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Utah Beach/Sainte-Mere Eglise' 2000
A Tour Through the D-day Beaches and Historic Sites of Normandy
June 18-21, 2000
Dedicated to those who served with the Allied Forces in World War II
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| Utah Beach was one of the two beaches that US forces landed at on D-Day. It is the Western-most beach in the D-Day landings. The US paratroopers landed at the nearby city of Sainte-Mere Eglise (see below) and at other locations inland and throughout the Cherbourg peninsula. |
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| The US 101st and 82nd airborne divisions landed in and arouond the city of Sainte-Mere Eglise which is approximately 10 miles from Utah Beach. There are numerous monuments to US and other allied forces in and around Sainte-Mere Eglise. A dummy of a US paratrooper still hangs on the church steeple (see above pics) where an actual US paratrooper landed and "played dead" so the German occupiers would not shoot him. Many of the streets of Ste-Mere Eglise are named after American heroes of the battle to liberate the city. The US paratroopers landed the night of June 5th and faced both strong German opposition and many other problems such as bad drops all over the countryside and on top of German positions. Also the Germans flooded much of the terrain, which made it difficult to move troops and supplies in this area. |
