adamsparks

There seem to be several museums dedicated to WWII in Normandy. I think we will have time to only see one, plus tour the area. Which one museum would you recommend?

laverendrye

To my mind, the Mémorial at Caen would be the one museum not to miss, if you can only see one.

Gretchen

I would suggest visiting the American cemetery, Pointe du Hoc, and Arromanches especially. There are a lot of museums, some very small and out of the way--just along the roads. And in a lot of ways, the museums at the beaches are a bit repetitive showing very similar equipment etc. That said, they are also not very large. If you can get to Caen, that would probably be best.

adamsparks

We do plan to visit the American cemetery, Pointe du Hoc, and Arromanches, but wanted to make sure we visited the most essential museum. I have heard something about the museum in Caen having some of its displays changed/moved and therefore it isn't as good. Have you heard anything about that?

laverendrye

The Memorial in Caen has not been changed.

The museum which has had many of its exhibits removed, and will only have a temporary exhibition this summer is the Battle of Normandy Museum in Bayeux. This is a great shame, as it was one of the very best, but a dispute between the city (which owns the building) and the founder/director (who owns most of the exhibits) let to this state of affairs.

adamsparks

Thank you. I was confused between the two. Now I know!

gradyghost

Hello Adam:

When you are in Arromanches and have an extra hour, there is a theatre at the top of the hill overlooking the harbor of Arromanches. It is a theatre in the round and projects a film of D-Day. A unique projection technique (the audience stands) and a very well done presentation. Enjoy your visit. Gradyghost

Dave_in_Paris

The essential museum is the one in Caen.

rex

The place cited by gradyghose is called Aroomanches 360, and it is VERY worthwhile. It does not take an hour. But do be prepared for a VERY riveting 15 minutes.

The "main museum" in Arromanches held me spellbound for a good two hours. I have not been to the memorial at Caen, and would not dispute its pre-eminence. Ideally, you need three days for the principal sites of the Battle of Normandy (which is a lot more than just "D-Day&quot. Without as much time as youmight like, youmight choose to skip the main Arromanches museum - - but do go see Arromanches 360.

Best wishes,

Rex

rex

One final fun anecdote that comes to mind from the parking lot of
Arromanches 360. As you will learn (if you don't know already) Montogmery and British forces were responsible for a much larger area of the invasion of Normandy than pretty much all the other forces combined (because of Omaha Beach and much more - - and since Eisenhower was the supreme commander of the invasion - - and because "we" made "the movie", The Longest Day, we Americans tend to think of the invasion of Normandy as "our show&quot...

Anyhow, we were walking out with this nice British couple (my mother-in-law is chatting with total strangers as if best friends, within seconds, of anyone she encounters)... and they said to her "You know, we never realized... the Americans had quite a lot to do with this, didn't they?"

adamsparks

Thanks for the information about the theater in Ammo.

Someone on this chatboard had said to see "The Longest Day" before I left. I watched it last night. Great suggestion!

I am looking forward to going to the Normandy beaches. My dad was one of the thousands that landed there---and lived.

laverendrye

Rex: You make a very good point about the Battle of Normandy being much more than D-Day. I sometimes get the impression that many people think that once the troops were ashore, it was a cakewalk all the way to Paris. In fact it was a very bloody campaign that lasted almost to the end of August. The D-Day beaches certainly are an attraction, but there are many interesting areas inland, which more people should see.

A couple of other points. While Montgomery, as Commander of 21 Army Group, was the commander of all British and Canadian ground forces until the end of the war, from D-Day until Sep 1 1944, he was also the overall commander of all ground forces, which included Bradley's 1st and later Patton's 3rd U.S. Armies. It was only at the end of the battle of Normandy that Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, also became commander in chief of all ground forces in the theater.

Finally, I might point out that as well as the U.S. and British Forces, one of the five divisions which came ashore on D-Day was the 3rd Canadian Division, at Juno Beach.

rex

And... it was the Canadians' tragic experience at Dieppe in 1942 that led Churchill and Roosevelt to sit down and formulate a plan to take France by sea... realizing that no existing port town would work... that a port had to be constructed, in the middle of nowhere... that could allow the incursion of the millions of tons of materiel and manpower necessary to take back Europe.

The importance of June 6 should not be diminished... but what happened over the next ten months at Arromanches will probably never again be repeated in the history of mankind.

Dave_in_Paris

If you do get to Arromanches there's a store there near the museum with a large collection of books for sale related to the landings and the Normandy campaign.