A MIGHTY ENDEAVOR: D-DAY 1944, FROM ENGLAND TO NORMANDY

May 20-28, 2029

 

Southern Methodist University’s (SMU’s) Center for Presidential History’s Dr. Jeffrey A. Engel and Essential History Expeditions’ Dr. Brian DeToy are pleased to partner for an on-site exploration of London, Portsmouth, Normandy and Paris, walking the cities and beaches where Churchill schemed, Ike commanded, and soldiers fought for Europe’s liberation. In addition, sixteen SMU undergraduates, members of the prestigious Hunt Leadership Scholars program, will join the expedition. Guest-student mentorship opportunities and meaningful discussions are a highlight of this annual trip.

 

This fully guided and immersive tour will explore the people and places of Operation OVERLORD, the June 1944 invasion of Normandy that began Europe’s liberation from Nazi rule. We will walk the beaches and cliffs, learn from local experts and guest lecturers, and have a chance to portray a renowned (or reviled) figure from history to investigate and role-play. Plus, we’ll have plenty of time to explore these iconic sites on your own in some of Europe’s most scenic sites.

  

Long before they launched across the Channel, the Allies transformed Great Britain into a vast armed camp, with millions of soldiers, sailors and airmen poised to assault Hitler’s Fortress Europa. We begin in London, examining the War Rooms of Winston Churchill’s Cabinet along with centuries of history and culture in the capital of the British Empire. Departing London, we will visit the Imperial War Museum at the WWII airbase, RAF Duxford, as well as the university town of Cambridge and the nearby Cambridge American Cemetery. Next, is a visit to the grounds of Bletchley Park where, secret for decades, the ULTRA codebreakers worked tirelessly for allied victory. Our evening will be in the royal town of Windsor, next to its iconic castle. After a morning on your own in Windsor, we are off to Portsmouth, on the Channel coast, where we will discuss seaborne preparations, and visit the invasion headquarters of Dwight Eisenhower at Southwick House. From there we board the large, modern MV Normandie for the crossing to the beaches of France!

 

The events of June 6, 1944, continue to inspire long after the guns have fallen silent. The largest invasion in history, on the isolated Normandy coast, drastically altered the conduct of the war and demonstrated the unflinching resolve of freedom-loving peoples. This D-Day tour will bring guests to the beaches, cliffs and fields; and villages, towns and cities where the Greatest Generation made their most indelible mark. From British glidermen at Pegasus Bridge, to the American infantrymen assaulting the beaches at Bloody Omaha; from American paratroopers jumping behind enemy lines at Ste Mere Eglise and Brecourt Manor to the Rangers climbing the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc to the building of the artificial harbors at Arromanches. And so many other iconic sites.

 

After six weeks in the bocage hedgerows, the Allied armies broke out in Operation COBRA in late July and swept south and west around the German army before turning east to encircle them and move on to Paris. We will follow this advance to its conclusion at the Falaise-Argentan Gap in mid-August. The culmination of the Operation COBRA breakout was the capture of Paris in late August 1944. We will trace the route of allied soldiers from Normandy across the plains to the French capital. In the City of Light, we will visit sites connected with the war, along with time to sample the treasures of several millennia of Western culture. From Ernest Hemingway’s bar in the Ritz Hotel to the Holocaust Memorial to the chance to visit the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and so much more; or simply stroll the Right or Left banks of the Seine as you wander from one amazing location to another.