Which is the "best" French battle memorial?
Discussion
Steviesam said:
I know that nothing like this can be described as "the best" for obvious reasons, but I would like to go and visit some WW1/2 French memorials/battle grounds.
There are lots, Ypres, Somme, Versailles etc.
Has anyone been to any and if so, which one would you recommend.
Thanks
Cant help you with any info but I'm in a similar situation.There are lots, Ypres, Somme, Versailles etc.
Has anyone been to any and if so, which one would you recommend.
Thanks
Went to a War Cemetery as a school boy and the memory has stayed very strong.
My Wife said this year that she would like to visit one.
We are passing through France on a drive down to Portugal in a few weeks time and staying in Rouen for a night so looking for somewhere in that area.
Having explored the French coast over a number of years, and with a bias to WWII history, it's a big call to choose a single spot and memorial. Even so you have to have an imagination to truly understand the events which took place at each site. For instance, Omaha beach no longer echoes to the machine guns seen in 'Saving Private Ryan', it still chills, nor does the River Dives near Falaise suggest that the German Army was in full retreat across the limited limited bridges and fords while being pounded by rocket firing Typhoons, but in my mind the ghosts remain everywhere.
My last two trips to France covered the port of Dieppe having read Ronald Atkin's book, " Dieppe 1942 - The Jubilee Disaster ", and Bruneval where the famous raid took place to capture the radar equipment ( a good display of information along the cutting where the commandos kept the local barracks occupied ), and on the west coast, St. Nazaire and La Rochelle to see the U-boat pens - a fitting monument to the huge losses experienced by the sub-mariners.
As a starting point, I'd begin at Point d'Hoc where the American Rangers stormed the cliffs to neutralise the enemy guns. The huge craters from the naval bombardment remain as do many of the interlinked block-houses and a good introduction is on Wikipaedia. Then, just work your way east along the coast. Many of the bunkers and fortifications of the Atlantic Wall remain and allowing several days will only scrape the surface although the main sites are readily accessible and sign-posted as they are now protected national monuments.
I will admit that I have not started looking at the area around Bolougne and Calais but I've noticed that many french movies use the bunker ruins in many background shots. Time for more research.
To give you a flavour of what you might see :
http://walk-and-bike-in-france.com/2014/06/04/fran...
My last two trips to France covered the port of Dieppe having read Ronald Atkin's book, " Dieppe 1942 - The Jubilee Disaster ", and Bruneval where the famous raid took place to capture the radar equipment ( a good display of information along the cutting where the commandos kept the local barracks occupied ), and on the west coast, St. Nazaire and La Rochelle to see the U-boat pens - a fitting monument to the huge losses experienced by the sub-mariners.
As a starting point, I'd begin at Point d'Hoc where the American Rangers stormed the cliffs to neutralise the enemy guns. The huge craters from the naval bombardment remain as do many of the interlinked block-houses and a good introduction is on Wikipaedia. Then, just work your way east along the coast. Many of the bunkers and fortifications of the Atlantic Wall remain and allowing several days will only scrape the surface although the main sites are readily accessible and sign-posted as they are now protected national monuments.
I will admit that I have not started looking at the area around Bolougne and Calais but I've noticed that many french movies use the bunker ruins in many background shots. Time for more research.
To give you a flavour of what you might see :
http://walk-and-bike-in-france.com/2014/06/04/fran...
For WW1 this site is your friend - http://www.greatwar.co.uk/places/french-flanders-c...
Assuming by "French memorials/battle grounds" you mean those IN France rather than those FOR the French I'd 'recommend' the Neuville-Saint-Vaast German cemetery, just North of Arras as it has a very different feel to the allied ones and home to almost 45,000 soldiers.
It's also worth just driving around and stopping when you spot one of the smaller, less visited cemetaries.
Assuming by "French memorials/battle grounds" you mean those IN France rather than those FOR the French I'd 'recommend' the Neuville-Saint-Vaast German cemetery, just North of Arras as it has a very different feel to the allied ones and home to almost 45,000 soldiers.
It's also worth just driving around and stopping when you spot one of the smaller, less visited cemetaries.
The American Cemetery at Point Du Hoc left a pretty lasting impression on me as a 12 year old boy (not easy to do 
).
It's the one at the start of Saving Private Ryan and is just row after row of crosses with the names of boys not yet into their 20s.
Really brings home their sacrifice during a pretty black and white war... Sadly things are much greyer these days.
M.
).It's the one at the start of Saving Private Ryan and is just row after row of crosses with the names of boys not yet into their 20s.
Really brings home their sacrifice during a pretty black and white war... Sadly things are much greyer these days.
M.
If you base yourself in Bayeux for a couple of days you can do the American beaches and St Mere Eglise as well as Juno (Courselles sur Mer) and Sword (Arromanches). They all have amazing museums. You can also visit the German battery at Longues sur Mer where the actual guns are still in situ in the shell-pocked pill boxes.
You can book a guided tour of Omaha, Utah and St Mere Eglise (paratroop museum) and the mini-bus will pick you up and drop you back at the your hotel.
You can book a guided tour of Omaha, Utah and St Mere Eglise (paratroop museum) and the mini-bus will pick you up and drop you back at the your hotel.
Edited by audidoody on Wednesday 6th April 23:27
I agree that Pointe du Hoc is worth a visit.
If you want to go and see cemeteries then make sure you see an American one, a British/Commonwealth one, and a German one because it is worth comparing them.
The German one at La Cambe is worth hunting down, but wasn't that easy to find 30 years ago.
And watch The Longest Day before you go
If you want to go and see cemeteries then make sure you see an American one, a British/Commonwealth one, and a German one because it is worth comparing them.
The German one at La Cambe is worth hunting down, but wasn't that easy to find 30 years ago.
And watch The Longest Day before you go
I'm planning a WW1 tour for a group of friends at the moment. As it's the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, we're focussing on those sites starting with a drive along the coast road (D940) from Calais to the military cemetery at Etaples. We're staying a night in Le Touquet then heading inland to spend three nights at either Albert or Bapaume when we'll visit Serre to pay our respects to the Pals Battalions, the memorial and visitor centre at Thiepval, the Lochnagar Crater - that's about as far as I've planned at the moment.
We're going in September, all in classic Rileys, so we're not intending to cram too much into each day; having been to some of the sites two years ago, I found it a very emotional and humbling experience as both my grandfathers were at the Somme (both survived though one was wounded).
As it's a very special year with regards to WW1, we're ignoring WW2 this trip; that's for next year.
We're going in September, all in classic Rileys, so we're not intending to cram too much into each day; having been to some of the sites two years ago, I found it a very emotional and humbling experience as both my grandfathers were at the Somme (both survived though one was wounded).
As it's a very special year with regards to WW1, we're ignoring WW2 this trip; that's for next year.
Edited by Riley Blue on Saturday 9th April 13:08
Went last year to Belgium and France....not a memorial but well worth a trip to Oradour
www.oradour.info
ETA We found the WW1 memorials incredibly moving. .
www.oradour.info
ETA We found the WW1 memorials incredibly moving. .
Edited by E31Shrew on Saturday 9th April 12:04
Cyder said:
The last post at the Menin Gate in Ypres at 8pm is really come thing worth going to at least once. Standing in the gate looking at the thousands and thousands of names of people who left but never returned and were never found is quite moving.
I agree,it has the names of 54,395 guys who died in the Ypres Salient.When you realise these were just the ones who`s bodies were never found it makes you think.I used to live on the Somme and you can get round huge amounts of them in a day - there's even a route you can follow and stop off at loads of them on the way.
Somme there's just loads
- la Boisselle and the Lochnager mine crater. It's big
- Albert museum under the Basilica
- Longueval south African memorial is beautiful
- Thiepval monument
- Newfoundland Park canadian park
All those are about 5 minutes drive between each, and there are more other things between them than you can count.
Belgium - best (IMO) WW1 museum going is at Passchendaele. Great place.
WW2 stuff - St Omer not far from Calais - La Coupole V2 launch site is very much worth a visit.
Normandy - ^^^ others have mentioned the various cemetaries. The German one at La Cambe is good (not hard to find now - it's right off the autoroute). American one is typical American. All beautifully kept. There's a good museem on the roundabout on the road outside the US cemetary too - you can't miss it as it's got loads of tanks outside. There's really so much to see all over the place.
My favourite cemetary is a little British one a few minutes out of Arromanches in a place called Ryes - it's unusual in that it has several German soldiers there in amongst the British ones, and I find it all the more poignant because of that. I never fail to visit that one.
Somme there's just loads
- la Boisselle and the Lochnager mine crater. It's big
- Albert museum under the Basilica
- Longueval south African memorial is beautiful
- Thiepval monument
- Newfoundland Park canadian park
All those are about 5 minutes drive between each, and there are more other things between them than you can count.
Belgium - best (IMO) WW1 museum going is at Passchendaele. Great place.
WW2 stuff - St Omer not far from Calais - La Coupole V2 launch site is very much worth a visit.
Normandy - ^^^ others have mentioned the various cemetaries. The German one at La Cambe is good (not hard to find now - it's right off the autoroute). American one is typical American. All beautifully kept. There's a good museem on the roundabout on the road outside the US cemetary too - you can't miss it as it's got loads of tanks outside. There's really so much to see all over the place.
My favourite cemetary is a little British one a few minutes out of Arromanches in a place called Ryes - it's unusual in that it has several German soldiers there in amongst the British ones, and I find it all the more poignant because of that. I never fail to visit that one.
For the 1st World War Western Front, I think the "must do" ones have already been mentioned.
It's worth - I think - looking out for something with a personal attachment; it's hard to describe how moving it is visiting the graves of your two great uncles who died within a week of each other in July 1916 on the Somme. I also look out anything where the Royal Engineers saw action and, a few years ago, was incredibly moved at the CWGC cemetery at Wancourt, having spent every assembly for five years at school looking at a painting that hung in Main Hall entitled "The gallant Suffolks fighting back to back on the Wancourt Road"
It's worth - I think - looking out for something with a personal attachment; it's hard to describe how moving it is visiting the graves of your two great uncles who died within a week of each other in July 1916 on the Somme. I also look out anything where the Royal Engineers saw action and, a few years ago, was incredibly moved at the CWGC cemetery at Wancourt, having spent every assembly for five years at school looking at a painting that hung in Main Hall entitled "The gallant Suffolks fighting back to back on the Wancourt Road"
The ossuary, fort and battlefield at Verdun are definitely worth a visit if you travel to north eastern France
The bones of 130000 French and German soldiers are interred there, most of whom were killed by artillery fire. Walking among the battlefield craters is a real eye opener.
230,000 men were killed and over 400,000 were wounded in 300 days in one of the bloodiest battles of WW1
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douaumont_Ossuary
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Verdun
The bones of 130000 French and German soldiers are interred there, most of whom were killed by artillery fire. Walking among the battlefield craters is a real eye opener.
230,000 men were killed and over 400,000 were wounded in 300 days in one of the bloodiest battles of WW1
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douaumont_Ossuary
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Verdun
Another nod for the Menin Gate in Ypres. Unbelievably humbling.
I went last year to find my grandfathers grave in Hoodge Crater Cemetery.
There is a book of all those at rest in the cemeteries in a locker by the entrance.
Only thing that ruined it a bit for me on that trip was a school party where the kids were let free to run around all over the place!
I went last year to find my grandfathers grave in Hoodge Crater Cemetery.
There is a book of all those at rest in the cemeteries in a locker by the entrance.
Only thing that ruined it a bit for me on that trip was a school party where the kids were let free to run around all over the place!
I was in Douaumont last weekend, on a family trip with my 5yo daughter. There are about 15,000 crosses in front of the ossuary, all with a name on them and as we started walking my daughter asked me to read the names off the crosses as we walked; that really brought a tear to my eye as I read out the names to her one by one.
Totally pointless war about nothing and it set Europe up for the second world war too.
Totally pointless war about nothing and it set Europe up for the second world war too.
Gassing Station | Holidays & Travel | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff