Category Archives: Normandy Trips

Normandy 2013 – Day#7 Friday 7th June

November 4, 2013 – 8:49 pm

Operation BLUECOAT, Sainte-Mère-Église and UTAH Beach Following Operation BLUECOAT In the past, whenever we’ve visited Normandy and followed the tour of Opertion BLUECOAT laid out in the back of Ian Daglish’s book on the subject, we’ve always started at Caumont & made it as far as Le Beny Bocage, or perhaps th e cemetery at […]

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Normandy 2013 – Day#6 Thursday 6th June

August 29, 2013 – 9:18 pm

Bocage, Hill 226 and St Charles de Percy Bocage bagging When reading & talking about the post D-Day fighting one word crops up time and again: “Bocage”. So what was “Bocage” or “The Hedgerow Country” as Americans called it? A dictionary definition is: “the wooded countryside characteristic of northern France, with small irregular-shaped fields and […]

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Normandy 2013 – Day#5 Wednesday 5th June

August 1, 2013 – 10:25 pm

Operation EPSOM & Hill 112 Operation EPSOM revisited So, waking up to a dull & overcast morning (as 5th June was, last year), we set off to follow one of the Tours in the BattleZone Normandy book on Operation EPSOM written by Lloyd Clark. Operation EPSOM was the Allies third attempt to take the D […]

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Normandy 2013 – Day#4 Tuesday 4th June

June 13, 2013 – 10:13 pm

Rouen to Operation GOODWOOD Rouen Leaving Patrick and the brewery, we headed down into Rouen itself for a look around as we’d been through it on a number of occasions without taking any time out for a good sightseeing. So having parked up without too much navigation of Rouen’s one-way system required, we took to […]

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Normandy 2013 – Day#3 Monday 3rd June

June 4, 2013 – 10:25 pm

England to Rouen Normandy, here we come… In which our heroes set out from England, go under the sea & spot the Atlantic Wall on their way south to end with a well-earned beer or three! p bright & early – the restaurant was supposed to be open from 7, but sat outside waiting for […]

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Normandy 2013 – Day#2 Sunday 2nd June

June 4, 2013 – 10:00 pm

Heading South And they’re off! Normandy 2013 here we come… Up bright and early (well, one of us was!) and load up the car… Yes, there are only two of us going! Then on to the Motorway & heading south, with music from our past sounding clear over the CD player. A stop for lunch […]

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Normandy 2013 – Day#1 Saturday 1st June

June 4, 2013 – 9:54 pm

Black Country brewpubs Black Country brewpubs tour So, the great plan was to visit a number of Black Country Brewpubs to set ourelves up for the coming week and a bit in Normandy… Public transport when it works, works really well… unfortunately, it’s very rarely a nice direct route at the time’s you’d like! So, […]

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Normandy tour 2013

June 2, 2013 – 9:17 am

Normandy… And so it came to pass, in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Thirteen, that our heroes did decide that the time had come to once again embark on their quest to quaff ales and wines from far and near, to eat food that they were not sure of and to boldly go […]

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Forgotten Footprints – Normandy Tours

February 14, 2013 – 12:13 pm

If you’re considering a visit to Normandy (and aren’t coming with me!), then I would heartily recommend using the team at Forgotten Footprints. David Mabbutt has a huge amount of knowledge of the Normandy fighting (especially in the Operation BLUECOAT area) and has been really useful to me in my researches into the “Men in […]

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Day 9/10: June 8/9th

September 8, 2012 – 6:23 pm

Back in the UK An early start from St Omer, following the slightly less busy main roads (rather than motorways) saw us arrive back at the Eurotunnel terminal actually in time for an almost leisurely look around… most unusual. Having done that & spent a few final Euros, we set off back to England & […]

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