Memorial tour along the Normandy landing beaches, 75 years after D-Day
Every five years, members of the Dutch military vehicle owners association, Keep Them Rolling, are invited by the French municipality of Courseulles-sur-Mer to attend and contribute to the D-Day celebrations and commemorations in Normandy. On the first of June, we arrived in Normandy to attend the 75th anniversary of D-Day. The D-Day landings took place during the Second World War on 6 June 1944, when the Western Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy. D-Day was the first day of Operation Overlord, the Allied code-name for the successful invasion of Normandy and the beginning of the liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe.
Together with other members of Keep Them Rolling, we and our vehicles were accommodated at a specially equipped and guarded campsite. From here, we visited several museums and memorials concerning the invasion of Normandy, as well as the historic landing beaches. We also visited military cemeteries containing the graves of soldiers who were killed during the Battle of Normandy, including the Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery and the impressive and enormous Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, situated at Colleville-sur-Mer. Our journey took us to Pointe du Hoc, one of the most striking and dramatic locations on the Atlantic Wall. Pointe du Hoc is a 30-metre-high cliff situated between Omaha Beach and Utah Beach.
We were invited to the Liberty Concert Normandy, a memorial concert, which took place on Sword Beach in Ouistreham. Our friend's Willys MB Jeep and our own 1942 Ford GPW Jeep were displayed in front of the tent where the memorial concert was held. On 6 June, a static show of military vehicles was held at the campsite in Courseulles-sur-Mer, organised by members of Keep Them Rolling. On 8 June, after a military vehicle parade, memorial wreaths were cast into the sea, in front of Juno Beach and the renowned Canada House in Bernières-sur-Mer. The 75th anniversary of D-Day was concluded with a water show and a series of breathtaking fireworks displays; they were launched from the landing beaches and were visible from miles away.
Travelling in a Ford GPW RAF Jeep to Normandy for the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Every five years, owners of WWII vehicles are invited by French municipalities in Normandy to contribute to the D-Day commemorations. In early June 2019, we arrived in Courseulles-sur-Mer with our Jeep to attend the 75th anniversary of D-Day. D-Day took place on 6 June 1944 during WWII. It marked the first day of Operation Overlord, the codename for the successful Allied invasion of Normandy and the beginning of the liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe.
Travelling in a Ford GPW RAF Jeep to Normandy for the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Every five years, owners of WWII vehicles are invited by French municipalities in Normandy to contribute to the D-Day commemorations. In early June 2019, we arrived in Courseulles-sur-Mer with our Jeep to attend the 75th anniversary of D-Day. D-Day took place on 6 June 1944 during WWII. It marked the first day of Operation Overlord, the codename for the successful Allied invasion of Normandy and the beginning of the liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe.
Normandy, the 75th anniversary of D-Day: Our own Ford GPW Jeep at the gate of a temporary campsite in Courseulles-sur-Mer in Normandy. Together with other members of Keep Them Rolling, we were accommodated on this specially equipped campsite with our WWII vehicles. From Courseulles-sur-Mer, we undertook day trips to pay tribute to the historic D-Day landing beaches and the memorials along the coast of Normandy.
Travelling in a Ford GPW Jeep through Normandy: A 1942 Ford GPW Jeep in front of the Juno Beach Centre in Courseulles-sur-Mer. The Juno Beach Centre is a Canadian WWII museum, situated directly behind Juno Beach, where the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division landed on D-Day, 6 June 1944. It is not only a museum dedicated to the D-Day landings and Canada's participation in WWII, but also a place of remembrance. This iconic building had the shape of a maple leaf.
Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: A Willys MB Jeep and a Ford GPW Jeep on Juno Beach. This beach stretches on either side of the municipality of Courseulles-sur-Mer in Normandy. During WWII, Juno was the Allied codename for one of the five landing beaches along the Normandy coast. On D-Day, 6 June 1944, the Allied Forces stormed the beaches of Normandy.
Travelling in a Ford GPW Jeep through Normandy: Our Jeep in front of a Sexton self-propelled gun at Ver-sur-Mer. The Sexton was a gift to the small village of Ver-sur-Mer by Matthew Kiln in memory of his father Major Robert Kiln, and the British soldiers of the 86th Field Regiment Royal Artillery who landed on D-Day on Gold Beach at Ver-sur-Mer. The Sexton stands in a memorial square, called the Espace Robert Kiln. Kiln survived WWII and passed away in 1997.
Travelling in a Ford GPW Jeep through Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: Our Jeep on a plateau overlooking Gold Beach at Arromanches-les-Bains, with the remains of the temporary Mulberry Harbour in the background. The floating artificial harbours were designed and constructed by British military engineers during WWII. The Mulberry Harbour at Arromanches-les-Bains was used to supply the British and Canadian troops. In the first ten months after D-Day, more than 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles and 4 million tonnes of supplies were landed here.
Travelling in a Ford GPW Jeep through Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: The original Pegasus Bridge in the grounds of the Pegasus Memorial Museum in Ranville. The museum is dedicated to the men of the 6th Airborne Division, called the Red Berets because of the maroon berets that they wore in combat. In the early hours of D-Day, men of the 6th Airborne Division landed by glider near Ranville and within ten minutes they captured the bridge, today known as the Pegasus Bridge. Major John Howard had orders to 'hold the bridge until relieved' by Allied forces moving inland from Sword Beach.
Memorial tour in a Ford GPW Jeep through Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: A Centaur Tank at the Pegasus Memorial Museum in Ranville. The Centaur tank was codenamed 'Vidette' by its crew. On D-Day, the tank was immobilised by German gunfire after landing on Sword Beach with the British and French commando forces. The tank was restored in the 1970s and placed on one of the banks of the Caen Canal. In 2003, 'Vidette' was moved to the Pegasus Memorial Museum.
Memorial tour in a Ford GPW Jeep through Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: Our Ford GPW Jeep crossed the new Pegasus Bridge in Bénouville. After landing by glider in Normandy, the original Pegasus Bridge was the first target taken by the Allied Forces in the early hours of D-Day, 6 June 1944. This bridge was replaced by a much stronger and wider bridge in 1994. This bridge was designed and constructed to mirror the appearance of the original Pegasus Bridge.
Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial at Omaha Beach in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy's most impressive war cemetery, is the last resting place of 9,387 American soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice during D-Day and in the Battle of Normandy. A memorial wall in the 'Garden of the Missing' carries the names of 1,557 soldiers who also lost their lives in the Battle of Normandy, but whose remains were never identified or reported missing in action.
Memorial tour in a Ford GPW Jeep through Normandy: The Mémorial de Caen was built over a huge German bunker complex. In 1944, the bunker served as the command headquarters for Generalmajor Wilhelm Richter, the commander of the German 716th Static Infantry Division. The bunker played an important role during the Nazi occupation of France and the Battle of Normandy. The bunker now features an exhibition on the history of the Atlantic Wall and the Nazi occupation.
Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: Paradummy 'Rupert' on display in the Mémorial de Caen. Just before D-Day, the RAF dropped hundreds of these 'Rupert' paradummies in four locations over Normandy. The paradummies exploded as soon as they hit the ground and caught fire to destroy the evidence of the deception. The purpose of this action was to confuse the German command about the actual landing zones in Normandy. Almost at the same time, thousands of Allied paratroopers landed in the correct drop zones.
Memorial tour in a Ford GPW Jeep through Normandy: The Mémorial de Caen Museum exhibits the woolen commando jeep cap of the war photographer Robert Capa. On D-Day, Capa landed on Omaha Beach with nothing more than three cameras. Capa took numerous photos of the action on the beach for about 90 minutes before returning to England. Due to a processing accident of a photo lab assistant, 98 photos were destroyed; only eleven photos were saved. These photos are now known as: 'The Magnificent Eleven'.
Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: This Enigma cipher machine is on display in the Mémorial de Caen Museum. This iconic machine was invented by the German engineer Arthur Scherbius. The Enigma was used during the 1930s and during WWII by Nazi Germany to encrypt messages. Polish codebreakers cracked the Enigma code already in 1932, using French intelligence. Much later, British intelligence officers at Bletchley Park also deciphered the code. This enabled the Allies to decode intercepted German messages, which probably shortened WWII.
Normandy, the 75th anniversary of D-Day, Sword Beach: Seated in front of the tent where the Liberty Concert Normandy 2019 took place were three heroes of the iconic Royal Netherlands 'Princess Irene' Brigade: Rudi Hemmes, Karel Zwart, and Max Wolff. The brigade arrived via the Mulberry harbour at Arromanches in August 1944. Following its arrival, the unit was deployed to the front line near the River Orne, before advancing through Belgium into the Netherlands. Its military campaign culminated with the historic entry into The Hague. These three remarkable veterans, among the very last of their brigade, have since passed away at the age of nearly 100.
Normandy, the 75th anniversary of D-Day: On 5 June, we were invited to the Liberty Concert Normandy 2019, a memorial concert held on Sword Beach in Ouistreham. The Willys MB Jeep of a friend and our own 1942 Ford GPW Jeep were on display in front of the festival tent, where the imposing performance was staged. The event took place at a location along Sword Beach where no Allied troops had landed and no soldiers were killed in June 1944.
Normandy, the 75th anniversary of D-Day: A Willys MB Jeep on Sword Beach during the Liberty Concert Normandy 2019. The concert was attended by dignitaries, among them the Mayor of Ouistreham, a former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, and veterans of the Princess Irene Brigade (Royal Netherlands Motorized Infantry Brigade). This unique Dutch military unit landed at Arromanches-les-Bains and Courseulles-sur-Mer in August 1944 and participated in the Battle of Normandy. In June 2019, only five veterans of the Princess Irene Brigade were still alive.
Normandy, the 75th anniversary of D-Day, Sword-Beach: Our RAF-blue Ford Jeep on display in front of the tent where the Liberty Concert Normandy 2019 was held. This memorial concert was organised in honour of the soldiers who fought for the liberation of Europe during WWII, especially those who landed on the beaches of Normandy in June 1944. At sunset, two soldiers held the salute during the sounding of the Last Post. This was followed by a moment of silence as a gesture of respect to the fallen soldiers of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy.
Memorial tour in a Ford GPW Jeep through Normandy: Daks over Normandy. For the first time since WWII, more than thirty Douglas DC-3 and Douglas C-47 Skytrains, commonly known as Dakotas, crossed the English Channel to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day. About 250 parachutists were dropped over Normandy, at the same locations, where 24,000 Allied Airborne troops were dropped in the early hours of D-Day, 6June 1944. Two veterans jumped in a tandem and landed on the Normandy soil where they had landed 75 years earlier on D-Day.
Memorial tour in a Ford GPW Jeep through Normandy: Our 1942 Ford GPW Jeep in front of a row of WWII military vehicles. On 6 June 2019, the 75th anniversary of D-Day, a static show of authentic WWII military vehicles was held in Courseulles-sur-Mer, organised by Keep Them Rolling, a Dutch association for owners of historic WWII military vehicles. The show was primarily put on for the Canadian students who attended the international commemoration ceremony for the 75th anniversary of D-Day on Juno Beach.
Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: The remains of an German WWII casemate at Pointe du Hoc. At the end of 1942, the Germans had installed a artillery battery at Pointe du Hoc. The notorious battery on Pointe du Hoc was able to cover the two beaches on the Normandy coast that were later selected by the Allies for the landing of the American troops; the Allied codename for these two beaches were Omaha and Utah. Today, Pointe du Hoc is still scattered with bomb craters, caused by heavy Allied bombing just before D-Day.
Memorial tour in a Ford GPW Jeep through Normandy: WWII Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument. Pointe du Hoc is one of the most formidable locations of the Atlantic Wall. This impressive 30-metre-high cliff overlooks Omaha Beach and Utah Beach. The US Army Rangers sustained heavy losses during the D-Day landings; out of the 225 Rangers that left the Allied landing craft in the first wave to attack Pointe du Hoc, only 90 Rangers were still able to fight when the relief force arrived on 8 June.
Memorial tour in a Ford Jeep through Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: The remains of an open concrete gun pit at Pointe du Hoc. This German battery consisted of an observation bunker and six 155 mm guns placed in open gun pits. The guns were later covered by casemates built of concrete. In June 1944, after the successful attack by the US Rangers on Pointe du Hoc, no guns were found there. After heavy Allied bombing in April 1944, the guns had been removed by the Germans and positioned in an orchard nearby.
Memorial tour through Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: The Overlord Museum at Colleville-sur-Mer. The museum is situated near Omaha Beach and recalls the Allied landings on 6 June 1944 until the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944. The collection features over thirty WWII military vehicles from all the armies that fought in Normandy during WWII, including motorbikes, as well as weapons, small personal belongings of soldiers, posters and documents of WWII. Several tanks and other WWII objects are also displayed on the museum grounds.
Memorial tour through Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: One of the numerous dioramas in the Overlord Museum at Colleville-sur-Mer in Normandy. The Overlord Museum opened on 5 June 2013. This impressive collection of WWII objects was gathered by the Frenchman Michel Leloup, a witness to the Battle of Normandy when he was just 15 years old. The outdoor collection on the grounds of the museum consists of a Bailey Bridge, an M32B1 Sherman Tank, an M10 Tank Destroyer and a Sexton self-propelled gun.
Memorial tour through Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: A Sherman M32B1 on the Bailey Bridge at the Overlord Museum in Colleville-sur-Mer. The Sherman M32B1 was an Armoured Recovery Vehicle (ARV) used by the US Army during WWII and later also during the Korean War. A Bailey Bridge is a prefabricated bridge, developed in the beginning of the 1940s by British engineers for military use during WWII. The wood and steel elements of the bridge were light enough to be carried by hand, yet Bailey Bridges are strong enough to carry tanks.
Memorial tour through Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: A 1942 Ford GPW Jeep driving along the holloways, or sunken lanes, in Normandy. During the Battle of Normandy, the Allied troops encountered heavy opposition from German forces in the vast Normandy bocage landscape. This labyrinth of tiny fields and orchards surrounded by thick hedges and winding holloways favoured the German defenders. This brutal 'Battle of the Hedgerows' took place in July 1944. Hedgerow warfare became a defining feature during the Battle of Normandy.
Memorial tour through Normandy, the 75th anniversary of D-Day: A small Remembrance Poppy Cross placed in front of Canada House at Bernières-sur-Mer in Normandy. In 1921, the wild red poppy became the symbol for fallen soldiers of WWI, because wild poppies bloomed in large numbers on the battlefields of Flanders. The Remembrance Poppy was inspired by one of the best-known WWI poems: 'In Flanders Fields' by John McCrae. Now, this little, vibrant red flower is a memorial symbol for fallen soldiers worldwide.
Memorial tour in a Ford GPW Jeep through Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: A Churchill AVRE on Juno Beach at Graye-sur-Mer stands as a memorial to those who gave their lives here. The Churchill AVRE was a famous British tank during WWII. AVRE is short for Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers. This tank landed on Juno Beach at Graye-sur-Mer on D-Day. It was stopped on its way inland when it slipped into a four-metre-deep bomb crater; the crew members were killed or seriously wounded. The tank remained buried for 32 years, and it was not until 1976 that the vehicle was unearthed and restored.
Memorial tour through Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: Our Ford GPW RAF Jeep in front of the Monument 6 June 1944 in Bernières-sur-Mer, Normandy. This monument commemorates the first step of the Western Allied forces on French soil on D-Day. The text on the monument says: 'Here on 6 June 1944 Europe was liberated by the heroism of the Allied forces'. This sturdy monument is situated next to Canada House and faces Juno Beach, where the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada landed on D-Day.
Memorial tour in a Ford GPW Jeep through Normandy, the 75th anniversary of D-Day: During a commemorative ceremony at Canada House in Bernières-sur-Mer, Canadian flags were placed side by side on Juno Beach to mark the location of the landings. The moving ceremony was held to commemorate and honour the Canadian soldiers who were killed during the D-Day landings on Juno Beach, as well as those who fell during the Battle of Normandy. By the end of the Battle of Normandy, more than 5,000 Canadian soldiers had been killed. Most of them were buried in Canadian war cemeteries in Normandy.
Memorial tour through Normandy, the 75th anniversary of D-Day: The Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery is the final resting place of 2,048 fallen soldiers, including nine pairs of brothers. The cemetery contains the graves of Canadian soldiers killed during the D-Day landings on Juno Beach and those who fell during the first days of the advance on Caen. Furthermore, this war cemetery contains four British graves and a French grave, belonging to a resistance soldier who fought alongside the Canadian soldiers.
Memorial tour through Normandy: During the 75th anniversary of D-Day, Canadian students decorated the entrance to Juno Beach with red and white flowers – the colours of the Canadian flag – in honour of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division who landed at Juno Beach on D-Day, 6 June 1944. This opening in the dunes in front of the Juno Beach Centre is filled with a symbolic steel structure, shaped like a landing craft. This memorial is dedicated to the French Resistance.
A memorial tour through Normandy, 75 years after D-Day: Driving our WWII Ford Jeep through the streets of a small village in Normandy. During the 75th anniversary of Day, hundreds of posters were placed along the roads in Normandy, France. The posters are titled 'Never Forget WWII Heroes'. Each poster shows a photo of one of the fallen soldiers of Normandy, his name and division. The posters are in memory of the soldiers who fought and were killed during the D-day landings and the Battle of Normandy in 1944.
Memorial tour through Normandy: 6 June 2019 marked exactly 75 years since D-Day, the first day of the Allied landings on the beaches in Normandy during WWII. D-Day was the beginning of the liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe. Within the 24-hour period known as D-Day, nearly 5,000 Allied soldiers were killed. During a memorial ceremony on Juno Beach, floral wreaths were laid by government leaders, heads of state and veterans. The 75th anniversary of D-Day was widely commemorated throughout Normandy.
A memorial tour through Normandy during the 75th anniversary of D-Day: Our Ford GPW Jeep in front of a row of traditional French houses in a small village near Courseulles-sur-Mer. Our Jeep was produced by the Ford Motor Company in April 1942 and it landed on Juno Beach in Normandy in June 1944. We restored this vehicle as a tribute to and in memory of the veterans of WWII. We don't use this Jeep for reenacting, but exclusively for WWII commemoration and celebration ceremonies.
