Welcome to London! We meet today for a Welcome Lunch at the historic Savoy Hotel where we hear stories of the role that this iconic hotel played during wartime. This afternoon we visit the Cabinet War Rooms. Discover the secrets hidden beneath the streets of Westminster in the underground nerve centre where Winston Churchill and his inner circle directed the Second World War. We check in this evening at our hotel for dinner with some free time afterward to enjoy London’s nightlife.
After breakfast, we depart by luxury coach for the Channel Ferry Ports for the crossing to France. In May 1940, Germany advanced into France, trapping Allied troops on the beaches of Dunkirk. Under air and ground cover from British and French forces, troops were slowly and methodically evacuated from the beach using every serviceable naval and civilian vessel that could be found. We hear stories of this rescue from our accompanying historian as we travel to Caen.
We visit the Memorial Museum in Caen this afternoon, an apt start to our Expedition around the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day landings. We cover the dark years following France’s capitulation to gain an understanding of what daily life was like for the French people. We look into the Resistance and the role it played in Liberation as well as Genocide and Mass Violence.
After breakfast we highlight the Battle of Normandy, starting at St Mere Eglise before travelling to famous Omaha Beach including a visit to the Ranger Memorial at Point due Hoc. It was erected by the French to honor elements of the American Second Ranger Battalion under the command of Lt. Col. James E. Rudder. During the American assault of Omaha and Utah beaches on June 6, 1944, these U.S. Army Rangers scaled the 100-foot cliffs and seized the German artillery pieces that could have fired on the American landing troops at Omaha and Utah beaches. At a high cost of life, they successfully defended against determined German counterattacks.
There is time for reflection today when we have lunch on Utah Beach. We also take an alternate view with a visit to the German Cemetery at La Cambe.
After breakfast, we complete our visit to the landing beaches including Utah before visiting the British & Canadian landing sites. Juno or Juno Beach was one of five beaches of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 during the Second World War. The beach spanned from Courseulles, a village just east of the British beach Gold, to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, and just west of the British beach Sword. Taking Juno was the responsibility of the Canadian Army, with sea transport, mine sweeping, and a naval bombardment force provided by the Royal Canadian Navy and the British Royal Navy as well as elements from the Free French, Norwegian, and other Allied navies.
We visit Saint Lo, known as the Capital of Ruins. Due to its strategic importance as a crossroads, a bombardment by the Americans, focusing on the railway station and the power plant, in July 1944. The objective was to cut off German reinforcements in Brittany from the front.
Warning leaflets were dropped earlier in June but high winds dispersed them to neighboring communities, failing to alert local residents. Over two hundred prisoners were killed at the local prison, including seventy-six imprisoned French patriots (all that remains of the prison today is the gate). We visit the Brittany American Cemetery & Memorial before travelling to Paris.
After breakfast, we discover the city of Paris and gain an understanding of what life was like in the French Capital during the War. For the Parisians, the Occupation was a series of frustrations, shortages and humiliations.
Following the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, the French Resistance in Paris launched an uprising on August 19, 1944, seizing the police headquarters and other government buildings. The city was liberated by French and American troops on August 25, and General Charles de Gaulle led a triumphant parade down the Champs-Élysées on August 26, and organized a new government.
Our tour includes the sites of the 4th US Division in Paris as well as the Suresnes American Cemetery & other iconic locations.
We leave the war in France behind today as we travel to neighbouring Belgium and the Ardennes. We arrive in the Battle of the Bulge area and start with a visit to the Bastogne Barracks Museum.
On December 16, 1944 the Germans launch their last major offensive in the West. Bastogne is a capital stake the Americans have to defend at all cost. On December 19, 1944 Brigade General Anthony McAuliffe, ad interim commander of the 101st Airborne Division arrives in Bastogne with his division and he establishes his headquarters at the Heintz Barracks. On December 22, 1944 he writes history: he answers “Nuts” to the German troops encircling Bastogne and demanding surrender. His short but powerful statement becomes a turning point in the Battle of the Bulge.
The Easy Company was activated in 1942 for the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the U.S. Army at Camp Toccoa, Georgia as part of the airborne infantry. It was used as an experimental unit flying in C-47 transport planes to drop soldiers into hostile territory. They gained post-war fame in the “Band of Brothers” series and we visit their fox holes in the Foy area.
After a final visit to Battle of the Bulge sites this morning, we enter Germany and travel to Oppenheim. The US Third Army carried out four river assaults in late March. The 5th Infantry Division undertook the first on March 22, 1945, crossing the Rhine at Oppenheim, south of Mainz. They crossed without the usual artillery preparation, a manoeuver that caught German troops by surprise. This afternoon we analyze the Rhine Crossings before travelling on to our hotel in Cologne.
The German city of Cologne was bombed in 262 separate air raids by the Allies during World War II, all by the Royal Air Force (RAF) but for a single failed post-capture test of a guided missile by the United States Army Air Forces. A total of 34,711 long tons of bombs were dropped on the city by the RAF.
We visit the spectacular Cologne Cathedral this morning. The cathedral suffered fourteen hits by aerial bombs during the war. It did not collapse, but stood tall in an otherwise flattened city. The twin spires are said to have been used as an easily recognizable navigational landmark by Allied aircraft raiding deeper into Germany in the later years of the war, which may be a reason that the cathedral was not destroyed.
This afternoon we travel to Remagen. The Rhine near Remagen is about 300 metres (980 ft) wide. During Operation Lumberjack, on March 7, 1945, troops of the U.S. Army’s 9th Armored Division reached the bridge during the closing weeks of World War II and were surprised to see that the railroad bridge was still standing. The ability to quickly establish a bridgehead on the eastern side of the Rhine and to get forces into Germany allowed the U.S. forces to envelop the German industrial area of the Ruhr. The Allies got six divisions across the damaged bridge before it collapsed on March 17, 1945, ten days after it was captured.
We travel back to the United Kingdom today, arriving back at our hotel for our farewell dinner.
After breakfast today, our tour ends.
