Exploring the battlefields of Normandy and France
Battle Guide Virtual Tours
Since 2020, I have been working for Battle Guide Virtual Tours to create new ways to experience the French Battlefields. Both Live tours and On-Demand are available to purchase.
Sainte-Mère-Église
Immortalised in one of the most famous scenes of the movie The Longest Day, the town of Sainte-Mère-Eglise is now one of the main places of interest of the Normandy landings. But beyond the movie, on D-Day, Sainte-Mère-Eglise became one of the most crucial objectives to capture for the men of the 82nd Airborne.
Gold Beach
On the early morning of June 6th, 1944, thousands of young British men found themselves heading toward the coast of Normandy. Many of them had already seen years of service and fighting, from the fjords of Norway to the desert sand of Libya. For others, D-Day would be their very first experience of combat. In front of them now lay the coastal towns of Asnelles and Ver-sur-Mer within the landing sector designated by allied planners as ‘Gold Beach’.
Juno Beach - 8th Brigade landing
On the morning of Tuesday 6th June 1944 as the daylight broke, the men of the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division were about to touchdown on to the Normandy coastline. The sands at Courseulles-sur-Mer and Bernieres-sur-Mer will now be forever known as ‘Juno Beach’.
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We follow in the footsteps of the 8th Infantry Brigade as the Queens Own Rifles of Canada, Le Regiment de la Chaudiere and the North Shore Regiment push inland liberating villages along the way.
Battle for Carentan
Laying between Utah and Omaha beach, the town of Carentan was one of the crucial objectives to capture for the US Army in the early phases of the Normandy Campaign. Surrounded by marshes and defended by German paratroopers, the town would prove to be one of the toughest tests for the men of the 101st Airborne. The town itself was ultimately liberated by elements the 506th PIR, including E Company, popularized in the famous HBO show “Band of Brothers”.
Soon available
Battle for Saint-Lô
Following the remarkable success of Operation Overlord in the summer of 1944, allied forces in Normandy began the long awaited advance inland to free Europe. Almost immediately upon leaving the beaches, US forces were to encounter the formidable Normandy ‘bocage’ – or hedgerows landscape. The advance inevitably slowed as German forces made skillful use of the ideal defensive terrain, in what became known as the ‘Battle of the Hedgerows’. In the thick of this fighting en-route to their major objective of St-Lô were American troops of the 29th and 35th Infantry Divisions.