D DAY
Visiting the D Day landing beaches has long been on my ‘bucket list’…I studied it at school,
and my interest was amplified by legendary WW2 films such as ‘The Longest Day’, ‘Saving Private
Ryan’ and ‘Band of Brothers’.
But for me, the more important issue was
that my father was a soldier in WW2 and
landed at Gold beach on the 6th June
1944. He then fought in battles that film
lovers may remember as ‘The Battle of
the Bulge’ in the Ardennes and ‘A Bridge
too Far’ in Arnhem and eventually into
Germany. But that’s a story I’ll leave for
another day.
Add in to the mix that one of my friends
had moved to Normandy a few years
ago to be a D-Day tour guide and I
decided to cajole my wife in to a 5 day
trip to Bayeux. Much to my surprise,
she agreed and so the plans for our own
invasion were drawn up.
We caught the ferry from Newhaven to
28
Dieppe and drove to the medieval town of
Bayeux in Normandy, headquarters for the
duration of our stay. On arrival at Le Tardif
Noble Guest House late in the evening, we
set about our finalising our plans for the
first assault in the morning.
By the way, to anyone that has not been
to Normandy before and is thinking about
exploring the D Day beaches, my first
piece of advice would be to get hold of a
copy of ‘Major and Mrs Holt’s Definitive
Battlefield Guide to the D Day Landings’.
An absolute must, easy to follow and
packed full with valuable information.
(Always aim to get the latest edition
because I think six have been published
so far!)
Knowing that I wanted to see and explore
as much as possible and that there were
five beaches to cover plus the surrounding
areas, we agreed to meet our friend Jules
in the town of Carentan. He would then
give us a guided tour of some of the key
locations around the Utah beach landing
zone first and set us up for the rest of
the tour.
Day one saw us begin in land at La Fiere
and the ‘Iron Mike’ monument to the US
101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions where
many soldiers perished in the marshes
because they were weighed down by
the equipment they were carrying. An
emotional and thought provoking memorial
simply read “In peace sons bury their
fathers; in war fathers bury their sons”.