New Member going to France in May.

My wife and I have been to various parts of UK and Europe, but never have visited any WWII sites. Our only relative who fought in WWII was my wife's Uncle Jack, who never told his story until a few years ago. Now that we have it, we'd like to see some of the places he fought.

Jack went over on DDay+3. He was in the188th Field Artillery Group of the First Army VII Corps. They fought in Cherbourg, St Lo, and Caen during June, then Paris, Chateau Thierry and Liege in August and Aachen in September. Then came Hurtgen Forest and The Bulge.

I've read a lot, been to WWII museums in the US and England, and I'm a member of the WWII Roundtable of Newburyport, MA, but we've never been to this part of France. We're planning 8-10 days in May. We want to see things that will give us the best idea for what Uncle Jack saw. Any advice will be appreciated.

On our way, we'll be visiting the Bentley Priory Museum because I've read the book "The Secret Life of Fighter Command", and want to see where that happened. It is about 10 miles from our son's office in NW London.

 

Welcome to the Forum !

I'm sorry that you haven't had any replies to your query - I've been scratching my head ( I live in NW London and have visited most of the areas you've mentioned ). Maybe it's because your question is a bit too broad - for instance, I spent a week in Normandy in 2017 and didn't get to visit even half of things I really wanted to see.....perhaps you can give us a bit more specific info. Do you just want to go to museums ? Or the actual battlefields ? Memorials ? etc etc. To get the best out of 8-10 days can require some tight programming.

It's always tough to gauge interests - especially with battlefields 75+ years on, the success of your trip depends on how deeply you've read.

 

Welcome to the forums, Dick!

 

My theory is to do sort of a survey on the first trip and get to details on the next. I am told there is some sort of little museum in almost every town in the area; I certainly don't need to see them all. Uncle Jack was one of many vets who never said a word about his service until he was old enough that many specifics were lost. Finally, he asked me to write his story, but I had to get a lot of the info from my books, based on mentions of his units. Of course, I suspect he never knew the names of most of the towns he went through. They ones I mentioned in my initial post were the major ones he remembered.

I was thinking we might stay in Caen for 3 days, making short trips to the principal battle sites, then make a one-day drive over to Bastogne (or thereabouts) for another 3-4 days, then do whatever seems interesting for another day or two. Does that make sense?

I've spent some time in Paris & Brussels and, while I'd like to spend some more there, not on this trip.

I probably have 50-60 books on WWII on my shelves, but I've read them over many years, so I'm sure I've lost a lot of detail. I probably should reread some of them before the trip, but that's not going to happen.

Is there some other thread where this topic would receive more attention?