Band of Brothers Tour – M/cycle Tour

DAY 2

10.00hrs        Depart hotel

11.45hrs        Arrive D-Day Museum Portsmouth

The D-Day Museum in Portsmouth –   The focus of The D-Day Story is the liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. It is told using the personal possessions and words of the people who took part. Stunning imagery, audio-visual presentations and hands-on interactives help to bring the story to life.  Based on ordinary people working together to achieve the extraordinary, The D-Day Story features the experiences of men, women and children.  The story is told in three parts, Preparation, D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, Legacy and the Overlord Embroidery.

 Royal Naval Dockyard –  HMS Victory –

The public has been able to visit HMS Victory and learn about its illustrious history first hand since the 19th century.  In the 1920s, in order to best preserve her, she was put in a dry dock and restored to her appearance at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. She was unveiled to the public in all her glory by King George V on 17 July 1928.  She retains her status as a fully commissioned ship in the Royal Navy and serves as the flagship of the Naval Home Command, but to her visitors she remains a precious museum and testament to Britain’s Naval Past

20.30hrs        Check-in at Brittany Ferries

22.45hrs        Depart Portsmouth for Caen

DAY 3

06.30hrs        Arrive Caen – breakfast in the terminal building

09.30hrs        Museum of June ’44 This museum recounts the decisive moments of the Normandy battle, you will discover the hard reality of the second world war. From the Appeal of June 18 to the German defeat, the museum shows through 13 recreated moments of the war, the authentic voice of the major actors of this trouble period. The wax figures are full scale: Marechal Petain, Le Général de Gaulle, Roosevelt, Churchill, Général LeClerc

12.30hrs        Memorial Montormel  –   The Coudehard-Montormel Memorial is a historical museum on Mont Ormel in France, dedicated to the battle of the Falaise pocket, the last episode in the battle of Normandy. It is sited on the summit of Hill 262, where the pocket was officially closed on 21 August 1944, with two sites – an open-air monument at the hill’s summit (overlooking the vallée de la Dives and the plain where the last phases of the battle played out), which was inaugurated in 1965 on the battle’s twentieth anniversary, and the museum itself, in the side of the hill, opened in 1994 on the battle’s fiftieth anniversary.

15.30hrs        Falaise Museum – Paul Reed’s Battlefields of WW2 The museum was started by Eddy Florentin, historian and author, to commemorate the fighting for the Falaise pocket. Inside is an incredible array of vehicles, uniforms and equipments. Outside is a DUKW and 88mm Flak. Inside, everything from a Lloyd carrier, M3 half-track, to a Panzer IVH, Sdkfz251/7 to a huge model (1/35th scale) of the entry of Canadian troops into Falaise in 1944.

18.30hrs        Arrive Novotel Bayeux, 117 Rue Saint-Patrice, 14400 Bayeux, x 2 nights

DAY 4

09.30hrs        Depart hotel

10.15hrs        Arrive Canada House This is probably the first house which was liberated by troops who landed on the beach. These troops where from the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada. Around the house, more than 100 Canadian soldiers were killed or wounded in the first minutes of the invasion. This house was first named “Maison de Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada” but is now named “Canada House – Maison des Canadiens”. On the House are three plaques: one to the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, one to The Fort Garry Horse and finally one to the Régiment de la Chaudière.

It is not possible to go inside the house

11.20hrs        Arrive Beny-Sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery containing predominantly Canadian soldiers killed during the early stages of the Battle of Normandy in the Second World War. It is located in and named after Bény-sur-Mer in the Calvados department, near Caen in lower Normandy.

Lunch in Courselles-Sur-Mer

14.30hrs        Juno Beach Museum – is a museum located in Courseulles-sur-Mer in the Calvados region of Normandy, France. It is situated immediately behind the beach codenamed Juno, the section of the Allied beachhead on which 14,000 Canadian troops landed on D-Day 6 June 1944

17.30hrs        Arrive at hotel

DAY 5

08.30hrs        Check-out and depart hotel

10.45hrs        Arrive Memorial 39-45 Alet,

This museum is located in the bunker of a German anti-air guns complex, built inside an old French fort. The museum tells about the Second World War in Saint-Malo and the surrounding area. The bunker itself is also partly restored in its original state.

St Malo, In World War II, during fighting in late August and early September 1944, the historic walled city of Saint-Malo was almost totally destroyed by American shelling and bombing as well as British naval gunfire. The beaches of nearby Dinard had been heavily fortified against possible Allied commando raids. Artillery at the two locations provided mutual support. The fortification complex was garrisoned by more than twelve thousand German troops from different services and units as well as stragglers from other battles in the Cotentin. About eight thousand Germans were in St. Malo itself when the battle began.

Colonel Andreas von Aulock, the German commander refused to surrender when asked to do so by the town’s authorities. He said he “would defend St. Malo to the last man even if the last man had to be himself.”

The first American attack was launched by the 83rd Infantry Division on 5 August 1944. German positions at Chateauneuf quickly fell. Cancale was abandoned and occupied by the Americans on the 6th. In the same way and on the same day, Dinan fell to Free French forces. The Germans shortened their lines and drew closer to the ancient Citadel at St. Servan-sur-Mer, now reinforced with concrete.

Effective German artillery emplacements on the island of Cezembre were out of reach of American ground forces. German garrisons on the Channel Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, and Alderney were able to use small craft to bring in water and remove the wounded from the battle.

On 13 August, the walled city was on fire and a short truce was declared to allow French civilians to flee the city. Outlying German positions at St. Ideuc and La Varde fell to infantry attacks. This fighting ended resistance on the north shore of the peninsula. Only the citadel remained. Surrounded by American artillery and under frequent air attack, this last holdout surrendered on the afternoon of 17 August.  Cezembre surrendered on 2 September when the three-hundred-man garrison ran out of drinking water.  The Americans had taken more than ten thousand prisoners during the two-week fight.

Afternoon at leisure to explore the town

18.00hrs        Check-in to hotel

DAY 6

08.00hrs        Check-out and depart hotel

09.00hrs        Arrive Mont-Saint-Michel

During the second world war, the Mont Saint Michel was occupied by the German troops. The first German soldiers arrived at the Mont-Saint-Michel on June 20, 1940. At first, three German officers came by car in order to make some purchases and then left. The next day, three doctors came to visit the abbey. Serious things began a few days later with the arrival of a transmission regiment, which was installed at the top of the abbey. The installation was connected by cable to a car parked in front of the requisitioned hotel of La mère Poularde. A few weeks later, the post was moved to the west platform in a barrack. After the D-day landings in Normandy on June 6th 1944, informed by the quick advance of the American troops, the German soldiers hastily left the Mont-Saint-Michel. Therefore, there was no enemy there when three American journalists arrived on July 31st.

12.30hrs        Depart Mont-Saint-Michel

15.00hrs        Arrive Cherbourg – comfort stop en-route

17.00hrs        Depart Cherbourg on the WB Yeats for Dublin

DAY 7

11.00hrs        Arrive Dublin Port   

Please note that the itinerary may be subject to change.