Arrive in London
The tour begins when your flight arrives at London Heathrow Airport.*** Proceed to the meeting point, join the group, and begin touring London, including the Churchill War Rooms and a short city bus tour. Join us this evening as we finish the night off with a welcome cocktail reception followed by dinner. (D)

Portsmouth
Our morning begins with a visit to Littlecote House, the historic English manor that was headquarters for the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment for the six months before the invasion. Then tour Aldbourne, the tiny Wiltshire village that was the home of E Company, the US Army company referred to as “Easy”. Visit many of the buildings used by the men of Easy as they prepared for the greatest invasion in history. When in the village, we have the opportunity to enjoy a traditional lunch in the same pubs frequented by the men of the Easy Company. (B, D)

Crossing the Channel to Normandy
We continue our tour in Portsmouth with a visit to the award-winning D-Day Museum and Southwick House, the elegant country house which became the location of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. In the months leading up to D-Day, Southwick House became the headquarters of the main Allied commanders: Allied Supreme Commander, General Eisenhower; Naval Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Ramsay; and the Army Commander-in-Chief, General Montgomery. Large wall maps that were used in planning D-Day are still in place in the house, with markers showing the positions of the involved forces at the moments of the first landings. After our visit, we’ll board the cross-channel ferry and sail to France.

We end the evening with a late visit to the bridge over the Caen Canal, today named the Pegasus Bridge, after the symbol of the British airborne forces. Pegasus Bridge, captured by a glider-borne company of the 6th Division British Airborne Troops, was the first engagement of D-Day, and the turning point of World War II.
(B, D)

Normandy
At the start of the invasion, several members of Easy Company landed in and around Sainte-Mère-Église, including Richard Winters, Carwood Lipton, and Bill Guarnere. Here we begin our historical tracings of the 506th in France. This is where Dick Winters took command after the tragic death of Lt. Thomas Meehan. From Sainte-Mère-Église, we follow the route Lieutenant Winters and a handful of men took on the first night of the invasion to Brécourt Manor. In 1944, the manor was the site of a German battery that threatened the invasion of Utah beaches.

From the manor, we proceed to Utah Beach and the Utah Beach Museum. From Ste-Marie-du-Mont, we will travel past Dead Man’s Corner, and into Carentan, the Norman town that was one of the Allies’ earliest objectives. We will see the site of Easy Company’s battle as they entered the town on June 12, and the square from which General Maxwell Taylor presented awards to his men for their gallant performance during the invasion.

Today the American Cemetery stretches along the bluff overlooking Omaha Beach. It covers 172 acres and contains the remains of 9,386 American military dead, most of whom were killed during the invasion of Normandy and ensuing military operations in World War II. The names of the Americans who lost their lives in the conflict, but could not be located and/or identified, are inscribed on the walls of a semicircular garden at the east side of the memorial. We will spend time here to honor and pay our respects to the fallen soldiers and attend the evening flag-lowering ceremony. (B, D)

Normandy to Lille
Rising early this morning, we will drive to Omaha Beach where the Americans took the German fortifications after a stupendous fight. The six-mile-wide invasion beach is surrounded by cliffs that made the landing and attack extremely difficult. Landings here were necessary in order to link with British landings to the east at Gold Beach with the American landing to the west at Utah Beach, thus providing a continuous foothold on the Normandy coast. Very little went as planned during the landing at Omaha Beach and many landing crafts missed their targets throughout the day. German defenses were strong and inflicted heavy casualties on US troops. Losses were especially high in the first wave of landings; there were 2,400 casualties on Omaha Beach alone. We will study the battlefield and hear accounts of the action, cross the beach, analyze the maps, and imagine the courage that saved our freedom that day.

Before departing Normandy, we will visit the Merville Gun Battery, a former German artillery battery, which played a significant role in the D-Day landings of World War II. The battery was heavily fortified and posed a significant threat to Allied forces, and its capture was a critical objective for the success of the Normandy invasion. (B, D)

Lille to Arnhem
Today we study Operation Market Garden, the largest airborne operation of the war. In broad daylight, the 101st Airborne Division parachuted into the Netherlands in a bold strike to seize bridges across rivers and adjacent canals from Belgium to Arnhem. From there we will head to Son, the location of the 506th’s drop zone and the bridge over Wilhelmina. Under the command of Colonel Sink, their mission was to capture the bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal and then advance south to Eindhoven. We will then follow the company’s route into Eindhoven and visit Saint Catherine’s church, where many original liberators gathered in September 1944. Our last stop of the day will be the Veghel battle site, where the 101st Airborne Division fought to keep Hell’s Highway clear of enemy troops. (B, D)

Arnhem
Our travels continue along Hells Highway, the route followed by the British XXX Corps as it attempted to reach its embattled 1st Airborne Division in Arnhem. Our journey will also take us to the famous bridge over the Waal River that was a key objective of Operation Market Garden, the Bridge at Nijmegen. After stopping for lunch at De Westerbouwing Restaurant, which in 1944 was a German observation position, we travel to the Island, a 5-kilometer strip of land between the Neder Rijm and the Waal and the northernmost point of Allied territory. While on the Island, we will visit the E Company positions during the month-long stalemate at the end of Operation Market Garden.

After a stop at Tor Schoonderlogt, a farm that was the 2nd Battalion Headquarters, we will visit Easy Company’s jump-off point for Operation Pegasus, a mission to rescue trapped British paratroopers. Walk the site of the fight at the Crossroads, where E Company attacked and destroyed a company of elite SS soldiers, preventing over 300 German soldiers from joining an attack on the 506th regimental headquarters. Stand in the very spots where American and German forces stood and understand what Stephen Ambrose meant when he said that the best way to understand history is to study the places it was made. (B, D)

Bastogne
Our next stop is Bastogne, Belgium, the site of the division’s epic eight-day stand against the Germans in December 1944. Along the way, we stop at the American Battle Monuments Commissions, Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial at Margraten to pay our respects at the graves of Easy Company men killed in the Netherlands and Belgium. In Bastogne, we visit the Battle of the Bulge Museum and General Anthony McAuliffe’s headquarters during the siege. (B)

Luxembourg
Sunday begins with a visit to the Bois Jacques, Halt Station, and Easy Company’s foxholes overlooking the village of Foy. From Foy we will follow the company’s route through Recogne, stopping to visit the German cemetery, Cobru, Noville, and Luzory. We conclude our day at the American Cemetery in Luxembourg, where General George S. Patton is buried with members of his 3rd Army. (B)

Karlsruhe
From Luxembourg, we head to Fort Simserhof, a beautifully preserved Maginot Line fortification, and a visit to the Musée de la Fortification du Simserhof. Our day concludes with a visit to Hagenau, the site of some of Easy Company’s final battles and several daring patrols. (B)

Berchtesgaden
On April 29, 1945, as they advanced into the Bavarian Alps, Easy Company liberated a satellite of the Dachau concentration camp at Landsberg. We will visit Dachau, the site of some of the most nefarious acts of and against humankind during the war, as we travel south through Bavaria. Constructed in a disused gunpowder factory, Dachau was the first concentration-style camp after which all subsequent concentration camps were modeled. In total, over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were housed in Dachau, with at least 30,000 registered prisoners believed to have died in the camp and its subcamps: notably Jews, resistance fighters, clergymen, politicians, communists, writers, artists, and royalty. The second camp liberated by British or American forces; Dachau was one of the first places where the west was exposed to Nazi brutality. (B)

Berchtesgaden
Our study of Easy Company battlefields ends at Adolf Hitler’s Alpine retreat at Berchtesgaden, where we will visit Eagles Nest and the remains of the vast Nazi Party complex liberated by Easy Company in May 1945. Eagles Nest was built as a 50th birthday present to Hitler from the Nazi party. Perched at 6017 feet, the Eagle’s Nest and the road network leading to it were considered feats of engineering as they were completed in only 13 months’ time in 1937-38. (B)

Berchtesgaden
As it did for the men of Easy Company, our travels will end at Zell am See and Kaprun, Austria, where they celebrated the anniversary of their jump into Normandy with a parachute drop into the waters of the Zell am See Lake. In the evening, we will have a final special banquet, where we can reflect on our trip and the Band of Brothers’ role in securing victory in Europe. (B, D)

Munich – Fly Home
Depart today through Munich to the USA with fond memories of our Band of Brothers Adventure. (B)