Utah Beach and Sainte-Mère-Église: The American Landings
Normandy, France
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Utah Beach Liberator
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275
XP
+100 France
= 375 total
2 days
Utah Beach and Sainte-Mère-Église: The American Landings
275 + 100 XP
On 6 June 1944 the US 4th Infantry Division came ashore at Utah Beach, the westernmost D-Day beach, in what proved the least costly of the five landings — its losses for the day did not pass 200 men — while the 82nd and 101st Airborne dropped inland. Sainte-Mère-Église was the first French commune liberated; the paratrooper John Steele hung from its church tower for two hours while the fighting went on below him.
Required Activities
1
of 4
Visit the Musée du Débarquement, built in 1962 on the exact spot the troops landed, and find its Martin B-26 Marauder in the hangar built for it — the type that bombed the German strongpoint WN5 five minutes before the first wave came ashore — and the Higgins LCVP landing craft beside it
2
of 4
Walk the beach and dunes at La Madeleine past the United States monument and the memorials to the 4th and 90th Infantry Divisions, and find the arbre de la liberté set up in 2014, whose 70 metal leaves each carry a veteran's testimony collected by local schoolchildren
3
of 4
Find the dummy paratrooper on the church tower at Sainte-Mère-Église, then walk round to the rue du Général Koenig side, where John Steele actually hung for two hours — the dummy faces the square because that is where the film put him — and look up at the spot six metres lower where Kenneth Russell came down
4
of 4
Visit the Airborne Museum, opened on 6 June 1964 on the site of the house that burned the night of the drop, climb inside its 1943 Waco CG-4A — the only one in France — stand under the C-47 that actually flew the drop on Sainte-Mère-Église that night, and find John Steele's own decorations among the collection
Visit the Musée du Débarquement, built in 1962 on the exact spot the troops landed, and find its Martin B-26 Marauder in the hangar built for it — the type that bombed the German strongpoint WN5 five minutes before the first wave came ashore — and the Higgins LCVP landing craft beside it
Walk the beach and dunes at La Madeleine past the United States monument and the memorials to the 4th and 90th Infantry Divisions, and find the arbre de la liberté set up in 2014, whose 70 metal leaves each carry a veteran's testimony collected by local schoolchildren
Find the dummy paratrooper on the church tower at Sainte-Mère-Église, then walk round to the rue du Général Koenig side, where John Steele actually hung for two hours — the dummy faces the square because that is where the film put him — and look up at the spot six metres lower where Kenneth Russell came down
Visit the Airborne Museum, opened on 6 June 1964 on the site of the house that burned the night of the drop, climb inside its 1943 Waco CG-4A — the only one in France — stand under the C-47 that actually flew the drop on Sainte-Mère-Église that night, and find John Steele's own decorations among the collection
Before you go
The Airborne Museum takes well over a quarter of a million visitors a year and both sites are packed in the first week of June, when roads around Sainte-Mère-Église close for the commemorations and parachute drops. Utah Beach's museum is at La Madeleine in the commune of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, about 10 km from Sainte-Mère-Église, so allow a full day for the pair.
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About Normandy
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
275 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
375 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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