the most striking events, as British troops advanced on


has its own museum and there are many others where you can learn about the Battle of Normandy.


Omaha Beach Memorial Museum


On the shores of Omaha Beach, this 1,200m2


museum recounts in


harrowing detail the day that marked a turning point in WWII, through dioramas, an extensive collection of uniforms, vehicles and memorabilia. www.musee-memorial-omaha.com


Utah Beach Museum Built on the very beach where the first American troops landed on June 6, 1944, the Utah Beach Museum recounts the story of D-Day in 10 sequences, from the preparation of the landing, to the final outcome and success. Among its rich collection of objects, vehicles, materials, and oral histories is an original B26 bomber – one of only six left. www.utah-beach.com/museum


Juno Beach Centre In Courseulles-sur-Mer, the Juno Beach Centre 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


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


Atlantic Wall Museum Housed in a 52ft restored German bunker, the Atlantic Wall Museum in Ouistreham has quite a back-story. German soldiers were held up inside for three days after the Sword Beach landing until British troops, literally, blew them out. http://museegrandbunker.com/en


Overlord Museum In Colleville-sur-Mer, opposite the Normandy American Cemetery, this is one of the newest and most comprehensive museums dedicated to the Battle of Normandy. Life-sized 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 on June 7,1944, this gem of a museum brings history to life through dioramas and archive footage, for a comprehensive play-by-play of the Battle of Normandy. www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en


Airborne Museum


Relive the parachute drops and brave fighting by the US paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions in the early hours of June 6, 1944, at the Airborne Museum in Sainte-Mère Église. The


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IMAGE © E VALÄRE NORMANDY TOURISM


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