Private Tour WW2 D-Day Americans in Normandy (PRIVATE TOUR)

As you booked a Private tour, the driver guide will pick you up around 06:15 am at your hotel location in Paris.

You will travel aboard a comfortable and air-conditioning minivan (7 passengers max).

Expected time for being pickup at your hotel: From 06 :00 am till 06 :30 am

Due to new traffic rules in Paris which ban on the majority of vehicular traffic crossing the city center in 2022, Hotel Pick-up and Drop-off would be operated only in the following listed Paris districts: 75008, 75007, 75006, 75005, 75016, 75015 and 75014.

If your are staying in others Paris districts (instead of the listed ones above), the meeting point for the tour (pick-up and drop-off) will be done in front of the following adress:

LIDO DE PARIS 116 Av. des Champs-Élysées, 75008 Paris

Enclosed a map of the new project regarding cars traffic in Paris for 2022.

Dowload the map here

This journey of one day trip in the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy will embarks you in the footsteps of the brave americans soldiers (US 4th Infantry Div, US 82nd and US 101st Airbornes Divisions) who fought for our liberty so far away from their homelands. Operation Neptune was the codename of the largest military' seaborne and airborne invasion for D-day ever organized. Military operations began shortly after midnight, on June 6th 1944, with around 156,000 allies troops landing During that day, you will discover not only one of the most important episodes in modern history (so well related in the movie «The Longuest Day and TV Mini-Series « Band Of Brothers ») but also beautiful countrysides (known as « le bocage ») in one of the historical' oldest and greatest region of France .

With your driver-guide you will travel to Normandy in an air-conditioned minivan. Once you arrive in the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy, you will stop at  « Utah Beach » which was one of the two American landing zones in Normandy. This beach was created by British general Bernard Montgomery who wished to establish a beachhead directly in the Cotentin peninsula in order to capture Cherbourg faster, because of its deep water harbor and its major logistic importance. The amphibious assault, primarily by the US 4th Infantry Division and 70th Tank Battalion, was supported by airborne landings of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Division. The 4th Infantry Division landed 21,000 troops on Utah at the cost of only 197 casualties. Airborne troops arriving by parachute and glider numbered an additional 14,000 men, with 2,500 casualties. To commemorate their bravery and sacrifice,severals war monuments were erected there directly on the sand of the beach after the war. Around the monuments, german concrete bunkers, shell holes and traces of the battle are still visibles today. (photo stop on the spot) :

• Monument of the 4th Infantry Division
• The 90th Infantry Division Monument
• U.S Navy Monument
• Milestone 00

At Utah beach, you will have time to walk along the dunes and while you will take a look at sea just to imagine in your mind the hundred of american war ships and Landing Craft Assault who came offshore Utah Beach on D-day.

The World War II Foundation selected Major “Dick” Winters of Easy Company as a symbol of leadership. This monument honors the combat leadership of the American troops during Operation Overlord. Located along the strategically important road between Utah Beach and Sainte Marie du Mont. The sculpture of Winters leads in the direction of the upcoming battles.

This Monument honors the men of Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division. It is located at Brécourt (outside the town of Sainte Marie du Mont), site of the first battle won by US troops on the morning of June 6, 1944. This battle was made famous by the Stephen Ambrose book and HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers.” The monument was dedicated by the veterans of Easy Company and the president of their association Herb Suerth on June 18, 2008.

This village (one of first French villages liberated from German occupation) near Utah Beach, was liberated in the early hours of June 6th, 1944 by US troops of the 101st Airborne division. The village was occupied by sixty enemy soldiers of the 191 Artillery-Regiment . The Germans used the church tower as an observation post and on a clear day they could see all the way to the sea. A famous picture showing paratroopers from « Easy company – 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment » was shot few minutes only after the recapture of the village in front of the Church square.  Nowadays the church and most of the houses in Sainte Marie du Mont are still standing and look like almost the same since D-day !

The Iron Mike memorial is a statue of an American paratrooper. It is named after St Michael, a saint of the Airborne. The memorial is a replica of the one at the U.S. Army Infantry School in Fort Benning USA. The Iron Mike memorial was unveiled on June 7, 1997 by Major-General Kellogg, commander of the 82nd Airborne who made a jump with his men that day out of a plane. Jumping on the night of D-Day, the 82^nd Airborne had to capture the town of Sainte-Mère-Église. Holding the town, however, would have meant little without also holding the roads to and from it. One such route had a bottleneck:  the La Fière Bridge a small stone bridge at La Fière manor, 700 yards to the west of the outskirts. The manor itself was a small group of buildings a grenade-throw away from the bridge. On the far side of the bridge, the road led west, the small hamlet of Cauguigny standing by it two-thirds of a mile away. Securing La Fière Bridge fell to the 505^th PIR. The 1^st Battalion was one of the few units that night to jump on time and land in its designated drop zone to the east of the bridge, between it and the town. They quickly learned that things were not as expected: the Germans have flooded large areas of Normandy and the tiny Merderet River running north-south under the bridge was now a marsh 1,000 yards across at its narrowest. The elevated road between the bridge and Cauguigny became a causeway surrounded by water, providing no cover.

Sainte Mere Eglise became known to the world after the film The Longest Day because of the paratrooper John Steele of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Steele indeed landed on the church's steeple and pretended to be dead in order to avoid being shot by the Germans. He stayed put, hanging in the air, for two long hours and watched helplessly as the Germans shot his comrades around him. Nowadays the Church is still standing in the middle of the town square. The municipality of Sainte Mère l’Eglise has hung a dummy US paratrooper and his parachute on the steeple of the church and so has found the finest tribute that could be given to John Steele and all his comrades who lost their lives under German bullets. In addition, two stained glass windows were created for the church, in order to commemorate the liberation of the town by 82nd Airborne Division on June 6,1944.One of them depicts the Virgin with two paratroopers and the second one is Private John M. Steele (1912–1969)

In this charming litlle town of Sainte Mère l’Eglise we will decide to take a break for lunch in a local restaurant or you will just decides by yourself of your own choices of meals (own expense). For you ladies, we will even try to save a bit of time in order to explore the local little shops which border the town square.

Live the history of the Normandy invasion at the Airborne Museum ! At the heart of Sainte-Mère-Eglise, facing the church where John Steele famously was caught, hanging from the bell tower by his parachute. The Airborne Museum makes you live and understand the D-Day from the invasion preparations in England, through to the battles for liberation. Few miles from Normandy landing beaches, the Airborne Museum has become the largest museum in Europe dedicated to the american paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne  engaged in the context of the Normandy invasion in 1944, during the Second World Word. Board on mythic planes and discover historic items which bring you in June 1944. The Museum will bring you into the history of Sainte-Mère-Eglise thanks three buildings and very soon four buildings : The Waco Building The first area of the Museum is devoted to Gliders and their use during the Invasion in Normandy. The Airborne Museum presents the unique sample in France of a WACO glider. You will join a dozen soldiers in the glider few moments before the take off. Discover these planes without motor which were essentials to carry on men and materials. More than 500 gliders were deployed on Norman soil on D-Day and the following days. They carry on vehicles, ammunitions and other equipments about 4 400 soldiers boarded on gliders during Normandy invasion. The C-47 Building Attend the preparation of the largest military operation ever carried out! In England, on the 5th of June 1944, in an airfield tarmac at the foot of a C-47 aircraft which was deployed in the D-Day parachute drop operations, review the troops with The General Eisenhower just before Invasion and the Battle of Normandy. Operation Neptune The brand new building « Operation Neptune » will make you experience a night jump as if you were there ! SENSATIONS AND FEELINGS GUARANTEED ! Through a hyperrealist museography, join the nighttime embarkation of a C-47 aircraft in England, then drop into the square of Sainte-Mère-Eglise in the midst of the fighting and take part in the operations that followed. Finally you will discover an American reconnaissance plane: a Piper Cub. Get into the minds of the troopers and feel the intensity of the combat.

Discover D-Day Experience and its different areas  made up of:

• two museums
• an immersive and one of a kind attraction in the world
• a memorial dedicated to the airborne troops
• and two shops

CH 4-D FLIGHT D-Day Experience : A one of a kind high tech 4D C-47 Flight simulator D-Day, 6 June, 1944 : the largest landing operations in history with over 13,000 paratroopers ready to board the C-47 aircrafts… heading toward Normandy. Relive this mythical crossing of the Channel on-board an authentic C-47 converted into a high-tech flight-simulator. D-Day experience not only offers an attraction but also an exhibition place featuring artifacts of an exceptional rarity. Come and discover the preparations for D-Day landings throughout said artifacts that used to belong to the soldiers who fought for our liberation. Their story is told through the eyes of Colonel Wolverton who is here to help you better understand the stakes and the state of mind in which the soldiers were when they took part to these events. As you go along your visit, you will have the opportunity to see authentic, unique and symbolic artifacts: the jacket of General Eisenhower, the suit of the famous Lt Richard D, Winters, the genuine D-Day cricket… Each artifacts tells the story of its owner during the fighting that followed the landings. Dead Man Corner Museum Headquarters of the German paratroopers before being taken over by the American paratroopers, it is currently a museum dedicated to the former. Discover the story of this house which holds a unique and authentic collection of artifacts. Here, the men of the 6^th German parachute infantry regiment (PIR) nicknamed the «Green Devils » fought  fiercely for three days against the American paratroopers of the 101^st Airborne Division.  On the morning of June 6 1944, the Commander of the German paratroopers, the major von der Heydte established his headquarters whereas the Dr Roos set up an aid station. On June 8, as the Germans withdrew to Carentan the American Colonel “Iron Mike” Michaelis established the headquarters of his unit, the 502nd PIR of the 101st Airborne.

During the return drive to Paris you will have time to relax aboard the minivan before to be dropped off at your hotel location in the evening (between 08:00 pm till 09:00 pm).