The German crew of about 120 survivors surrendered the next morning. ships on the night before and the morning of the D-Day landings made getting any sort of use out of these about as difficult as saving that Private Ryan fellow ( “It’s like finding a needle in a stack of needles.“).īritish ships eventually dismantled three of them, leaving the last one (only barely) operating for a little bit longer, though it didn’t really matter. Heavy bombing of this site by French and U.S. The Longues-sur-Mer battery, situated between the Omaha and Gold landing beaches, consists of four gun installations like the ones seen above and were used by the German troops on D-Day. Like Arromanches, visiting the German battery at Longues-sur-Mer won’t drag you down. ★ More information: Normandy Tourism’s Arromanches page There’s swing music instead of silence, photography, Frisbee-throwing, and smiles and laughter instead of grief. I always prefer to see my historical artifacts in situ.īecause the Allies wanted to use Arromanches for the building of their harbor, no troops ever landed here on D-Day-this ensured the beach was preserved and free of war debris.īecause Arromanches was such a huge a contributor to the defeat of Nazi Germany and not a battleground, the atmosphere is completely unique. Remnants of the artificial harbor still sit out there in the water after all this time. It’s majorly, enormously, hugely because of the artificial harbor at Arromanches that the Allies were able to help defeat Nazi Germany. I told you how many men, vehicles, and supplies entered Europe through this harbor as of June 12th.īut, by the end of its use 10 months later, that number had increased to 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of supplies. Arromanches played such an important roleĪrromanches and its artificial harbor played such a huge role in the war you’d be crazy to skip this one. The feeling of actually “being” in a historical time period is something you can’t get looking at artifacts in a museum. And 1940s big band and swing blared into the town center from the speakers at the Musée du Débarquement. World War II army Jeeps driven by uniformed soldiers jammed the parking lots and streets. The town swarmed with war enthusiasts decked out in full World War II army uniforms of all ranks. This excited me to no end since time travel is my favorite kind of travel. Like I fell asleep at some point on the extremely short drive from the Caen Museum and woke up in the 1940s. Immediately upon arriving, the sense that we’d gone back in time was overwhelming. With Arromanches, it was love at first D-Day site. Why Arromanches-les-Bains is one of the best D-Day sites to visit in Normandy Time travel To use this map: When you get there, open Google Maps on your phone, click “Saved” at the bottom, then click “Maps.”Īlso read: Visiting WW2 Sites With Kids: Should you? Can you? Here’s what you need to know. To save this map: Click on the star ⭑ next to the map’s title to save in your Google Maps. The map below contains all 7 of the sites mentioned in this post. So I’ve chosen seven that I feel are the best D-Day sites to visit in Normandy for when you don’t have much time but still want a well-rounded, diverse experience. Do you have three months to spend in France? Probably not. Now there are a lot of D-Day sites to visit in Normandy, France, as you can imagine-memorials, museums, battlefields, cemeteries, and tons of random other things. I believe the overall goal of travel is to inspire you, change you, make you into a better human being–and a visit to these D-Day sites will do just that. The best D-Day sites to visit in Normandy Get 9 more helpful Normandy travel tips here. Pro tip: If you haven’t planned your trip to Normandy yet, try to Visit as close to D-Day as possible.
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