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Morning all,
Off to France on business next week and (hopefully) I should have a couple of days left to check out the Normandy beaches and Museums, so can anyone recommend a shortlist of "must do" museums with an emphasis on firearms, tanks aircraft ... military kit etc ?
Cheers, John:cheers:
John,
The 360 degree DDAY museum is a must, as is MERVILLE Battery. The American Cemetery and loads of museums you will see by the armour displayed outside. Bayeaux is also worth a visit
Cheers Gil,
Looks good, which museum has the B26 Marauder ?
Its actually closest to UTAH beach. Merville Battery has an American Dakota on display at the main gates to the battery, for which they are having a large hangar and carpark being erected as we speak.
"We" never fully understood the link with the U.S marked aircraft to the battery, as all those used on the night were RAF roundal marked, but heyho, displays attract people.
D-DAY : batterie de Merville (14) - YouTube
9 PARA jumped in, or should I say blown all over the place, and the attack on the battery was completed by a handful of men compared to the main force envisaged, only to find many of the guns would never have reached the beaches or landing sites on DDAY anyway. Several were in fact out of date hardware.
Its a weeks visit if you do them all................enjoy.
B-26 Marauder Bomber WW2 - Utah Beach (Normandy) - YouTube
The Pegasus bridge museum is great. The actual bridge now resides on dry land adjacent to the original spot and a museum has been built to accommodate it. then walk across the new bridge to the small Cafe that was the first building liberated. Have a coffee and marvel at all the memorabilia left by returning soldiers over the years .
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Yes I hope to visit Madame Gondre in June at some stage, in her families cafe, and also Mark Worthington the Curator of the museum there.
The American Cemetery, for sure.
The Airborne Museum in St. Mere' Egles, for sure.
The Battery at Point du Hoc,
The Canadian museum at Juno Beach.
The Undersea Museum, I think is at Aromanch. There are numerous little places to stop,
didn't ever find one that wasn't worth the time. See if they still offer a ticket that will get you in all (or most of ) the museums.
Have a great trip. The people there are very nice.
If you can spare 2/3 of a day, the trip to Mont St. Michele is WELL WORTH the time. That side trip was fantastic, and to think we almost didn't go!
Give Madame Gondre, Arlette, my best. She sat at our table and shared lunch with me and my friend, and we had the longest chat. She told us all about her trips to the states, and how the French government took all of her memorabilia that Ox and Bucs veterans had given to HER. Those items now reside in the French museum up to road.
Interesting story, when it was time to rebuild/replace the bridge, they moved the old one, and rebuilt the new one to look the same as the old one, just larger. The bridge is at the museum.
Many thanks for the info guys, I am planning to get business concluded by Wednesday night and be back up north staying with a friend of a friend on the west coast of the Cherbourg peninsula, so well placed for Omaha beach and a push along the Invasion coast...
Thanks again guys, cheers John.
One thing I would do, is go to Sword and Gold beaches and walk to Pegasus Bridge to see a bit of what Lovat and his Commando passed on the way.
Pegasus Bridge nearly ended up in the scrap yard in 1994, had some British Vets not got to hear of what the French Government intended to do, and wouldn't have been on show today beside the new one!!;)
The tank on the bridge shown on the photos has gone from that spot and been totally renovated, and is now in the museum grounds across the river.
Evening all, having a few beers on the Normandie on the way home, good trip, successful business and most of the Invasion front covered, Overlord museum inparticular superb as were the German Mausoleum and the US cemeteries, started at St Mary Englies and worked round to Pegasus Bridge, unfortunately the museum had closed much to my annoyance, but an extra bonus was the "Le grand bunker" in Ouistreham, a surprise find and really great displays, anyway back to the beer and then to try an find my cabin on this golliath!
John,
Great to hear you had a good trip and found most of the museums open. Just too much to take in on one day. It is, as I always tell people to fully understand the sacrifice, its a two week trip;)
Evening Gil, great buying trip (concluded at breakneck speed to give me two spare days. Beautiful countryside, I found the graveyards really quite moving, the German Mausoleum was a very different approach, l found the encapsulated photograph left on one by family, particularly poiniant ... so very young... The terrible loss of life on both sides, during the push out from the beachheads was both humbling and sobering.
All politicians should be made to visit such places to gauge the true cost of war in my opinion.
Back next month, so I will be heading for the Airborne Museum. I thought the calibre of the various museum's was first rate, some very rare peices, beautifully displayed.