D-Day Landings Rehearsals - Exercise Tiger Tragedy on Slapton Sands Painting of the German E Boat attack against the Landing Ship Convoy 70 yrs ago, in the last week of April 1944, the Allies staged a "Dress Rehearsal" for the planned landings on UTAH beach in June 1944. The exercise took place on the night of 28th-29th April and the convoy carrying U.S, Troops for the invasion set sail into the English Channel [...]
Memorial Poppies Remembrance Day 2013 Wars are not about adventure or glory and they certainly aren't about poetry. They are about battles and people killing other people. War is a very nasty business. We should never forget those who gave their lives in war so that we could live in peace and freedom. By Malcolm Clough
D Day Tour of UTAH Beach, Normandy. D Day Landings On D-Day, UTAH beach was the most westerly of the five Allied Invasion Beaches and formed the right flank of the invasion force. It was added to the original COSSAC (or planning team) proposals to give the Allies an early opportunity to capture the deep water port of Cherbourg, as capturing a deep water port was always going to be necessary to land heavy [...]
Omaha Beach: US Cemetery Colleville Sur Mer 1st Lieutenant Jimmie W Monteith Jr 16th Inf/Rgt / 1st Infantry Division. Landing with the first wave at Fox Sector on OMAHA Beach on D-Day 6th June 1944, Jimmie Monteith was one of approximately 3,000 United States casualties on OMAHA Beach. His outstanding bravery and leadership led to a posthumous award of the Congressional Medal of Honour. He is one of 9,637 U.S. service personnel buried in the U.S. [...]
Omaha Beach, Normandy. WN 62 Colleville Sur Mer Memorial to the U.S. 1st Infantry Division at WN 62 overlooking Omaha Beach at Colleville Sur Mer On D Day, Omaha beach was divided into 10 sections by the American forces:- Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog Green, Dog White, Dog Red, Easy Green, Easy Red, Fox Green and Fox Red. WN 62 or Widerstandsnest 62 (Resistance Nest 62) overlooks Easy Red and Fox Green Sectors of [...]
D Day Tours Video. We have made a short video to give you some flavour of what our tours are like and some of the things you could do and see on a tour with www.d-daytoursnormandy.com This video gives only the briefest look at what we can do, but even so, we think it's clear how different our tours are from the big coach tours and the regimented on-the-bus-off-the-bus nature of some other tours. A tour [...]
Alongside the Memorial Day Service at the U.S. Cemetery at St. James, the town hosts 'The Fete De La Liberation' A weekend programme of events featuring veteran WW2 vehicles both military and civilian. The vehicles were parked up around the town, so as you wandered around you never knew quite what was around the next corner. Many of the owners dress in period costume and those whom I chatted to were very knowledgeable about their [...]
St James US Cemetery. Memorial Day 26 May 2013. Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial The cemetery at St James on the Normandy/Brittany border is less well known than the cemetery at Colleville sur Mer on OMAHA Beach. Officially known as the Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial, 4,410 U.S. forces personnel were buried here in a beautiful and tranquil setting. The US cemetery at St James does not attract the huge visitor numbers [...]
The Longues Sur Mer battery is strategically situated on the cliffs between Arromanches and Port en Bessin overlooking the D-Day Normandy Landing beaches. The four 155mm guns with a range of eight miles were in a position to threaten either the Americans landing on OMAHA Beach or the British Landing on GOLD Beach. The guns were naval guns taken from a decomissioned destroyer, therefore the battery was manned by 143 German Navy personnel. On [...]
Pvte John Steele of F Company 505th PIR 82nd Airborne Division jumped into Normandy on the night of 5th-6th June 1944. Poor weather conditions led to a scattered drop and 36 men of Steele's company came down into the Church square of St Mere Eglise where they were captured or killed. Some buildings in the village were on fire and the fires illuminated the night sky, making easy targets of the descending paratroopers. Steele's [...]
