D-Day Landing Beaches, Normandy

The 60th anniversary of Operation Overlord may now have passed, but the five legendary landing beaches of Sword, Gold, Juno, Utah and Omaha will always be one of the most compelling reasons why many people choose to visit Normandy.

Where to visit

Even if you, or any close member of your family, have no direct link with this historic occasion, it is still almost impossible not to be deeply moved when you gaze upon the sands and sea where literally thousands of men gave their lives in the space of just one day.

Arromanches

From a British perspective, a good place to start your tour is the small village of Arromanches, just a few miles away from Bayeux. This is Gold Beach where the British 50th Division landed. Remains of the famous seven-mile long Mulberry Harbour that was used to land almost unbelievable amounts of men, tanks and other heavy equipment, are still clearly visible. Like almost every town in the vicinity, Arromanches has its own D-Day museum, complete with a wealth of photographs, original equipment, and in this case, an excellent and informative film show.

Juno Beach

A little east along the coast, just about halfway between Arromanches and Sword Beach (the second British landing site), is Juno Beach. Here it was the Canadian 2nd Division that came ashore, and in spite of facing heavy and fierce opposition at Courselles-sur-Mer, broke through to make the deepest penetration of any land forces on June 6th.

Omaha Beach

A few miles west of Arromanches is probably the most famous, and certainly the bloodiest, landing beach of all - Omaha. The cliffs here are still riddled with German bunkers, and deeply scarred with shell holes from the bombardment that this most heavily defended beach of all underwent. With German strongpoints commanding the high ground overlooking all approaches, the advance group of US 1st and 29th Divisions, supported by the 5th Rangers and 5th Engineer Special Brigade, faced a terrifying task. The only way forward was by scaling the cliffs and taking out the German positions in a series of direct attacks. The fact that there were around 2,000 US casualties within the first few hours of the landing here speaks for itself.