|
|
|
Our Band of Brothers
Tour is an exceptional
tour, and will be of great interest to
those who saw Steven Spielberg’s
famous movie, - Band of Brothers. This
tour will enable you to link the fictional movie
locations with the real places of the paratroops
landings onto Normandy. Many sites on this tour
are inaccessible to most other tour companies,
and remain secluded from entry. However, due
to the generosity of various land owners, and
our personal relationship with them, you will
have the privilege of seeing places like Brecourt
Manor, and many other places where Lt.
Winters and members of Easy Company stayed during
the first nights of the Invasion.
|
|
|
- Details of your visit
-
|
 |
 |
Carentan and the
four bridges of Carentan
During the Normandy Invasion, Carentan
lay between Omaha and Utah assault beaches, and was the
location of violent fighting before American troops linked
up there on June 13. Here, Lt. Winters received his first
wound – a gunshot wound to his ankle.
After fighting in this town on June 12, “Easy Company” took
position on the western flank of the town. The tour also
focuses on the Carentan causeway, looking south towards
Carentan. This was the scene of the 502nd PIR’s
fighting on 10-11 June. The network of canals and drainage
ditches along the lower Douve River is clearly visible
here, and with the surrounding fields flooded, the attack
was canalized down the narrow causeway road leading to
Carentan.
|
|
Click
to the map to increase it =>
|
 |
Bloody Gulch
After securing Carentan, Easy Company
took up position on the western side of the town. Two
other companies of the second Battalion were positioned
on the left when German Paratroopers and elements of
the 17th SS launched a counter-attack on the Americans.
|
  |
|
Angoville au Plain
A very moving place! Our tour here will first allow you to enter a 12th/13th
Century church where 2 medics of the 501st, Bob Wright and Kenneth
Moore took care of 80 Germans and Americans wounded for over 72 consecutive
hours following the initial hours of the jump into Normandy. Wright
and Moore were honored by the residents of this small village by a
Memorial, which you will see, and a recently installed stained glasses
windows in this famous church in commemoration of their life-saving
efforts.
You will enter the courtyard of the farm where Colonel Sink, Commander
of the 506th PIR, established his second CP. “Easy Company” stayed
here from June 7 until to the attack of Carentan.
|
 |
| OVERLORDTOUR
has obtained a very special permission to enter this
farm. |
 |
Drop Zone D
Our tour progresses next to the DZ “D”. This
was the area where Colonel Johnson, 501st PIR, landed.
From here, he launched the attack onto La Barquette lock
Gate.
|
 |
 |
Culloville
Colonel Sink, Commander of the 506th
PIR established his first command post at the site of
this farm. Lt. Winters and other members of his mixed
unit, who took out the German batteries at Brecourt Manor,
rested in this farm for one night. At 4:30 am, Colonel
Sink assembled 600 men and pushed onto Vierville, before
setting up his second command post at a farmhouse at
Angoville-au-Plain. The tour will take you to this second
command post located at this farm.
|
|
OVERLORDTOUR
has obtained a very special permission to enter this
farm.
|
|
|
 |
This farm
is privately owned, and due to our relationship with the
owners, you will be able to enter and personally see this
historic spot. |
|
Hiesville
A very short halt to the General Taylor
C.P. and to the spot where General Pratt’s glider
cratched
|
 |
 |
 |
| |
- Lunch - |
|
 |
|
Sainte Mere Eglise
Although Sainte-Mere-Eglise was the
area where the 82nd Airborne was schedule to jump and
land, the first paratroopers who landed here were instead,
members of the 101st Airborne Division. Several groups
of the 101st Division, landed here, miles away from their
Drop Zone, and instead, mistakenly landed on top of this
village. “Easy Company”, for the most part
was also misdropped southeast of the town.
“Dog”, “Easy” and “Fox” Companies
belonging to 2nd Battalion 506th PIR were also to jump
around 1:00 a.m. on DZ “C”, near Sainte-Marie-du-Mont.
Sainte-Mere-Eglise was officially the first town liberated
at 4:30 a.m. on D-Day by the 82nd Airborne Division.
 
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Sainte Mere Eglise Museum
Here you will see an actual CG 4 Waco
glider, a C-47 transport plane, and a number of historical
military artifacts which have been professionally displayed
to commemorate and honor the D-day invasion. A film comprised
of archive materials is available to visitors retracing
the missions and footsteps of the many paratroopers who
landed in Normandy. This museum is one to see in any
D-Day tour!
|
 |
 |
 |
Crash
of the C47 # 66
at Beuzeville au Plain |
On June 5, 1st Lieutenant
Thomas Meehan III boarded a
C-47 to parachute into  Normandy.
Prior to the jump however, he had just been appointed “E”  Company
Commander, replacing Captain Sobel. Meehan was in plane
66, along with the Company’s staff comprised of 16
paratroopers. His plane crashed in a field at Beuzeville –Au-Plain.
A tour of the site of this crash will enable you to see
the monument erected in memory of Lt. Meehan, but also
the field where the crash actually occurred. |
 
|
Marmion’s farm
The very first newsreel of the airborne
invasion in Normandy shown in movie theatres in the
United States was filmed at this particular farmhouse.
  Due
to special permission given by the owner to our tour company,
you will have the privilege of actually entering this farm,
and being in the exact locations of many of the best known
American press photographs taken during WWII at this site.
Some of the photos show Stopka’s task force displaying
the first Nazi flag captured by the 101st Airborne Division.
Many famous photographs in D-Day and WWII books were taken
at this site.
OVERLORDTOUR
has obtained a very special permission to enter this farm.
|
 |
|
Utah Beach
It is impossible to visit the VII corps
sector without a brief stop on the beach.
|
 |
Dead Man's Corner Museum
The Dead Man's Corner Museum is located
in that house at the intersection, on this highly historical
ground near St. Come-du-Mont. The house at Dead Man's
Corner has been recently purchased by the Carentan Historical
Center and is currently being developed as the Dead Man's
Corner Museum. As the initial site in the Carentan Historical
Center system, this historic building houses an impressive
collection of authentic WWII German and American airborne
artifacts directly related to the location.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Sainte-Marie-Du-Mont
After the attack on the German batteries
at Brecourt Manor, Lt. Winters crossed this town on the
way to Calloville, where he spent his first night after
the Invasion. Sainte-Marie- du-Mont was secured by the
101st airborne which linked up with the 4th Inf. on June
6th.
|
 |
 |
|
 |
Brecourt Manor
On D-Day, June
6th, 1944, Easy Company of the 506th fought one of its
most important battles at this location. In a field between
Le Grand Chemin and Brecourt Manor, a ditch line (hedgerow)
with trees bordered the property. Spaced at intervals
along that ditch, were 4, 105 MM, German cannons.
The guns were zeroed in on U.S. forces landing on Utah
Beach, near Exit 2. Lt. Dick Winters of Easy Company
led a small group of Easy Company men to this site, and
systematically took out all four guns at this site, and
was awarded the D.S.C. for this attack. Several others
of his men were also awarded medals for their actions
as well. It is said that the strategic tactics employed
by Lt. Winters at this particular field are now taught
at the American West Point Academy.
Come and discover the field where Lieutenant Winters
and a group of paratroopers instinctively led the attack
at this battery without elaborating a plan or any briefing,
saving countless American lives on Utah beach.
OVERLORDTOUR
has obtained a very special permission to enter this
farm.
At this point in the tour, we want to mention
that time permitting, we can make some small changes
in our tour at this, and other points. Due to the
size of some groups, and the fact that some groups
may want to stay in certain locations longer than
others, we can adjust to or cancel 1 or 2 places
to visit. We also can add some other spots such as
the Château
de la Colombière, (used as a field hospital
from the 6th of June) General Taylor’s Headquarter
etc…
|
| |
|
|
| RESERVATION & INFORMATION |
| |
Back to the
top |
|
