Memory Tracks
" L e s C h e m i n s d e l a M e m o i r e "
Normandy Battlefields Tours
"US Drop Zones and Utah beach"
Objectives and execution of operations
on June 6th 1944
The need for an extensive landing zone and also for the deep-water port of Cherbourg to supply troops led the Allied command to consider, at the end of 1943, adding a new landing area to the initial plans. A new beach, located in the southeast of the Cotentin peninsula and coded "Utah", was added to the other four just six months before D-Day...
Just east of the landing zone, the use of airborne troops in protection on the western flank seemed indispensable to the Allied High Command.
Tasked with preparing and securing the amphibious landing on Utah, the 82nd and 101st American airborne divisions were entrusted with complex and specific missions.
The 82nd Airborne was given the following objectives:
- Seize the village of Sainte-Mère-Eglise, an important road junction located on Road "Nationale 13", the South-North axis leading to Cherbourg,
- Take control of the bridges over the Merderet River at La Fière et Chef du Pont,
- Destroy bridges on the Douve River,
- More generally, protect the beachhead from German counterattacks from the north and west.
The 101st Airborne received the following missions:
- Take control of the four exits ("causeways") from the Utah beach in order to secure the progression in the lands of men landed by sea,
- Destroy the battery of Saint Martin de Varreville,
- Destroy two bridges on the Douve, take and hold the La Barquette lock and bridges near Brévands, the only three possible crossing points on the Douve between the sea and Carentan,
- Securing the South and West boundaries of the Utah beachhead.
During the launch of the airborne operation - in the first minutes of June 6, 1944 - the American paratroopers encountered the same difficulties as their British comrades of the 6th Airborne: the darkness, the fire of the German anti-aircraft defense, the cloudy weather, the radio silence, the lack of experience of some crews of the aircraft that carried them (...), had the effect of a great dispersion of the drops and therefore a disorganization of airborne forces once on the ground.
Despite this, the men of the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions carried out much of their missions, and their actions - sometimes carried out by small isolated groups -, also had the effect of preventing the German Command from having a clear understanding of events and thus from launching well-coordinated and truly effective counter-attacks.
On Utah beach, despite a navigational error due to the strong current that led the landing crafts to land two kilometres south of the originally planned point, the first boats lowered their ramps at 0630 sharp.
Considerably weakened by the preliminary bombardments of naval artillery and allied aviation, the German defense of the beach quickly gave way and, around 8:00 am, the landing zone was already under control.
The first elements of the 4th American Infantry Division then entered the land, quickly joining the airborne troops.
If the advance of the Americans in the Cotentin later proved more difficult than expected, the landing of June 6, 1944 on the beach of Utah was undoubtedly an allied success.
Success that will be partially overshadowed by the violence of an event taking place at the same time just 20 kms further east: the landing of the 1st and 29th American Infantry Divisions in Omaha beach...
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"US Drop Zones and Utah beach" Tour
(Full-day Tour)
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This tour takes you to the discovery of South Cotentin, in the footsteps of parachutists and airborne troops of the 82nd and 101st Airborne charged with protecting - from the early hours of June 6, 1944 - the landing area of Utah beach and, more generally the western flank of the allied landing zones.
On the coast you will also discover the two areas of the beach of Utah beach, coded "Tare green" and "Uncle red", from where the 4th American Infantry Division launched to liberate France, then Europe...
- Our first step will be the village of Sainte-Mère-Eglise, which has become the ultimate symbol of the American airborne operation. On the spot we will take the time to discover the heart of the village and to review the events that took place there on the night of June 6, 1944.
- We will then drive west to the hamlet and bridge of La Fière, one of the main objectives of the 82nd Airborne. This place was marked by fierce fighting between American paratroopers and elements of the 91st German Infantry Division determined to keep control of this crossing point on the Merderet River.
- A few kilometres away, we will travel on typical roads in the Norman countryside to C-47 Memorial Garden, the crash site of one of the "Dakotas" of 439th Troop Carrier Group. At this location, on 6th June 1944 at 01:14 am, the 4 crew members and 16 paratroopers of the 506th PIR - 6th Coy (101st AB) who were on board lost their lives. There, we will remember them...
Just a few kilometers further, we will then stop at a place where the spontaneous action of a small group of men of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment caused the death of German General Wilhelm Falley - Commander of the 91st Infantry Division - hastily returned from Rennes at the announcement of the first allied parachutes.
- After this route in the heart of the Cotentin and a stop in Neuville au Plain (where on June 6th, Lieutenant Turnbull and his little group of 42 paras had to fight against nearly 200 German soldiers), and a second stop near the Marmion Farm, we will reach the coast and Utah beach, where the first wave of the 4th American Infantry Division landed at 06:30 sharp.
Infinitely more peaceful than 80 years ago, the landscape remains marked by history.
While evoking together the course of the amphibious operation, you can walk through the dunes and discover the remains of the German defense device - bunkers, anti-tank wall... - set up to prevent the success of the allied assault. In vain, because on the evening of June 6, 1944, no less than 23,000 American soldiers landed on this beach.
- Our fifth stage takes us just four kilometres from Utah beach, near the Manoir de Brécourt, where on the morning of 6 June 1944 Lieutenant Richard D Winters and some men from the "Easy company" (101eAirborne) led a memorable assault on a German artillery battery.
In 2001, this feat will be brought to the screen in episode 2 of the cult series "Band of Brothers" created by the duo Steven Spielberg - Tom Hanks.
- After crossing Sainte Marie du Mont, we will reach the sixth and last stage of our circuit, Angoville au Plain. In the heart of this village, you will discover one of the most moving places among all the sites of the Battle of Normandy: the small church "Saint Côme et Saint Damien" in which, for almost 72 hours and while the battle was raging all around, two Medics of the 501st PIR, Robert Wright and Kenneth Moore, gathered and treated more than 80 wounded - Americans and Germans - with very limited means.
80 years later, in the heart of the Church, the traces of those hours, as dark as "luminous", are still visible...
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Private tours only : visit of Museums on the route
The itinerary we will follow will take you close to four important museums evoking D-Day and the battles in the Cotentin:
- The "Airborne Museum" in Sainte-Mère-Eglise;
- The "D-Day Collins Museum", a few kilometers south of Sainte-Mère-Eglise,
- The "Utah Beach Landing Museum", on the beach of Utah itself;
- The "D-Day Experience", a few kilometers north of Carentan-les-Marais.
If visiting museums is not an integral part of the tour, their interest is large enough for us to give you the opportunity, if you wish, to devote an hour and a half - maximum - to visiting one of these four museums.
Practical Information
- Prior reservation required.
- Times (shared tours) : Departure from pick-up point at 08.45. Return around 17.30.
- Rates, and pick-up / drop-off points : Please, see Rates and useful information page.
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