Updated for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. For families of the heroes who fought on the beaches of Normandy during World War II, for fans of Saving Private Ryan, or for traveler interested in history, here is the complete guide to visiting one of the world’s most historic battlefields. The D-Day Visitor’s Handbook includes everything you need to know to plan and make your visit to the site of the biggest seaborne invasion in history. This compact guidebook not only describes the most significant land invasion of World War II, but provides detailed battlefield maps and tours, identifies monuments and attractions, and locates museums and historical sites to make your planning easier and less stressful. This guide provides everything you need ahead of your visit, including: Easy-to-follow maps and tours Where to stay, dine, and shop Lists of the best D-Day museums How to find war relics still at the battlefield sites Historical context for each site, including a description of military action there A special bonus guide to World War II history and sites in Paris The D-Day Visitor’s Handbook contains a wealth of detailed information that is perfect for those considering travelling to France, anyone about to visit these sites, veterans, students of military history, and any others who wish to learn about the history of this legendary battle.

DESCRIPTION: On June 6, 2004, people the world over - especially Americans - will pause toremember the 60th anniversary of the Normandy invasion that forever changed history. D-Day: 24 Hoursthat Saved the World honors the 130,000 heroic American and Allied troops who risked their lives toliberate Europe and end the Nazi occupation. Here are fascinating portraits of the men who designed theinvasion - and the men who fought it: Eisenhower and Churchill, Montgomery and Rommel. Here arethe landing crafts, the medics, the radio operators, the nurses. Here are the memorable photographs,historic reunions, majestic cemeteries, the unforgettable memories of June 6, 1944.Here is D-Day: 24 Hours that Saved the World.

In 1983 the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans began a project to record the recollections of as many people as possible -- civilians as well as soldiers -- who were involved in one of the most pivotal events of the century. Skillfully edited by Ronald J. Drez and first published on the fifty-year anniversary of D-Day, the award-winning Voices of D-Day tells the story of that momentous operation almost entirely through the words of the people who were there.

More than seventy years following the D-Day Landings of 6 June 1944, Normandy's war heritage continues to intrigue visitors and researchers. Receiving well over two million visitors a year, the Normandy landscape of war is among the most visited cultural sites in France. This book explores the significant role that heritage and tourism play in the present day with regard to educating the public as well as commemorating those who fought. The book examines the perspectives, experiences and insights of those who work in the field of war heritage in the region of Normandy where the D-Day landings and the Battle of Normandy occurred. In this volume practitioner authors represent a range of interrelated roles and responsibilities. These perspectives include national and regional governments and coordinating agencies involved in policy, planning and implementation; war cemetery commissions; managers who oversee particular museums and sites; and individual battlefield tour guides whose vocation is to research and interpret sites of memory. Often interviewed as key informants for scholarly articles, the day-to-day observations, experiences and management decisions of these guardians of remembrance provide valuable insight into a range of issues and approaches that inform the meaning of tourism, remembrance and war heritage as well as implications for the management of war sites elsewhere. Complementing the Normandy practitioner offerings, more scholarly investigations provide an opportunity to compare and debate what is happening in the management and interpretation at other World War II related sites of war memory, such as at Pearl Harbor, Okinawa and Portsmouth, UK. This innovative volume will be of interest to those interested in remembrance tourism, war heritage, dark tourism, battlefield tourism, commemoration, D-Day and World War II.

Published to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the military mission that changed World War II, D-Day Landings: A Travel Guide to Normandy’s Beaches and Battlegrounds is Bradt’s new guidebook to visiting beaches, memorials, museums, battlefields and other sites associated with D-Day and the Battle of Normandy (Operation Overlord). A simple-to-follow, portable guide for independent travellers, it includes maps and driving instructions to help visitors go back in time to explore World War II history. Written by two experienced travel writers who, between them, are experts in France and military history, D-Day Landings is designed for visitors who want to see all or part of Normandy. Covering the ground from the D-Day landing beaches (Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah) up to Cherbourg and inland to Falaise, it encompasses every major site and a host of smaller, less well-known locations – venturing well beyond the coast to include sites associated with the capture of Caen and the closing of the Falaise Gap, which marked the end of the Overlord campaign. Although organised geographically – as befits a travel guide rather than history book – there’s plenty of information on the historical context, identifying where sites fit into the timeline of the Battle of Normandy and escorting readers through the invasion in a simple, practical format. D-Day Landings aims to enhance the visitor experience by alerting readers to unexpected features, such as a German tobruk with a gun turret around which Utah Beach Museum was constructed. Quirky snippets and human stories colour the text. Learn how Lord Lovat’s Commando piper Bill Millin saw himself as a ballerina or how the Utah Beach landings were accidentally more successful than planned. Whether you are a military-history enthusiast, have family who fought in Normandy or are simply visiting northern France on holiday, Bradt’s D-Day Landings is the guidebook to both plan your trip and take with you.

This outstanding overview of D-Day makes clear its great importance in military and world history, identifies mistakes committed on both sides, and explains all aspects of the 1944 Allied invasion of France and the Normandy Campaign that followed. The beach landings at Normandy, France, in June of 1944 were of critical importance in the outcome of World War II, and as a consequence, served to determine the economic and political state of the modern world as we know it. This latest reference book edited by esteemed historian Spencer C. Tucker supplies easy-to-understand overview entries on the Normandy Invasion ("Operation OVERLORD") and the European Theater in World War II as well as entries treating specific topics such as key individuals, technical innovations, weapons systems, command structures, terrain and logistical difficulties, and the role played by weather. Readers will come to understand why the eventual success of the Allied forces in the D-Day operations was so hard-fought and came at a tremendous cost of life. The book addresses the immense difficulty of supplying tens of thousands of soldiers--many of them inexperienced in combat--and countless tons of equipment and vehicles to the invasion force from over the beaches, after most of the teams landed in the wrong locations, and when many command structures were wiped out almost immediately upon landing; and it explains how these factors impacted the combat on the ground and resulted in the Allied forces' careful planning going awry. The book also describes the elaborate deception carried out by the Allies regarding the invasion landing site and how these efforts impacted battle developments, and it presents nine primary documents that treat various aspects of the battle, including the lengthy Allied plan for the invasion and primary sources of directives regarding the battle and technical innovations.