So after years of reading about Normandy, and maybe some wargaming, you’re looking forward to your first or a repeat trip to visit Normandy and its battlefields. After nine trips there, we feel at home in Normandy and remain in contact with friends made there. Normandy offers some of the best battlefield visiting in Western Europe. Our most recent trip was in 2019 when we showed a cousin and her family around the D-Day beaches. After they departed, we explored parts of Normandy and Brittany that were new to us. There are areas of Normandy that we have only briefly visited.
I was totally unprepared for our first visit to Normandy in 1999. I had a few good maps and knew that the local tourists offices would provide a brochure, Normandie Terre-Liberté, that included maps for self-guided driving tours marked with historical signage (“NTL Totem”) along the way. Eight tours address the entire Normandy campaign: “Overlord — The Assault” (the British amphibious and air assaults); “D-Day” (the American amphibious and air assaults); “Objective: A Port” (the advance to Cherbourg); “The Confrontation” (British battles around Caen); “Operation Cobra/The Breakout”; “The Encirclement” (from Alençon to l’Aigle); and “The Outcome” (the closing of the Falaise Gap. These tours may still be followed and the NTL Totems have been updated to allow for the downloading of films and additional information to your mobile phone.
Our first trip began in London. Afterward, we took the P&O Ferry from Portsmouth to Le Havre. While in London, we visited the Imperial War Museum (IWM) — in my opinion, one of the few absolutely “must see” WWII museums in Europe. In the museum’s superb bookshop I stumbled upon Major Toni and Mrs. Valmai Holt’s Guide to the D-Day Beaches. The Holts have set the standard for battlefield guide books (and especially for leading amazing guided tours) for the novice and the expert. They started out decades ago taking interested parties to the WWI and WWII battlefields on the Continent and later across the planet. Each tour immersed the visitor into the historical setting and time. The Holts captured much of their experience, as well as stories learned from their tour guests and others met along the way, in their extensive series of battlefield guidebooks. Anything and everything you would need to know, plus first-rate self-guided driving tours, can be found in their guidebooks. The Holts’ guidebook enabled us to maximize our time on the battlefields and we are still amazed by how much we saw on our first visit in a busy week. Particularly helpful were Holt’s tour maps and the driving directions.
My latest edition of their Normandy guide dates to 2013; I’m not sure if there is a more recent edition. But even the 2013 edition would serve you well. There is also a smaller “pocket guide” and their Normandy touring map can be purchased separately. Since that first trip, the Holts have been our guide to the Operation Market-Garden Battlefields, as well as just about every Great War battlefield in Northern France and Belgium.
Also while at the IWM bookshop, I came upon the Battleground Europe series published by Pen & Sword Books. The series provides a greater level of detail on the battles than do the Holts, include self-guided driving tours, but are not as flashy as the Holt’s guide. According to the Pen & Sword Books website, these are still available, although I doubt that they have been updated since the onset of COVID-19. The WWII Battleground Europe series includes Utah Beach and Sainte-Mère-Église, Omaha Beach, Pointé du Hoc, Gold Beach – Jig Sector and West, Merville Battery & Dives Bridges, Pegasus Bridge and Horsa Bridge, Pegasus Bridge/Merville Battery, Sword Beach, Operation Epsom, Hill 112, Cherbourg, Operation Goodwood, Operation Bluecoat, Mont Pinçon, and others. I’ve relied heavily upon them on the battlefield and on the wargaming table. Even if dated, they would be very helpful.
A similar series of battlefield guidebooks, and the one I prefer, is Battle Zone Normandy, by Sutton Publishing. This 14-volume series is apparently still available, although I don’t know to what extent, if any, they have been updated over the years. These are small hardcover books of under 200 pages with detailed historical overviews and several tours. Unlike Battleground Europe, they are in full color and their tours are also easier to follow. Like the Battleground Europe series, even if dated, they would be very useful. The complete series includes one volume on each of the five invasion beaches, and also the Orne Bridgehead, Battle for Cherbourg, Battle for St-Lô, Operation Epsom, Villers-Bocage, Battle for Caen, Operation Cobra, Road to Falaise, and Falaise Pocket. These works have also been very helpful with miniature wargaming.
I know of only two relatively recent Normandy battlefield guide books. Gareth Hughes’ Visiting the Normandy Invasion Beaches and Battlefields: A Helpful Guide for Groups and Individuals, published by Pen & Sword in 2019, is designed for those new to the Normandy Campaign and also as a guide for leading groups of students on Normandy battlefield visits. This is a handy reference for the beginning battlefield explorer or a one-time visitor with limited time. If you are traveling with others unfamiliar with WWII and the Normandy Campaign, this would make a nice “read-ahead” for them.
For those interested in a detailed handbook on Omaha Beach, I recommendBrigadier General Theodore Shuey’s Omaha Beach Field Guide (2015) published by the French publishing company Heimdal, which specializes in detailed books on different aspects of the Normandy Campaign. Although not a guide book per se, a visitor to Omaha Beach would benefit greatly from bringing it along. It’s magazine size and would be easy to carry around the beach.
Keven Dennehy and Stephen T. Powers The D-Day Visitor’s Handbook — Your Guide to the Normandy Battlefield and WWII Paris (2019), published by Skyhorse Publishing, is closer to the Holt’s approach in battlefield guide books. Although quite a bit smaller than the typical Holt’s guide book, it is in many ways similar in purpose and scope. It is focused on the beaches and does not cover the inland battles — that is, most of the Normandy Campaign — in any detail. It also includes a short list of WWII related sites in Paris. All in all, it would well serve the first time visitor to Normandy or one limited by time or interest to the beaches. Its maps and directions are helpful.
Two books worth viewing for those considering a visit to the Normandy battlefields are The Normandy Battlefields: D-Day & the Bridgehead (2014) by Leo Marriott and Simon Forty, and The Normandy Battlefields: Bocage & Breakout (2017) by Simon Forty, Leo Marriott, and George Forty, both published by Casemate books. These impressive coffee table books provide a good pictorial tour and include interesting “then and now” photos.
Referencing “then and now” photos, no serious battlefield visitor would ignore After the Battle magazine, long published by Battle of Britain International, Ltd. on the 15th of February, May, August, and November. In September 2021, After the Battle was sold to Pen & Sword Books. Subscriptions and all back issues are available from that publisher. I would never think of visiting a WWII battlefield without seeing if this superb magazine has an issue that features it. The research that goes into this magazine is simply amazing and I can’t count that times that it helped me locate a hard to find spot.
Last, but definitely not least, Canadian military historian Terry Copp’s A Canadian’s Guide to the Battlefields of Normandy is a superb guidebook. His tours are easy to follow, very detailed and the foldout maps (much like those in the US Army Green Books) are a much appreciated feature. My copy is dated 1994, but it may still be obtainable. Copp also did a similar guidebook covering the remaining Canadian battlefields in northwest Europe from both World Wars.
If you know of additional guidebooks, especially recently published ones, or have comments about those cited above, please note them in comments section or begin a forum discussion so that all viewers may benefit from them.