Panzers in Normandy

Depart from your chosen UK pick-up point and travel to the port where a coach interchange will take place, you will then join your tour coach for the Channel crossing. On arrival on the Continent we continue to our hotel (passengers joining the tour in Europe will meet the group at the hotel this evening).

We start on the British D-Day beaches looking at the use of specialist armour. On Gold Beach we discuss the use of self-propelled guns of the Royal Artillery in the ‘run-in shoot’ seeing an example of a Sexton. At Juno Beach we look at the roll of Churchill AVREs and also Sherman DD tanks seeing original examples of both. Following lunch we look at the use of tanks inland post D-Day and the fortunes of the 7th Armoured Division in its clash with German Tiger tanks at Villers-Bocage in June 1944. We then examine the largest British tank battle of the Normandy campaign when the British attacked during Operation Goodwood seeing the battlefield around the Bourguebus Ridge and visiting the graves in Bannerville War Cemetery.

*Breakfast Included

A long but rewarding day as we travel south to visit the superb French Tank Museum at Saumur. This is France’s main museum of armoured fighting vehicles and covers WWI to the present day. Among the more than 200 tanks found here, many were used in Normandy and among them are a Panther tank, Tiger I and Tiger II as well as Allied Churchills and Shermans. We have plenty of time to explore this rich collection before returning to Normandy.

*Breakfast Included

Today we look at the American use of armoured divisions and start on Omaha Beach where Sherman DD tanks ran into problems on D-Day. We visit the Omaha Beach Museum and see a Sherman before moving onto La Cambe for a look at the decorated German panzer crews buried there including Tiger Ace Michael Wittmann. After lunch we visit the ever expanding Overlord Museum with an unrivalled collection of original WWII tanks in Normandy. We then follow Operation Cobra in the St. Jean de Daye and Le Dézert area. We also visit the site of Barkmann’s corner and look at how a single Panther tank held up the American advance here in 1944.

*Breakfast Included

We leave the hotel after breakfast and travel to the Channel port. You will leave your tour coach behind as you transfer to your transfer vehicle for your return journey to your original departure point.

*Breakfast Included