I had finally figured out what I want to do in order to tour the D-Day Sites in Normandy.
I want to hire Col Chilcott.After reading some posings on Foders, I am a little concerned that he might be too miltary oriented for our family.We are 2 adults and 11 and 14 year old children.
Can I have opinions of those who have used him?
Thanks
Melissa

What do you mean by "too military oriented"? You are touring a battlefield, after all. The purpose of the guide is to explain what happened there. How can it not be military oriented?

This is from another Foder poster.
This is what I am afraid of.

Touring the D-Day sites with Col. Michael Chilcott: Because of recommendations from this board, we hired Col. Chilcott to be our private guide for a day to tour the D-day beaches and cemeteries.

I have to admit to having mixed feelings about this experience.

The Colonel is very knowledgable, and gave us great background and history of the D-Day events. We learned an amazing amount of history from him. A lot of the places are not that well marked, and we wouldn’t have understood nearly as much about what we were seeing without him.

The problem for me was that his approach was (not surprisingly) very military: strategies and troop movement, men as pawns in a big game, “acceptable” losses.

I, on the other hand, have a much more emotional response to these events: I’m thinking of my father, who served in France in WW II (although not in the D-Day invasion), and of our son, who is now the same age my father was then, and how frightening and overwhelming it must have been to be there, and how terrible for the French people to have their home turned into a big battlefield.

It came to a head for me when we went to the American cemetery. It’s such a solemn place, with the perfect rows of graves, and just as walked up the carrillon began to play a hymn.
I was overcome with emotion and wanted nothing more than to walk through the graves crying for all these young men who gave their lives, and for all the families that they never returned to.

Col. Chilcott, however, was lecturing away about the positions of the various divisions during the invasion. I felt that he just didn’t “get it.”


Melissa

On all my visits to the Normandy battlefields, I have never used a guide, other than veterans who have actually fought on those fields and beaches. I can't therefore comment on the merits of Colonel Chilcott's tours compared with other guides.

If indeed the entire visit to the cemetery at St Laurent sur Mer described by the other poster was devoted to a discussion of the tactics at Omaha Beach, then I would say that Colonel Chilcott was remarkably insensitive to the needs of his group.

When my wife and I and friends visit military cemeteries, and we have visited many, our usual practice is to split up and quietly visit by ourselves, as they are places which evoke great emotions.

Given the strong recommendations on this board for Colonel Chilcott's tours, I don't think that you should have any misgivings about them. I'm sure that you will have the time and opportunity to reflect on the sacrifice and effort that so many made 62 years ago in Normandy.

Thanks
melissa

Sorry hit button too soon.
For example, when we have toured gettysbury, manassas, and other civil war battle sites here in US, I always need time to just tink about what the men gave for us all.
My Dad was a WW11 vet and when we went to the dedication of the world war 11 memorial,it just hit me.
I just want to make sure that there is time for that .
Melissa

We hired Roel Klinkhamer (Victory Tours) last summer for a full day. When we reached the American Cemetary, he just let us walk around and experience the place on our own. Somehow, talking there would have marred the experience. It was a place for us to reflect about the events that had taken place. My 23 year old daughter, my husband, and I enjoyed our tour with him and thought that he did a wonderful job of telling the stories of that time. He has taken many veterans on tour as well, and relays some of the things they have told him. We were quite pleased with him.

It's important to understand that the way the Allies prevailed in the battle for Normandy was by putting men on the beaches faster than the Germans could kill them. It was their grand strategy. The tactical objectives were secondary.

I think the impression created by acres of pristine grave markers needs to be balanced with equal parts of the noise, stench, fear, and confusion of war.

Otherwise, as someone once said, we should become too fond of it.

My father took part in the invasion as a doctor fresh out of medical school, running a field ambulance.

In war, one needs to develop strategies that give the best chance of survival to the average soldier. Case in point: medical triage, which seeks to allocate limited resources in such a way as to ensure that the maximum number of wounded survive. It requires making decisions of the type that I think we can agree are heartbreakingly difficult, to say the least. Similar decisions had to be made by those in charge of conducting the operation.

When reference is made to 'acceptable losses' it doesn't mean that those losses were not felt deeply, let alone considered desirable, by those who had the thankless task of deciding just who would ultimately comprise the losses. While it is part of the study of history, and perhaps arguably even our duty, to criticize the decisions of those who were in charge at the time vis-a-vis their degree of success, I think we should be a little circumspect before jumping to the conclusion that such strategies are/were devised solely with the callous objective of reducing people to mere 'pawns.' For one thing, the related strategies were followed for the decision-makers' own sons and comrades, and in some instances, even themselves. Someone of Colonel Chilcott's generation, not to mention former occupation, would be only too aware of this.

As for Colonel Chilcott's alleged insensitivity, cut the poor old fellow some slack. I hear he's getting on in years, and perhaps should retire permanently, but in any case nobody should feel obliged to listen to any person one has, oneself, hired: one can always gently excuse oneself, saying one wishes to cut away from the talk for a few minutes for some quiet reflection. Hey, if we're going to criticize the decisions of people in war time, we should at least know how to make decisions in our own best interests on a holiday.

We had the pleasure and frankly honor to both stay with the Col and his wife at their B&B and take a day long tour. The Col is British, very British and that perhaps explains his approach to the facts. He is every bit the gentleman, very knowledgeable and neither my wife nor I had any problems with his personality or style on the tour. We in fact very much want to return and stay with him and see the parts of the area we missed. We think he is a wonderful resource but having said that we have not toured with anyone else and so there are probably other guides who are as good and maybe better. We just liked the Col and his wife as people and hit it off with them. At times during our tour I would wander off with my video camera and film something but I tried to stay close to him to be sure to capture his commentary. I mean he doesn't require you to stand at attention or keep in formation during the tour, you can do whatever you want when you reach a site. My guess is you will want to hear what he has to say.

Sue, I don't know if you have met the Col, I suspect not. If you had met him you would not suggest anyone cut him any slack and as for retiring, he is retired from the military and doing what he enjoys.

My family toured with Col Chilcott and found his tour to be extremely interesting and insightful. He will not be the schmoozy person you would expect on Oprah talking about how awful war is, etc. He knows it is awful having fought in the Falklands War on the ground himself. He will describe what happened and how individuals, caught in the midst of a plan gone awry, rose to the occasion to bring victory over Hitler. I HIGHLY recommend his tours, and the stay at his home with his lovely wife Rosemary was one of the best values in our stay in France. If he costs more than the competition, he is a bargain nonetheless. BTW we had our 17 year old with us and he remembers the tour very favorably.

We also toured with the Colonel. He took just our family of four for a full day. We were able to design our tour, spend as much time as we wished at the various spots and when we ran out of time at the end of the day, he offered to come back the next morning at no additional charge to allow us enough time at the American cemetery. If you begin the tour in his 'map room', he'll outline the strategy, etc for you and the remainder of the day will make a lot of sense. We wandered around a great deal and took our time. When I told him at one point that seeing dogs, children, sunbathers, etc on Omaha Beach was a little disconcerting since I think of that as sacred ground, he replied that 'the sacrifices of your young men are precisely the reason that we are now able to enjoy this place'. it was an interesting juxtaposition and I appreciated it. We also had our boys who were just about your children's ages get up at dawn and run from the water line up the beach and up the dunes as far as they could. It really gave them an additional perspective on what those young soldiers faced - without the 100 pound packs and gun fire erupting around them.

We stayed at Col Chilcotts B&B and did his tour as well, back in April of 2002. You have to have an understanding of WWII as well as a love of history and probably strong feelings about how important that war was to the British and the US. We enjoyed it although it was a full day (longer than your average tour). We found he and his wife a delightful pair of eccentrics! Two tips, don't begin to eat before him and don't hold the top of the coffee pot when you pour (if you go there you will understand). If your children are aware of the awesome history and enjoy war related stories, then they will be okay on this tour. It is a sobbering event to be on those beaches, one we were very glad we experienced. Shirley

I don't see any recent postings about anyone having used Col Chilcott recently. Is he still touring? I sent him an email yesterday, no response as yet but he may be away from home.

Col Chilcott was the highlight of our trip to Normandy and I would recommend him highly. Our boys were about the same ages as your children when we were there. He will have a british view of the area - ask him for the 'american tour'; he will also spend a lot of time in the map room at his home taking you thru the invasion theories, logistics, etc. That can probably be shortened a bit. He allowed us to dally where we chose, was very gracious in answering our questions, etc. I would not use another guide if/when we return!

You may not get a response from him right away. I think it was a couple of days when we booked him. when are you going to Normandy???

We stayed with him and took the Omaha Beach side of his tour a few years ago and want to return this summer and have him do the Utah side for us. When were you there last?

My husband and I spent three days with Colonel Chilcott, staying at his lovely old farm home (former farm owned by the Mayor of Bayeau). He took us out each day, after the most amazing breakfast, for a north, central and south tours of the Normandy coast. His stories and overviews were wonderful and we've recommended him to many friends. Warning: he loves clams and will deveour a whole bowl of them at a sitting! I think your children would enjoy him too. Mrs. Noonan

Dear Melissa,

I don't know the Colonel but wanted to share our experience in case it is helpful.

I toured Normandy with my 17-year-old daughter. The day before we spent the full day at the Caen Peace Museum. It was a pretty comprehensive museum with an excellent film documenting D-Day. Prior to visiting Normandy we had watched "Band of Brothers" (excellent BTW) and a number of other WWII movies particularly relating to D-Day.

(If you search under WWII and Holocaust you will find a long thread with lots of valuable Fodorite input on this subject and also some info on our travels.)

Our guide in Normandy was a lovely young French woman (former teacher) and the company was Normandy Tours.

www.normandywebguide.com

She was perfect for us. She explained the strategies, which forces were where and when, and customized the day for us according to our interests. She convinced us we should see certain things we hadn't thought of and she was right. We had a 1/2 day private tour and believe me we were pretty spent at the end.

As I mentioned she was pretty young - probably around 28 or 30 - and has lived a bit around Europe. We talked quite a bit about French culture today, the occupation then, the relationship between the French and the British and the Germans today. How the French feel about Americans, our involvement in D-Day etc. etc. These are the kinds of things that were of interest to us beyond the battles. I'm not sure this would matter to everyone.

I found the American Cemetery surreal and didn't want to spend a lot of time, but my daughter was quite taken by the whole experience. She wanted to see the graves of the Private Ryan siblings and linger in general. I think the cemetery quantified things for her in a way I did not need.

I think we would have found a very militaristic tour tedious but that's just our personal interest level. I was stunned by the natural beauty of the beaches and how they remain undeveloped. And imagining what happened on those beaches is pretty hard to do unless you've seen the films. Yes, we crawled into bunkers, but we didn't take photos or get silly doing "boy" things, and we skipped a lot of the other museums because we had spent so much time in Caen.

Later, on another trip we went to the Imperial War Museum in London. This is a really incredible museum - extremely well done and it brought things even more to life for us. We also visited the Cabinet War Rooms and the Churchill Museum which I highly recommend as well.

Only you know your family's attention span and can judge what works for them. I can warn you that my daughter and I found a lot of this difficult and sad. We needed lots of time to process things. She is very interested in history, but about 4 or 5 hours was her max. Mine too.

I wish you an amazing trip. It is quite an experience.

gruezi

I rec'd a nice note from the Col's wife a week or so ago. He's had some health issues and is not doing tours at the moment.