World war 2 beaches and beyond.

[tweetstreet]

im looking to do the Normandy beaches in July with a few mate and then onto Berchtesgaden in Germany. Going on motorbikes but on here to looks for some advice on something to stops at for an hour or 2 in France as we head east towards Germany.

The aim is to go from Caen to most likely Nantes in 1 day so wondering if there is anything of interest war related we could stop at?

The same would apply then for southern Germany when we travel from Nantes to Berchtesgaden.

Thanks tweets

 

[Ghandi's Flip Flops]

Compared to NW France & the Lowlands, not much happened towards the South of France and the interior on the way towards Germany.

I think the u-boat pens at St-Nazaire (on the way to Nantes) are still viewable, plus a small museum with some stuff about the Raid.

There's also Oradour-sur-Glane about 300km SE of Nantes, but other than those i can't think of much else, so if you carry on towards Germany/Austria border you'll just see a lot of pretty french countryside.

If you're really interested in WW2 sites i'd personally start to the west of Normandy and head NE up towards Belgium before swinging SE towards Germany/Austria (maybe by the way of Metz/Verdun)

Lots of WW1/WW2 museums, battlefields, cemeteries along that route

 

[Dicko69]

Mont saint Michel, awesome place

 

[tweetstreet]

Cheers guys, I've done the beaches before and love all things war. But the other 3 guys haven't seen them before and the main plan is to do the eagles nest in Berchtesgaden the beaches are a bonus as the ferry crossing takes us close and as 2 of the guys are relatively young I thought it'd be brilliant to take in the beaches and the war graves particularly as looking last night we can find graves with young lads with the same name as them at bayeux cemetery.

If there's not much inland of interest war related we'll take anything interesting as it'll help break up a 6 hour ride. There is a a VC winner from our local area and I've visited where he won it but unfortunately there nothing there to commemorate it. He has a school named after him here and one of the lads went to that school so it's a shame there isn't something to show him of what that brave man achieved. Sir Tasker Watkin if any of you history buffs are aware of him.

 

[Como Cat]

Le Struthof concentration camp in the Vosges, near Strasbourg and in some lovely countryside.

 

[tweetstreet]

Le Struthof concentration camp in the Vosges, near Strasbourg and in some lovely countryside.

Thanks mate, that's right in the route into Germany too by the looks of it. We'll look into that

 

[Bozo]

Probably a bit too far out of your way, but I stopped at the Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery/Memorial in Arras a couple of years ago on my way back to Calais. A great uncle of mine died in the Battle of Arras, I was the first member of our family to see his name on the memorial there. Stunning area.

 

[unexpected item]

There's quite a bit of the Siegfried Line left (Germans called it the West Wall) on the western borders of Germany next to Belgium. Also in this area is the Huertgen forest, site of one of the bloodiest battles of WW2 where the American tanks got stopped by relatively small numbers of German troops.

https://wargamecenter.wordpress.com...e-huertgen-forest-and-the-siegfried-line/amp/

 

[jazzy]

As you travel through France you can see the entire country as a museum of collaboration as less than 0.25% had anything to do with the resistance.

 

[Two Gun Bob]

If you break of you could visit the airborne museam at Arnhem.
Arnhem is a pretty town and has some good eateries and bars.
About a 15 minute walk to the john frost bridge