This complete tour of the Omaha Beach sector will allow you to understand the difficulties facing the American troops who assaulted this part of the Normandy coast.

Because of the huge losses suffered by the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions during the landing, this beach earned its infamous nickname “Bloody Omaha”. As well as this, you will see the impressive long-range fortified heavy gun battery that was on the western side of the beach at Pointe du Hoc, capable of inflicting great damage on the Allied forces.

The history of this landing is very well explained using archive photographs and maps in the Omaha Beach Museum at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, as well as having examples of the American and Axis material and equipment used during the battle.

You will also experience the American Cemetery where the young soldiers who died for their country and for the freedom of Western Europe are buried at Colleville-sur-Mer overlooking Omaha Beach itself. Finally, you will find the sobering German Cemetery of La Cambe a stark contrast to the American Cemetery, where over 21 000 German soldiers are laid to rest.

POINTE DU HOC : Re-live on this exceptional site the exploits of the 2nd Battalion of the US Rangers. After having scaled the 100-foot cliffs, under heavy enemy fire, the Rangers pushed on through this lunar landscape to capture and destroy the 6 heavy guns capable of firing their shells to a maximum range of nearly 15 miles. Colonel Rudder and his men only realised upon capturing the battery that the Germans, under the orders of Rommel, had moved the guns half a mile inland and hidden them while bunkers were being constructed to protect them. The taking of Pointe du Hoc was a long and laborious fight, with the Rangers being left to fend for themselves two days longer than had been planned. The 2nd Battalion suffered very heavy casualties during the two and a half days they were at Pointe du Hoc, only 90 of the original 225 still fighting when they were finally relieved.

OMAHA BEACH : Approximately 34 000 soldiers of the 1st, 2nd and 29th Infantry Divisions landed on this beach on D-Day. The beach was covered in anti-tank and anti-landing craft obstacles. Nearly all of the pre-invasion bombardment had missed the fortifications along the beach and the geography of the beach itself, consisting of 80 to 100-foot bluffs rising up from the shore, was very easily defendable terrain for the Germans. One of the only good quality front line Infantry Divisions available to the Germans was also present on the beach, purely by coincidence. This made the assault the most difficult of all the beaches on D-Day, earning the nickname “Bloody Omaha”. Only a few days after the landings, the Americans had transformed nearly the entire beach into a vast artificial harbour, code named “Mulberry A”. It was used for less than a week before it was destroyed in a very heavy storm between the 19th and 22nd of June 1944. There is only one piece of this harbour left to be seen today.

OMAHA BEACH MUSEUM : The Omaha Beach Museum, situated at one of the strategic beach exits, code named “Dog 3” on D-Day, has on display a large collection of uniforms, vehicles and arms of all calibers as well as one of the types of landing craft used during the landings. Numerous photographs and maps illustrate very well the German defences on Omaha, the American assault as well as the artificial port which was set up here to supply the Forces landed in France in the American sectors. You can also see examples of the military equipment lost by both sides on the beach and inland, which is still being found by locals today.

AMERICAN CEMETERY : Overlooking the eastern end of Omaha Beach, the American cemetery holds the bodies of 9 387 soldiers who came from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean to liberate Western Europe from the Germans. This immense place of memory and reflexion will impress you with its calm and serenity. You can see the graves of some of the 307 unknown soldiers or visit the resting places of the more famous, such as the Niland brothers, the family who inspired the film “Saving Private Ryan” as well as the three Medals of Honor winners, one of whom is General Theodore Roosevelt Jr.

GERMAN CEMETERY : The main German Military Graveyard in Normandy, this cemetery initially started out as one of a number of temporary American cemeteries. Between the end of the war and 1947, the American bodies were transferred to the Cemetery at Omaha or back to the United States. After coming in through the narrow entrance you emerge into the very somber surroundings of this place. There are more than 21 000 soldiers buried here who paid with their life for Hitler’s order to “Never Retreat, Never Surrender”. When face-to-face with these casualties of war, it will allow you to think of the German as well as the Allied losses of the Second World War.

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