Anyone done France and WWII sites

[jai_landrover]

Am thinking out loud, was on a course at work and one of the guys did a battlefield tour but the jammy bugger got to fly over in a dc3!! Very Jelious!! Especially as they cannot do it anymore not allowed to carry passengers apparently.

So was thinking when my 90 is in a better health ( getting there slowly) I am very tempted to drive across and vist WWII sites of interest Dunkirk and more of the lesser known sites. Maybe try to find any info on any family that died over there. Will be a shakedown for my 90 and a trip with the wife as she like the history and wants to go visit such places.

My question, had anyone else done this in their landy I guessing it's probably quite a popular thing, or I assume so or I'm well off and it's not a landy thing.

I guess hotel or motel type thing for staying overnight. Not sure a roof tent would be great unless the weather was super amazing.

Would be nice to make a long weekend of it and being so close seems silly not to.

[mudmagnet]

I did a ww1 tour with

www.battlefieldsby4x4.com

Great trip using green lanes as much as poss. Sure they do ww2 as well

[jai_landrover]

Cheers mud magnet sounds great however I'm usually against paying someone for tours especially UK greenlanes but it's probably worthwhile as they know the law and all the little bits where you could find yourself in a lot of trouble

Cheers

[mudmagnet]

Very knowledgeable tour guides nothing like the big tours

[FridgeFreezer]

Good info, it's something that's on my to-do list too, we visited a couple of bits on the way home from Trier a couple of years ago, stopped in at Ypres but it was only an afternoon.

[Timpo]

I've done a few that I planned myself.....it is not as difficult as you think. Some trips I did with my motorcycles, some with my 90, camping or using cheap hotels.

As daft as it sounds, you can use the films as a guide, for example, Saving Private Ryan, The Band Of Borthers and The Longest day.

I found the best way was to do it in chronological order, so if concentrating on the Normandy Landings, then 5th June 1944 you need to go look at Pegasus Bridge and have a brew in Cafe Gondree, being the first building to be liberated in the landings.

Then 6th June 1944, all hell breaks lose, so you have all the beach heads along the coast from Caen to Cherbourg, miles and miles of beach with many machinegun posts and Atlantic Wall sites along there.

Then there are the big gun batteries, Batterie Todt being the most spectaular remaining bunker in France.

There is also a trail called the Voie de La Liberte, Liberty Road, marked every kilometer by markers posts called 'Borne' from near Utah Beach to Bastogne, Belgium.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Road_%28France%29

There are numerous cemetries, La cambe and Orglandes are large Nazi sites, and the large American cemetry near Colleville-sur-Mer is a must-see.

So, once you have been ,you will want to return over and over again, finding more and more info on other sites to see in the area.

[landroversforever]

This is very much on my to-do list once the 90 is back together. I've done a couple of the normandie beaches and been to Pegasus bridge, but I'd like to see more.

[Retroanaconda]

There is a V2 rocket factory/launch site at the Forêt d'Éperlecques in Pas-des-Calais, I went to this many moons ago on a school trip and then again on a family holiday - found it fascinating both times

[Timpo]

http://www.lacoupole-france.co.uk/

http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/watten.html

[Davedef90]

WWII Orientated.

Push down the French coast a bit from Calias and go to Arramanches. The concrete caissons can be seen that were the breakwater, even 1 sunk on the beach so you can go stand next to it. Awesome sight.

Then go to see St Nazairre. You can still get inside the sub pens, go up on the roof and have a good look around. ANd then visit the museum there for the full story.

[jai_landrover]

Cheers guys. Very much on my todo list. I think it would have to be a self planned thing I've never seen any WWII stuff in France, only Germany Czech and Holland. Would be good to get over there. much appreciate the info and places to visit. I've bookmarked this page

New tyres this afternoon one step towards a normal 90 again!

[henk]

I made a short WWI roadbook for our club that stays close to the Belgian coast. About 80km or so

[Cynic-al]

I've been to a few places but not by 4x4, just as a regular tourist. The two things that really stuck in my mind were the concrete gun emplacements and what it must have felt like to approach one and attack it, don't think i'd have been able to move. Some are just open to wander around but they're pitch black inside. Think I went to a tank museum whilst I was there that was good.

The other thing that really hit me were the fields and fields of immaculate crosses in perfect rows seemingly everywhere you go.

I would research the sites you want to visit before you go then just head off. Campaniles are everywhere and are comfortable enough with the option of a meal. Formula 1 hotels are cheaper and very basic

Not really related but I did find an abandoned race track somewhere near reims on the way to germany once that is a public road. I did a lap of the circuit and cheered as I went past the grandstand in a relay van

[jai_landrover]

Sounds really cool cynic-al

[bluehaze]

Start at the Normandy beaches and work your way round. Look up Operation COBRA for some good info around Caen.

[g&t]

+1 Visited the aforementioned V2 rocket site back in the 'nineties when I was into WW2 vehicles & used to go over for the Pas-des-Calais celebrations, convoys' stretching for 3km under police escort! Further down the coast there is a gun battery at Cap Gris Nez that has an amazing mural covering one whole wall, painted by the German troops who occupied the bunker.

[FridgeFreezer]

A couple of other options are to read a few books on the subject that mention places;

I read Spike Milligan's war diaries which are excellent and hilarious (in a blackadder-goes-forth style but it all really happened), he names a lot of places they were stationed and I always thought it would be cool to re-trace his steps.

RV Jones "Most Secret War" and MRD Foot "MI9: Escape and Evasion 1939-45" are two others I've read which name a lot of installations / targets (sometimes with maps & aerial photos). RV Jones has all the secret radar & rocket installations etc., and "MI9" features a some of the resistance / PoW escape routes, towns & villages that harboured people, etc..

Of course if anyone in your family fought in the war, retracing their steps could be a very worthwhile trip.

[jai_landrover]

Cheers Fridge will have a look see

[mudslingger]

I went with www.battlefieldsby4x4.com decently worth every penny not your usual tour the guys running it work for the war graves commission and have access to loads of info and and places not usually accessible to others this would be a great year to go with it being ww1 celebrations

[Shackleton]

Can't give you much on the WWII side, save for some amazing machine gun posts sinking into the sand and sea further down at Cap Ferret, and the amazing 110m Dune du Pilat across the sound. You can climb into the gun posts and look out of the turrets. There's also a good point break there but a strong current, if you surf.

But on the practical / LR side. The roof tent would be fine between May and Sept. The French police tend to be friendly and fair but won't take kindly to you camping anywhere other than a camp site, so it won't save you quite as much as you'd first expect. On the upshot the camp sites are amazing. Always clean, usually pretty, well appointed, well run and generally just the best you'll see in Europe. So a two ring burner, a small cooler box and a small compliment of cutlery turn into a viable meal every day with provision at the camp site to wash everything, your clothes and yourself, in comfort.

I've taken the tunnel, the ferry to Cherbourg, and the ferry Harwich to Hook van Holland. The drive down through Belgium, with the potential to pick up a few more points of note, is short, and you can pick up stroopwafels at any service. Do no underestimate the value of a stock of stroopwafels!

[Davo]

Now, if you really have to live in England, (don't hurt me!), then this is a great idea. I've done lots of WWII travelling through France courtesy of Google Earth and it's been very handy. There are all sorts of funny little spots where somebody has posted a photo next to the actual WWII-whatever-it-was and so you can see what it is and where it is before you visited. I imagine it would be very handy if you were to actually go there, unlike, say, me. For instance, I had never heard of Oradour-sur-Glane until I was wandering around looking at photos and came across it.