NGAUS D-Day Battlefield Tour group posing in front of the NGAUS Monument, Omaha Beach, Normandy, Oct. 2016
This year, NGEF was proud to sponsor the first NGAUS D-Day Battlefield Tour! 15 participants were led by BG (ret) Theodore Shuey on an unforgettable adventure to learn about the sacrifice and victories of Allied forces in Normandy. Archivist Ryan Trainor attended the trip as a representative of NGEF.
The tour explored the Dog Green and Easy Red sectors of Omaha Beach, where the 29th Infantry Division and 1st Infantry Division landed under fire from German defenses arrayed along the beach. Empty pillboxes and artillery emplacements still face the beach today, a testament to the fierce fighting which occurred there. The group also visited the American Cemetery in Normandy, which is perhaps one of the most poignant locations in all of Normandy for American military historians and tourists alike.
General Shuey’s professional experience includes his leadership of the famed 116th Infantry Regiment, the same unit which hit the beach at Dog Green on D-Day. As an avid historian, Shuey has become widely respected by French locals who still thank Americans for their sacrifices to this day. The tour could not have asked for a better guide!
Other locations visited during the battlefield tour included Sainte-Mere-Eglise and Sainte-Marie-Du-Mont, where the American Airborne divisions parachuted in the early morning hours of D-Day in order to secure causeways necessary for moving inland. The group was also able to visit Brecourt Manor, where 1LT Dick Winters, of Band of Brothers fame, led a detachment of men in an assault on a German artillery position.
The group saw remnants of the Mulberry Harbor in Arromanches, portions of the German Atlantic Wall, the 2nd Ranger Monument at Point-Du-Hoc, Utah Beach, and the Germany Cemetery.
Please check our website for information about future D-Day Normandy tours!
