I'm heading back to Dieppe this year for the 75th! We will be taking the Ferry over to Dieppe from England, I haven't done that before, so it will be very cool approaching the town from the water. Will be a whole new perspective. Very excited.
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We are heading there this fall to do Northern France and Belgium to visit these sites. Any tips on what to see, and how long we need at these places?
You could see the D-Day area in a day or two if you needed to but longer would be best as you could take your time. If you just wanted to see Omaha, the US cemetery at Colleville, and then Juno and the museum at Courseulles-sur-Mer you could do that in a day. I'd add in Bayeux and Arromanches. The Germany gun battery at Longues was also interesting to see. Then there are just the towns in the area from Mont Saint Michel in the west to Honfleur further east closer to Belgium and then Dieppe. You could go west to east, end in Vimy, and then move up into Belgium. I've only been to Vimy, others have done Flanders and The Somme I'm sure. I'd recommend Brugges. It's a great town. Antwerp was good too.
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Men of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles on the march in Normandy in July 1944. Brazilian artist Marina Amaral painstakingly researched the images as she gave them a new lease of life with colour using Photoshop
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
Corporal Jean-Marc H. BECHARD, 6 Aug 1993
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Originally Posted by Sliver
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Our group at Dieppe in 2012. 5:00 am on the beach August 19, Red Beach, having a toast to the men. This picture looking up from the water toward the town. Very heavy mist, quite an eerie feeling. Whisky at 5:00 am, almost came back up.
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Thanks, our plan is to take the Ferry from Portsmouth to St-Malo and work our way east, eventually to Brugges. We will probably skip Antwerp and just drive through Brussels(stopping for a bit) then to Luxembourg and into Germany. I think we will have about 6 days between St-Malo and Brugges.
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You could see the D-Day area in a day or two if you needed to but longer would be best as you could take your time.
Yeah, you might also run into another tour/crowd and might want to linger in some places more than others. It would also feel . . . wrong to be rushed?
The tour I was on was an American one that visited Utah and Omaha but wasn't going to visit Juno. The owner of the hotel we were staying at found out that I was Canadian and offered to drive me up to Juno and the surrounding area a bunch of hours earlier before everyone had even woken up.
I have never been in so much fear in my life going double the speed limit in his tiny little car on super small roads but he got me there and even visited some of the Canadian cemeteries nearby.
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I have never been in so much fear in my life going double the speed limit in his tiny little car on super small roads but he got me there and even visited some of the Canadian cemeteries nearby.
This is what people in Canada forget sometimes or just don't know.
The countries that our army fought through and liberated remember our soldier's sacrifice.
Stories like this are great.
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
Corporal Jean-Marc H. BECHARD, 6 Aug 1993
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sliver
Just ignore me...I'm in a mood today.
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The tour company that my Dad's regiment went through is great. They have used them several times. They arranged a custom tour to see specific sites of various battles for my Dad's regiment. They add in the more famous sites as well, to round things out. Excellent guides.
One of the things to also remember was that after the Canadians gained Juno beach and pushed in they encountered Kurt Meyer who commanded a Division in the Hitlerjugend. The Canadians destroyed 30 of his tanks and blunted a SS counter attack.
On June 7th 11 Canadian Prisoners of War from the Nova Scotia Highlanders and Sherbrook Fusiler were shot in the back of the head in what became known as the Ardene Abbey Massacre
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We had an awesome personal guide. My favourite stops were Caen, Pointe du Hoc, Juno and the abbey.
I think I cried at the last two.
I managed to bring back a couple of bullets buried for decades. Our guide knew where to dig. It was done on private property with the farmer's permission.
Last edited by MoneyGuy; 06-06-2017 at 11:42 AM.
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I am torn on that. I can see why you would want a souvenir/remembrance of your visit.
That being said, if everyone digs up a couple of bullets eventually I wonder....
I hear you but it was private property, dug with the farmer's permission. Our guide had us replace the ground as we found it. It was in the Falaise Pocket.
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There were also specific stores in the Normandy area where you could purchase military goods that had been dug up in and around the area. It was somewhat surreal seeing all the gear they had, German helmets, potato mashers, ammo, etc.
I have some machine gun ammo sitting on my desk from my trip. Each and every bullet has holes drilled at the base (to empty any gunpowder).
