Private Day Tour 82nd and 101st Airborne Utah Operations

Our first stop will be the village of Sainte-Mère-Eglise, which has become the symbol par excellence of the American airborne operation. On site, we will begin with a briefing over coffee or tea to review the events that took place there on the night of June 5-6, 1944. We will then take the time to discover the heart of the village: the Church, the central square, the German command post, the Hospice (which was used by the paratroopers as an infirmary)... We will then take the direction of the Pont de La Fière.

The La Fière bridge was one of the main objectives of the 82nd Airborne. From June 6 to 9, this place was marked by very heavy fighting between American paratroopers and elements of the 91st German Infantry Division, determined to keep control of this crossing on the Merderet.

Here, on June 6, 1944 a little after one o'clock in the morning, after being hit by the German anti-aircraft defense, crashed the C-47 piloted by Lieutenant Marson F. Sargent. The four crew members and 16 paratroopers of the 506th PIR they were carrying all died in the crash. "Off the beaten track", this site richly deserves to be taken a few minutes to remember their sacrifice... This C-47 is one of 21 "Dakotas" shot down during the American paratrooper drop phase.

t the very place where the spontaneous action of a small group of men from the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment caused the death of German General Wilhelm Falley - commander of the 91st Infantry Division - hastily returned from Rennes at the announcement of the first Allied parachute drops.

Located 2 km north of Sainte-Mère-Eglise, Neuville-au-Plain is a pretty little Norman village (with less than 100 inhabitants!) where during the day of June 6, 1944, Lieutenant Turnbull and his little group of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne.

A little away from the small village of Ravenoville, Ferme Marmion was, on the morning of June 6, 1944, the scene of fierce fighting between German soldiers and a group of paratroopers from the 101st Airborne. It is in this farm - which has not undergone any transformation since June 1944 - that some of the photos that have remained among the most emblematic and famous of D-Day were taken.

After this route in the heart of the Cotentin, we will reach the coast and Utah beach, the beach where the first wave of the 4th American Infantry Division set foot at 06:30 sharp. Infinitely more peaceful than 79 years ago, the landscape remains marked by history. While evoking together the course of the amphibious operation, you will be able to walk through the dunes and discover the remains of the German defense system - bunkers, anti-tank wall... - set up to prevent the success of the Allied assault. In vain, because on the evening of June 6, 1944, no less than 23,000 American soldiers will have landed on this beach.

Our new stage takes us barely 4 kilometers from Utah beach, near the Manoir de Brécourt, where on the morning of June 6, 1944 Lieutenant Richard D Winters and a few men from the "Easy company" (101st Airborne) led a memorable assault against a German artillery battery. In 2001, this feat of arms will be brought to the screen in episode 2 of the cult series "Band of Brothers" created by the duo Steven Spielberg - Tom Hanks.

Perhaps the most moving last stop of the day was a visit to the small Church of Angoville on the Plain, where two American parachute nurses, Robert Wright and Kenneth Moore, set up a rescue post in the early hours of D-Day. In the midst of the fighting, in the relative shelter of the Church, the two paratroopers treated more than 80 wounded Americans and Germans. 82 years later, the blood of these men still marks many pews of the Church...

For the vast majority of our clients – often established outside France – visiting the Normandy battlefields is an almost unique event in their lives. Also, in order to give them the opportunity to also discover the Museum Collections that evoke D-Day in the parachute drop zones and in Utah, we allow them the opportunity to devote about an hour to visiting one of the museums in the area presenting the operations of June 6, 1944 and exhibiting important Collections of uniforms, equipment, vehicles, and materials. If you wish, you will have the choice between three museums: The Airborne Museum, Sainte-Mere-Eglise; The Utah Beach Museum, on the beach where the assault took place; The D-Day Experience Museum, north of Carentan. As a museum visit is optional, the Award of Entry is not included in the tour. But you will benefit from the discounted rate granted to Memory Tracks.