Normandy Trip - April 2017

Normandy Trip

Early on Saturday 22nd April a group of Beckenham Rotary Club members and partners, together with friends, set off for a weekend in France. We were visiting the D-Day landing sites and beaches of Normandy. 
  

Our guide was Bob Stewart MP, Hon Member of Beckenham Rotary Club, who provided an excellent commentary throughout our trip.  With a start, a coach journey to Portsmouth, then High-speed crossing to Cherbourg we were in France by 1.00 pm.

Our first stop was in the small town of Sainte Mere Eglise where, at around 01:40 on 6th June 1944, troops from the US 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment were dropped. The largest and one of the bloodiest invasions in history had started.

Exploits from the assault on the town were portrayed in the film The Longest Day.  
  

We then travelled on to visit the most westerly of the invasion beaches – UTAH.D-Day at Utah began at 06:30 with US infantry and tanks arriving from the sea and landing in four waves. From UTAH BEACH we set off for Bayeux where we were to stay the night at the Hotel Le Lion D’Or. At this point some of our party took the opportunity to visit the Bayeux Tapestry. The evening was spent in the Hotel enjoying ‘diner gastronomique’.

 

Our last stop was Benouville at the most easterly end of the invasion beaches. The small village alongside the Caen canal was where the first British troops, using gliders, landed at 00:10 on D-Day. They successfully captured the bridge crossing the canal and to commemorate this the bridge was renamed Pegasus Bridge.

 
Back in Beckenham at around 10.00 pm on Sunday after a fascinating but moving experience.