Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours presents
Operation Overlord:
Follow Eisenhower’s armies from England to france
2017: June 1 – 9 / July 28 - Aug 5 / Sept 8 - Oct 16
2018: June 1 – 9 / July 27 - Aug 4 / Sept 7 - Oct 15
Day 1 • Flight to London
Guests schedule their overnight flights to London.
Day 2 • London
Check into the hotel where the entire group will gather
for an evening welcome reception. Our historian will
treat us to our first lecture, with introductions all around.
Day 5 • Normandy
Following breakfast we take the cross-channel ferry
to Normandy.
After arrival, we visit Ste-Mere-Église where Airborne
troops descended on D-Day. Here we explore the
village and the iconic church memorialized by John
Steele’s steeple landing. We also visit nearby La
Fiere Bridge where the 82nd Airborne successfully
Day 3 • London
The morning city tour will focus on WWII London. We
see historic places around the city that were significant
during the war as well as traditional points of interest
such as Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and
Tower Bridge. We will visit the Churchill War Rooms,
the underground nerve center of Britain’s war effort,
and the Imperial War Museum which exhibits authentic
examples of WWII weaponry and WWI trench warfare.
There is also the option of seeing St. Paul’s Cathedral
and the chapel that houses the book listing every airman
killed while stationed in England.
Day 4 • Portsmouth
Depart for Portsmouth, the seaside town that became
the staging center for the D-Day invasion. Here the Allies
assembled the armies and equipment for the massive
undertaking. Besides the hundreds of thousands of
men, there were thousands of armored vehicles and
the assemblage of sea vessels: landing craft of all kinds
in addition to warships that made up the flotilla for
the English Channel crossing. Nearby, General Dwight
D. Eisenhower set up the advance command post of
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, where
he, Naval Commander Ramsay, Army Commander
Montgomery and staff would meet to plan the invasion.
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delayed a German Panzer counter-attack.
and this wonderful campaign into history.
Day 6 • Normandy
Day 8 • Paris
After breakfast at the hotel, our tour begins where the
first shots were fired, at the crucial Pegasus Bridge. Our
historian will describe the taking of this key crossing.
Then we pass the British and Canadian Beaches,
Sword, Juno and Gold on the way to the guns at
Longues-sur-Mer, the
battery
against
which HMS
Ajax scored
perhaps
the most
accurate (and
perhaps the
luckiest) hit
of the war.
We’ll see the
evidence that
remains.
Day 7 • Normandy
We’ll spend the morning at Omaha Beach where
the Americans took the German fortifications after a
stupendous fight. Losses were especially high in the
first wave of landings. Today the American Cemetery
stretches along the bluff. We will study the battlefield;
cross the beach,
analyze the
maps and
imagine the
courage that
saved our
freedom that
day. We will also
pay our respects
(at the hundreds
of crosses and
stars of David) to
the deceased.
Point-du-Hoc
is a sheer cliff
some forty
meters high
where the elite
Ranger Force
scaled the German breastworks on D-Day. We will
spend part of the morning there, trying to fathom
how they did it. In the afternoon, we’ll visit Ste.-MereEglise, taken by the American Airborne on D-Day, and
hear the stories of the veterans who took it. After, we’ll
stop at the Paratrooper Museum.
We drive through the lush, scenic countryside of
Normandy and northern France on the way to Paris,
the City of Light.
We arrive in Paris this afternoon. The Allies, preceded
by Free French troops, symbolically reclaimed the
French capital from the Nazis in August 1944. As did
the American troops on leave, you may explore the
city on your own. Some possible visits are the Eiffel
Tower, Les Invalides, which houses Napoleon’s tomb,
Notre Dame cathedral, the Tuilleries and the Louvre.
There is also a Seine River dinner cruise option. The
evening is free.
Day 9 • Home
After breakfast, one group airport transfer will be
provided to the Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG).
Operation
Overlord
$3,090 per person
based on double occupancy
$495 single occupancy supplement
$300 deposit required
Tour Includes:
• Itinerary designed by Dr. Stephen E.
Ambrose
• Full time historian and logistical escort
• Three- and four-star accommodations
• Rooms with private bath or shower, hotel
taxes, porterage and service charges
• Touring by private first class air-conditioned
motor coach
• 7 breakfasts, 5 dinners and a Welcome
Reception
• Channel crossing to Normandy via ferry
• All entrance fees to museums and attractions
Upon return to the hotel, we will gather one last time
for dinner as a group and bid farewell to Normandy
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