D-DAY
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The German defenders, dug into ten strong points along Omaha cliff top, believed that around 1000 ships existed throughout the world. Imagine their surprise and shock when dawn broke on the 6th June 1944 and they discovered 6,939 ships of all sizes (there are various numbers for this figure depending on what is counted) headed straight for the Calvados coastline and Utah beach in Manche.... with the intention of delivering over 150,000 men onto the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.
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ABOUT THE TOUR AND YOUR GUIDE
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This story and many others can all be brought into focus when you take a guided battlefield tour with Adrian Ridley-Jones, a retired British Army Officer. He lives in the heart of all this action (living in a farm on land formerly fought over by the Vikings and then the Germans and Americans and owned by a collaborator). Indeed staying at his farmhouse accommodation allows for a more relaxed and personalised tour (as well as a detailed walk through the ambush at La Rougerie).
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Adrian with veteran Roy O'Neil
Specialist Infantryman Welsh Regiment. Forward Signalman Royal Corps Signals and 2coy 1st Airborne Signals
Kings Pin
WW2 veteran and friend who lived locally.
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Adrian is a qualified teacher, member of the European Tour Operators Association and in the Guild of Battlefield Guides. Adrian is extremely well placed to bring these stories alive, as he also guides you through the strategic backdrop to the landings. Indeed he does it so well, that not only do some clients return for further trips adding more detail to their understanding of the events, but he is the European 2018 Winner of Unique Tour Operators in the Luxury Travel Guide.
Whilst you may be able to tour in vehicles with a greater capacity or have an "experience" in a jeep, each tour is normally in a Range Rover, seating a group of four people, so that you can visit those places other tours can't reach and don't go!
The size of the beaches and drop zones doesn't appear to be very large being only around 80 miles long however, when you add the time to visit locations and rest stops it takes two full days to see the area properly. Anything less and you are merely skimming the surface and missing interesting and critical locations and battles. Tours are therefore normally two days or sometimes an extra day for following a relatives footsteps or a specific battle inland like Bluecoat that shielded the American breakout in Operation Cobra or Mortain or even the Cauldron / Falaise Gap. For fuller details see the page outlining the options.
Pointe du Hoc
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Pointe du Hoc is having 10 million Euros spent on the site to try to stabilise the cliffs and improve the site. Visitors are now restricted to the pathways around the site and some locations have been closed off.
It is a shame that, whilst every Ranger who fought there was following his orders, the senior Ranger, Lt Col Rudder failed to brief his men correctly on their 6 orders for the day. This led to, over the next few days, all sorts of mishaps and errors including casualties who could have been avoided had the Rangers been allowed to advance on Grandcamp and follow their real Corps and Divisional orders. The real objective was the last site in their orders, Maisy battery (actually a complex) which had 10 x 155mm guns and 4 x 75mm guns and was the largest site in Normandy, almost three times the next largest site of Douvres-La-Deliverand which only had 238 Luftwaffe personnel. |
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maisy battery
Maisy battery is continuing to create a lot of interest. (Discovery channel 5 Feb 2020 8 pm EST, reported in amongst others The Independent:
independent.co.uk and The Washington Post: washingtonpost.com
As one of the few guides to actually visit this site with clients, I will be pleased to be able to report during your tour on current developments from one of the three sites that comprise the Maisy complex.
However, why is Maisy so important?
independent.co.uk and The Washington Post: washingtonpost.com
As one of the few guides to actually visit this site with clients, I will be pleased to be able to report during your tour on current developments from one of the three sites that comprise the Maisy complex.
However, why is Maisy so important?
- The three books written about the site have ended up rendering obsolete nearly all books written about Omaha and Utah (and arguably if you are an American and your tour doesn't visit the site then you should ask for your money back!)
- This battery was a regional control centre for both artillery and anti aircraft fire (the other two in France being Brest and Calais - both highly important areas for the Germans)
- The battery fired for three days and nights onto both beaches as well as the associated anti aircraft FLAK battery it controlled impacting a lot of aircraft flying around
- The battery After Action Report (AAR) was rewritten when Maj Gen Raan (who revisited the site last in 2019) realised that the mistakes now enshrined in the history books, no longer reflected what actually happened there. He was the original incorrect AAR's author written when a Captain and in haste long after the battle for Maisy was over
- The Rangers are dropping the name of Lt Col Rudder because he failed so badly at the Pointe du Hoc (the Rangers didn't even know of the 6 objectives Rudder had and so one can argue their heroism is that much greater!).
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charles shayThe passing of the last WW2 US soldier who landed on Omaha during the first wave, aged just 19, happened in early Dec 2025. A combat medic he is immortalised in a couple of places on Omaha beach. He died having failed to outlive his father, who died aged 105. They were Penobscot Indians.
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