Two thirds of the seaborne troops from the United States on D-Day were launched against a four-mile long beach overlooked by steep bluffs and blocked off at either end by limestone cliffs, the place they call ‘Bloody Omaha.’ The 29th Infantry Division and the 1st Infantry Division would be badly mauled in their assault; mined obstacles on the beach and mines in the bluffs, a shingle bank or sea wall to overcome, barbed wire, and concrete fortifications beyond. At its western end, the first wave was all but wiped out, and succeeding waves piled up on the sea wall, paralysed for a time.

Located in the heart of the D-Day Landing beaches, the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer overlooks Omaha Beach. Not to be missed during your tour of the Normandy Landing beaches, the cemetery is home to the graves of 9,387 soldiers, fallen in combat, a chapel, a memorial and the Garden of the Missing.

Utah Beach, the westernmost beach of the five landing areas of the Normandy Invasion of World War II. It was assaulted on June 6, 1944 (D-Day of the invasion), by elements of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division and was taken with relatively few casualties.

The liberation of Europe from German occupation began in spectacular fashion for the inhabitants of Sainte-Mère-Eglise. A misdrop brought paratroops raining down onto the village square, their chutes lit by the light of a house fire! Private John Steele would be the most famous of them all, left dangling from the pinnacle of the church tower.

The Airborne Museum first opened its doors back in 1962, in the centre of Sainte-Mère-Eglise. It takes visitors into the very heart of the fighting by the US paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions in the early hours of June 6th 1944. Unique of its kind in Europe, it features a life-sized scene depicting a stick of paratroopers belonging to the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the US 101st Airborne Division enplaning at an English aerodrome in June 1944.