Landing beach
A stay in Normandy cannot avoid the evocation of the greatest amphibious and airborne operation of all time... the D-Day landing of June 6th 1944. The nearest D-Day beach to Cabourg is Sword Beach in Ouistreham. The Atlantic Wall Museum presents the 1944 operation. It is also here that Commandant Kieffer landed with his men, and that the ceremonies of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings were organised in 2014.
Relics & museums
Visits in action
Not far from the D-Day landing beaches, Arromanches, the centre of the landing zone, still has some of the preserved remains of the artificial port that was established there. Here you can be right at the heart of the action, thanks to the circular cinema Arromanches 360 or in the D-Day Museum
Don't miss the Merville Battery Museum. The Merville Battery and its Museum are the gateway to the historic area of the Battle of Normandy. Entering the theatre of Operation Overlord from the East, you will find the key points of the shield that prevented any German counter-attack from the East. Casemate 1 has a howitzer identical to the one that stood here in 1944, as Lieutenant Colonel Terence Otway's men discovered it on the morning of 6 June. Just how threatening it still is, in position with the other three, and how difficult the D-Day mission was for the 9th Battalion...
In memory
The 2nd British Cemetery
Not far from the D-Day landing beaches, in the Ranville British Military Cemetery, near the Pegasus Bridge, lie 2,562 soldiers. It is the second largest British cemetery, after Bayeux, in terms of number of graves. Ranville was the first village liberated after the bridge over the Orne Canal was taken at dawn on 6 June. 47 soldiers are buried in the churchyard, including Private Brotheridge who was the first British soldier killed in Normandy.
