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As I stood on Omaha Beach in France on a recent cold, overcast day looking shoreward during a low tide, I could only imagine how far the safety of the shore must have seemed to the troops landing on June 6, 1944. I also realized at that moment that I had achieved a lifelong dream, to visit Europe and see the sites so important in WW II history.

I had been to Europe before as part of a “typical” European vacation tour package, but sadly most of these types of tours don’t include stops at WW II sites. During this previous tour I had visited six different countries, saw all of the usual tourist sites from the Eiffel Tower in Paris to the windmills of Holland, but something was missing. I knew at times we were very close to significant sites in the annals of military history, but unfortunately our tour bus rolled right by leaving me to dream of a trip when one day I could return and visit them.

Recently I embarked on the 8-day jaunt through France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany as part of a D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge WW II military history tour operated by Alpventures Tours. For a devotee of military history like myself, it was an eight-day feast of some of Europe’s most important military sites and military museums.

For those who aren’t aware, specialty tours, such as military history tours, have been growing in popularity in recent years. Tours covering all major wars are available, from tours of WW I battlefields, to tours that take visitors to the battlefields of Korea and Vietnam. European WW II tours have been especially hot lately. They have had a recent increase in popularity beginning with the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 1994 and with the release of subsequent WW II related movies such as Saving Private Ryan and HBO’s mini-series Band of Brothers.

The operator of this tour, Alpventures, is owned by Tony Cisneros, who accompanies each tour. Tony was a wealth of information during the tour, at the various sites we visited, as well as on the tour bus as we traveled across Europe. It was a constant learning experience. Even as the tour bus rolled along, Tony would set the stage explaining in detail the background on the next site we were visiting, why it was important and how it fit into the “big picture” of the war.

Before embarking I had assumed the tour participants would be made up almost entirely of WW II veterans and their families. This was not true. The trip was made up of a wide variety of individuals and couples from throughout the United States. There were two WW II veterans accompanied by their wives, a retired school teacher from Tennessee, a construction business owner and his wife from Oklahoma, a manager for a federal agency from Washington, DC, an attorney from California, and a

Bastogne, Belgium town square. Note: Right of American flag is American tank and to the left is a bust of General Anthony McAuliff. Photo by Tony Conboy III.

couple from Pennsylvania, among the 24 folks on the tour. The ages ranged from 27 years old to almost 80 years old. Many of those on the tour had relatives who had fought in the war.

The tour balanced museums with visits to battlefields and other historic sites where you could get out and walk around to soak up the history of the site. The tour also featured the well known such as the Normandy American Cemetery and the lesser known but equally fascinating such as the husband and wife owned and operated Poteau ’44 Museum.

Other stops on the tour, which will be detailed in this series, include our visits to:

• Omaha and Utah beaches
  
• Normandy American Cemetery
  
• Point Du Hoc
  
• Bayeux D-Day Museum
  
• St. Mere Eglise
  
• Project Mulberry artificial harbor museum
  
• Pegasus Bridge Museum
  
• Poteau ’44 Museum
  
• Bastogne Historical Center and American Memorial
  
• Museum of National Military History in Diekirch,
  
• Luxembourg
  
• General George S. Patton's final resting place

American Airborne Museum and Utah Beach

After waking at our resort that overlooked Utah Beach, we were on our way to the quaint town of St. Mere Eglise. The town looked just as I had imagined it. There were older homes and businesses surrounding the picturesque town square. Upon entering, we quickly saw the town’s claim to fame – its church with its famous steeple. For those of you who don’t know the story, this church isn’t famous for its architecture, but for the American paratrooper whose parachute became entangled on the steeple leaving him to dangle helplessly throughout the night during the beginning of the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.

From his perch high above the town, Private John Steele of the 82nd Airborne watched his fellow Americans parachute into the area to battle the surrounding German forces. Today, a replica parachute and mannequin still dangle from the steeple. For film buffs, you might recall that Private Steele was immortalized in the movie, The Longest Day, being played by actor Red Buttons.

American Airborne Museum

Just yards from the church is the American Airborne Museum, which shouldn’t be missed. The museum consists of two buildings with extensive displays inside as well as a number of vehicles and pieces of armor displayed outside.

The highlights of the museum are a C-47 and a Waco glider. The C-47, No.42-100825, was actually used the night of June 5/6 1944. The glider was the type of glider used by allied forces during the D-Day landings. Some of the more interesting exhibits in the museum include correspondence to and from those fighting in the area on D-Day as well as artifacts recovered from nearby fields such as helmets and weapons. There is also a video presentation and museum store.

On the grounds of the museum you’ll find the “Meat Chopper,” a US Halftrack; and other American weapons including a 57 mm anti aircraft gun; a 90 mm anti-aircraft gun and an M4 Sherman tank.

Musee De La Liberte

A short ride through the Normandy countryside and we were at the Musee De La Liberte overlooking nearby Utah Beach. It is also known as the museum of liberation and occupation. The museum boasts that it is the only French World War II museum that does not include weapons of any type.

Created in 1993, the museum is dedicated to memorializing the life of the French people during WW II. It depicts how the French people lived with the bombings, restrictions and Nazi propaganda. The museum recreates a number of different scenes during the war. We walked through a street scene recreating a small French town during the Nazi occupation complete with brick roadway, homes with a family at dinner and various businesses including a butcher, newsstand and boot repair shop.

Utah Beach

Our next stop was Utah Beach and its museum. The museum is built on the beach actually on and around a German bunker. The two-story museum includes a large number of artifacts and a room size map complete with models where museum staff explains the action around Utah Beach on D-Day.

Utah Beach Museum. Photo by Tony Conboy III.

Some of the memorable items on display at the museum include a German 88 mm gun and a landing craft, both of which are located outside the main entrance. Inside, there is a 12-minute video presentation, offered in many languages including English, and artifacts recovered from nearby beaches. A Springfield 1903 rifle that was found on the beach in 1969 is on display as well as various artifacts from the destroyer USS Corry that sunk offshore on June 6, 1944. There are also many photos, a Willis jeep, a Tobrouk bunker and a 75 mm gun.

Finally, take the time to walk the beaches themselves. There are monuments and plaques designating where various events occurred. Utah Beach is much less developed than Omaha Beach and near the museum many of the tank traps are still visible giving it an appearance closer to 1944.

Point Du Hoc

Driving down small country lanes past farm after farm, we finally reached Point Du Hoc, site of the legendary battle on D-Day involving US Army Rangers. The land is virtually unchanged since 1944, with the most obvious lack of change being the huge craters that litter the area surrounding the cliffs. Early on D-Day, the Rangers were given the apparently impossible task of scaling the 100-foot high cliffs and taking out a German gun battery thought to be on the cliffs.

Today, all that remains of the gun batteries are pieces of concrete, which have been strewn about from the massive naval and air bombardment prior to D-Day. Near the face of the cliffs is a monument to the Army Rangers, consisting of a simple pylon, from the government of France. The visit to Point Du Hoc was one of the highlights of the trip according to many. The combination of the history of what took place, being able to still see the bomb craters and the beauty of the view from the top of the cliffs, made it a portion of the trip that few will ever forget!

Emotions stirred at Omaha Beach

The feeling was unlike any I had ever experienced before in my life. Although I had no personal connection (no family members or friends) to any of the soldiers buried at the Normandy American Cemetery, the emotion was overwhelming. I walked among the 9,000 simple crosses that marked each gravesite while the chimes from the cemetery chapel played the battle songs for each of America’s armed forces. I realized, although I didn’t have a personal connection and never served in the military, I did have one connection that I had never felt so strongly before – I was an American.

Flowers are still placed daily at the foot of many of the crosses by friends and family members who have come to pay respects so many years later. And even today, in a unique tradition, family members literally take sand from Omaha Beach and rub it into the chiseled names on the crosses to identify individuals who actually died on the surrounding beaches during the invasion.

Normandy American Cemetary. Photo by Tony Conboy III.

The cemetery, which was rests on land that was officially handed over to the US government by France, is one of 14 World War II burial sites operated by the American Battle Monuments Commission. It recently received worldwide exposure by being the location for the emotional beginning and ending scenes of Tom Hanks’ movie Saving Private Ryan.

The stark reality that the journey for 9,372 young Americans was a one way trip to Europe, without a return ticket home to the United States, is evident because all of the crosses, and Stars of David (marking the gravesites of persons of the Jewish faith), face the West – toward home - the United States.

If the sheer number buried at Normandy isn’t sobering enough, in addition, on the elaborate walls of the semi-circular garden on the east of the memorial, the names of 1,557 US Missing are inscribed.

The cemetery also consists of a visitor’s center where specific gravesite locations can be determined, a chapel and The Memorial. The Memorial features a 22-foot bronze statute, facing toward the graves, named “The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves.”

Walking on Omaha Beach today

Although now highly commercialized, including believe it or not a casino right on the beach, walking Omaha Beach at Vierville at low tide made the efforts of those who landed on it during D-Day seem even more heroic. I marveled at the length of the beach and how far the “safety” of the beach actually was for those coming ashore that day.

Unfortunately, most traces of the events of June 1944 are gone from the beach area and the surrounding bluffs. A handful of barely visible bunkers still remain, but unfortunately most of them are on private land and entrance or admission is not permitted.

There are, however, many memorials in the Vierville area including a memorial to the US 1st Infantry Division as well as other large memorials. Other plaques designate where specific units landed such as 58th Armored Field Artillery Battalion and the location Charlie and Dog Green beaches, American code names for specific portions of Omaha Beach.

Atlantic Long Gun Battery

Some of the only guns remaining in their casemates on the feared German Atlantic Wall are located at Longues sur Mer. Casemates are large concrete enclosures that housed and protected the guns from Allied air attacks. At this beachfront battery, a series of German casemates still exist, some with guns still pointing seaward. Some casemates have been reduced to concrete rubble, while others remain virtually unscathed allowing you to enter them and view the complex up close.

A short walk from the guns, located virtually on the beach with a view of Omaha and Gold Beach, is the main German observation post. The concrete fortification still stands today allowing you to climb a short ladder and enter its concrete walls. From between gigantic slabs of concrete you can peer out and experience the same view of the water that German army members had on June 6, 1944.

Next week: The Conclusion.

Tony Conboy III is a freelance travel journalist who often provides military travel articles to the About.com U.S. Military Site.

Tony Conboy III
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Bradenton, FL 34209