Our group of 20 completed the Beyond Band of Brothers D-Day History Tour on March 29, 2009. Overall the experience greatly exceeded my expectations. A number of us arrived at Heathrow Airport near London and were met by BBOB tour guides, Thiery & Laslo, just outside of baggage claim. Others were also met and transported by motor coach to the Marriott Hotel in Swindon, England. This was the area where Easy Company and many others were stationed, trained for the D-Day invasion, and experienced English wartime hospitality. In addition to the great food and lodging of the all-inclusive tour, we began to get acquainted and viewed multiple dvd’s about the wartime witnesses whom we would meet the next day and early segments of Tom Hank’s and Stephen Spielberg’s HBO series, Band of Brothers.

Those who chose the Companion Tour began their history tour in London and ultimately rejoined our BBOB group. They consistently raved about the quality of their urban history tours that also included Paris, Amsterdam, and Salzburg (not a “shopping” tour).

Our military history group toured Littlecote House (an English estate started about 1240). Colonel Sink’s office was in the library and the paratroop training grounds were in the surrounding area. The wartime witnesses filled in much information about their experiences with the Americans and conditions at the time. We then traveled to Portsmouth where we had dinner, toured the area, and then boarded the Brittany Ferry for a nighttime crossing of the English Channel. The ferry was like an 8-deck cruise ship and we had a French-style continental breakfast the next morning.

We arrived by motorcoach at the Hotel Mercure in Caen, France, and then traveled to the Dead Man’s Corner Museum in Carentan for an escorted tour by the proprietor. Much of the wood frame house (museum) is in its original condition and has had an extensive D-Day Museum added. The site is at the top of a low rise that has a clear view of the deadly Purple Heart Lane that is just up from Utah Beach. It was just one small part of the Atlantic Wall (“Hitler’s Fortress Europe”) that had roughly 500,000 obstacles, 6.5 million mines, 13,000 fortified coastal strongholds, 3,300 artillery pieces, and 1,300 enemy tanks.

After lunch in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, we passed Brecourt Manor, site of Easy Company’s successful assault on German artillery positions and then we toured Utah Beach and the commemorative museum there.

On day 4 we toured the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer and after lunch we visited the German battery in Longues-sur-Mer near the coastal town of Arromanches-les-Bains. We viewed the Kieffer Commando museum in Ouistreham that acknowledges the French contribution to the D-Day invasion. Dinner included the opportunity to speak with one of the French witnesses, a former commando with General Charles de Gaulle’s Free French Forces.

Day 5 we traveled by coach to drop zones along the Waal River (a Dutch portion of the Rhine and pronounced “Vaal”) near the famed bridges and dike roads of the city of Nijmegen. a city dating back to Roman times, in the Netherlands. We viewed the paratrooper memorial near the area where the 101st Screaming Eagles and the 82nd All-American Airborne Division crossed the Waal River in accordion-like canvas boats under great fire. The National Liberation Museum commemorates the D-Day invasion and liberation of Holland. During our tour of the museum our group had witness presentations. The evening was spent at the hilltop Golden Tulip Valmonte Hotel in Berg en Dal (founded in 1945). It was well above the city and appeared quite modern.

Day 6 included a motorcoach tour of city of Nijmegen. The next major assault was known as Operation Market Garden. It was the beginning of the Allies’ over-extended efforts to end the European war before Christmas, 1944. We viewed two different sites: the Crossroads Fight where Easy Company cleaned out a major group of German SS troops and the town of Driel where Polish troops fought along side of the British. We also viewed the film, A Bridge Too Far, as we traveled by motorcoach. The film outlined the hastily-planned operation that was numerically bigger than the Normandy invasion, but was over-extended because supplies were trucked from Normandy as the port of Antwerp was not yet secured. That evening we traveled to Belgium’s Ardennes Forest and the Melba Hotel in Bastogne. Remember to check out some of the triple-brewed Belgium beers as well as the local cuisine.

Day 7 included travel to the very small Duchy of Luxembourg and a tour of the National Military History Museum. The multi-storied facility is probably the most complete and extensive WWII museum in the world and was once very much a part of the military action as the Germans were being pushed back to their own borders. We all sensed something of the feeling of liberation that was experienced by the local inhabitants.

We returned to Bastogne, where the 101st Airborne Screaming Eagles defended the besieged crossroads town during a bitter winter and approximately 40-days of fighting during the Battle of the Bulge. Later we saw the Bastogne Historical Center and Mardasson monument. In the very quaint and friendly town of Bastogne we met with witnesses and had dinner at the Brasserie 1900. The city center pays tribute to General Anthony C. McAuliffe for saying “Nuts” to the German demand for surrender. The 101st never acknowledged being “rescued” by Patton. It was on December 26, 1944, that Patton’s Third Army broke through the German lines at Bastogne. We then viewed the vintage film, Battle of the Bulge, with Henry Fonda which has some interesting features but grossly condenses and over-simplifies a 40-day winter siege involving up to 600,000 Allied forces under assault by up to 400,000 German infantry and armored troops. We also viewed several large cemetery areas for the abandoned German soldiers killed in the battle.

Day 8 included a visit to the American cemetery in Hamm, Luxembourg, which is also the site of Gen. George S. Patton Jr.’s gravesite and the final resting place of many Easy Company soldiers. We then traveled to Bavaria and stayed at the Goggl Hotel in Landsberg, Germany. The hotel was quite comfortable and had been first built in the 1600’s. The gated, Medieval town near Munich was built around a waterfall and was home to Landsberg Prison where Adolph Hitler served nine months of a five year sentence for participation in an attempt to over-throw the Weimar Republic. Tragically, he was released early as “a low security risk.”

Day 9 involved a guided tour of Landsberg, a Jewish cemetery and remnants of a concentration camp liberated by the American army. We then toured the vastness of the Dachau concentration camp near Munich that was early on converted from an ammunition factory to an inhuman work camp designed for 6,000 residents and eventually holding well over 30,000. It was systematic in the dehumanization process and never had a rebellion during twelve years of operation. It was one of over 1,000 camps in Europe and was only incidentally a death camp compared to the Birchenau Death Camp in Poland and other sites where millions were brutally killed. The guided tour at the Dachau facility is quite moving and almost surreal considering the magnitude of the individual tragedies that occurred there and at other camps. You must be there to feel it.

Day 10 involved the coach trip to Berchtesgaden and the excellent historical museum at Obersalzberg high in the Bavarian Alps. The Free State of Bavaria was the birthplace of National Socialism. A young corporal, still in the army, was sent to investigate this subversive group and would soon become its most articulate and fanatic leader. This narrow-focused misfit considered himself a military genius on land, a coward at sea, and was phobic about heights. He visited the Eagle’s Nest a total of ten times and never for more than 30 minutes. This could be the high point of your Beyond Band of Brothers tour. The actual experience will be uniquely memorable for a lifetime. You’ve been aware of WWII all of your adult life and viewed much on the History Channel, now’s the chance to experience the Normandy invasion personally. Don’t miss out.

Recruit a fellow history-buff and call Jay Kimmel at CoryStevens Travel for information about booking this very special tour and commemoration of D-Day Normandy at 503-328-9339 (PDT)

I will be participating in the first Beyond Band of Brothers History Tour this year. This tour will honor the 65th anniversary of D-Day Normandy, June 6, 1944, and will trace much of Easy Company's (101st Airbourne Division, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment) WWII experience in Europe. The tour includes Easy Company sites of interest in England, a ferry crossing of the English Channel from Portsmouth to Normandy Beach. Caen, Carentan, Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, Colleville-sur-Mer, and Arromanches-les-Bains, France, will also be visited. The tour moves on to Nijmegen in the Netherlands, sites of Operation Market Garden, and the Ardennes Forest of Belgium. After stops in Hamm, Luxembourg, including the site of Gen. George S. Patton's grave, we visit Bastogne and the site of the Battle of the Bulge. Actual WWII witnesses will be a part of the tour throughout. We also travel to the Jewish Cemetery in Landsberg, Germany, and the infamous Dachau concentration camp. This particular tour may not be able to include the Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden but will also include time in Salzburg and Munich and much more. Anyone who books this now discounted tour through me at www.beyondbandofbrothers.com is welcome to a copy of my notes from that very special history tour. Jay

U.S. Navy Seabees at Normandy
In Stephen Ambrose’s book, D-Day: June 6, 1944, he notes that demolition teams of Seabees and Army engineers were assigned the tasks of blowing gaps in beach fortifications to allow for landing craft. It is that supreme effort under shellfire that has been a hallmark of the U.S. Navy Seabees. Armies may move on their stomachs, but without continued supplies at the right moment that movement grinds to a halt. On D-Day, and right after, the Seabees provided steel or pre-cast pontoon segmented piers to create causeways, piers, and loading docks to facilitate successful landings. Eleven pontoon barges each (Rhino ferries – 30 boxes long and 6 boxes wide with a huge outboard motor) were launched on the first day at Omaha and Utah beaches and delivered loads that landing ships (LST’s) couldn’t accomplish. “Phoenixes,” 200-foot long” concrete (pontoon) barges were later brought in and sunk to form breakwaters along with sunken cargo ships to rapidly form harbors while faced with mines, underwater obstacles, hostile aircraft, battery and machinegun fire. What were the chances for a similar outcome without the Navy Seabee’s “magic boxes?”

Jays WWII and Antiquity

The year 2009 is the 65th anniversary of D-Day Normandy. I'll soon be taking the D-Day tour. See www.beyondbandofbrothers.com for details and comments. My interests are in watershed moments such as Pearl Harbor, D-Day and events that changed the world. My history site is www.corystevens.com and includes Seabees, ancient battles, Indian wars, etc. Feb. 12, 2009, is also the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's and Abraham Lincoln's birth. Two giants of history, rigtht? And how about Akhenaten?