Tonie - Major & Mrs Holts pocket battlefield guide to D-Day Normandy landing beaches

In a 15 miles deep strip behind the landing beaches there are almost 500 memorials and the straight line distance from one end of the beaches to the other is over 60 miles. To do any sensible justice to what there is to see requires at least 5 days in France. Most people do not have that time. We have been guiding travellers around the battlefield areas, or writing about them, for over 30 years and in this book we have put together simple itineraries that reflect not just the type of visitor but also the visits most requested by them the highlights, as it were. This guide is practical rather than comprehensive.

Thus this Pocket Guide is designed for several different types of visitor

For those who wish to visit the D-Day beaches with just enough information to know broadly what happened where and what are the most important features to see

For those with limited time at their disposal

For those on a conducted tour wishing to prepare for their trip

For those whose visit will be taken in an armchair at home

A very much more detailed guide book is our Major and Mrs Holts Battlefield GuideNormandy D-Day Landing Beaches which comes complete with a detailed map showing all the beaches and memorials, which those who would like to go into more depth about the historical background and to see more of the battlefield areas and their memorials, may wish to read. This volume is in effect a concise prcis of the latter but, being reprinted more frequently, may be marginally more up to date.

When we conducted our first tour to the D-Day beaches there were no signed routes and only three major museums Bayeux, Arromanches and Ste Mre Eglise. Today there are museums seemingly everywhere competing with each other for the tide of visitors.

In the 1970s the battlefield visitor was generally a veteran, perhaps with family members, or someone with a specific interest in visiting the grave of a relative, or in militaria. Now the general tourist to Normandy may well spend a day in looking at the beaches or visiting a museum or two as part of a normal Summer holiday and this book is intended to help them too.

A visit to Normandy without a guide, whether a book or a person, will result in much wasted time and frustration. It is also sensible to take a good map. Michelin and IGN produce modern road maps and our Major and Mrs Holts Battle Map of Normandy shows where all the memorials, museums, battle lines etc are. A little preparation can add so much to a tour. An up-to-date GPS system can also be very useful and we have given lat and long references for the key sites, but back up your navigation with a map.

During your tour you will be travelling through an historic area, in places of outstanding beauty, with a reputation for delicious local products. We hope you have enough time to enjoy them. The Tourist section at the end of this book will give you some practical information on how to do so.

If you are fortunate during your visit you may see a venerable gentleman wearing a blazer with a pocket badge and perhaps a chestful of medals. He is almost certainly a proud member of the Normandy Veterans Association. If you are in the American area then that 80+ years old visitor will probably be wearing a side hat covered in badges. Go to them, shake them by the hand and say, Thankyou.

Tonie and Valmai Holt

Woodnesborough, Spring 2009

Respected military authors Tonie and Valmai Holt are generally acknowledged as the founders of the modern battlefield tour and have established a sound reputation for the depth of their research. Their Major & Mrs Holts Battlefield Guides series comprises without doubt the leading guide books describing the most visited battlefields of the First and Second World Wars. They have a unique combination of male and female viewpoints and can draw upon well over a quarter of a centurys military and travel knowledge and experience gained in personally conducting thousands of people around the areas they have written about.