Our Walk in Brittany and Normandy is always very special. But this year there is a particular resonance to our time in northern France. It is 80 years on from the D-Day Landings that hastened the end of World War II.
It was on 6 June 1944 that the top-secret Operation Overlord – codename for the Battle of Normandy – began. D-Day marked the beginning of the campaign that led to the liberation of France and Europe.
This summer D-Day 80 is being marked in France and in the Allied nations. And nowhere more so than where so many fought and died on the beaches…
Normandy will forever be marked by the D-Day Landings and the Battle of Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe in the Second World War. 2024 will mark the 80th Anniversary of this historic event. With it, remembrance and a celebration of peace, liberty and reconciliation.
The official international ceremony will be attended by Heads of State, veterans and officials, on 6 June 2024 on Omaha Beach.
Commemorations will be concentrated at the new British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer and at Bayeux Cathedral. Poignantly, these are likely to be the last formal events at which veterans of the Normandy campaign, now all in their late 90s at the youngest, will be present in numbers.
On D-Day two-thirds of the seaborne troops from the United States were launched against a four-mile-long beach. Overlooked by steep bluffs and blocked off at either end by limestone cliffs: it was the place they called ‘Bloody Omaha’.
The 29th Infantry Division and the 1st Infantry Division would be badly mauled in their assault. There were mined obstacles on the beach as well as mines in the bluffs. A shingle bank or sea wall had too be overcome. Then barbed wire, and concrete fortifications beyond. At its western end, the first wave was all but wiped out, and succeeding waves piled up on the sea wall, paralysed for a time. Nonetheless, the courage of the men and the sheer scale and weight of the attack would lead to the Germans giving way. Later, by midday, the beach was quiet.
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy. The Allied operation led by the then General Eisenhower launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on D-Day, 6 June 1944 with the Normandy Landings. Nearly 160,000 troops in 5,000 vessels crossed the English Channel on that day. More than two million Allied troops were in France by the end of August.
Our 2024 Brittany and Normandy Walks in June and September allow us to also mark the 80th anniversary and spend time in reflection.
We spend a full day touring the Normandy beaches. We include visits to Omaha Beach, Ste-Mère-Eglise, the center of US 82nd Airborne operations, the German cemetery at La Cambe, and the Pointe du Hoc.
We’ll pay our respects at the American Cemetery. This hallowed ground preserves the remains of nearly 9,400 Americans who died during the Allied liberation of France. Three Medal of Honor recipients rest here. Forty-five sets of brothers lie side by side. The walls bear more than 1,500 names in the Garden of the Missing.
