Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours

Overnight Flight to London

This tour is the brainchild of the late Dr. Stephen E. Ambrose and further developed by Capt. Ronald Drez. Ambrose and Drez designed this itinerary after thousands of hours of interviews with veterans, study of the battlefields, research and writing. Thanks to their experience with the terrain and knowledge of the history, we are able to present a tour that is unmatched in its authenticity.

Please sit back and relax on your overnight flight!

London

Check into the hotel where the entire group will gather for an evening welcome reception. Our historian will treat us to our first lecture, with introductions all around.

London

The morning city tour will focus on WWII London. In the afternoon we will visit the Imperial War Museum, which houses authentic examples of World War II weaponry and an exhibit of World War I trench warfare. Then we proceed to the Churchill War Room, part of the underground nerve center of Britain’s war effort.

Each evening as we gather for a meal, we’ll have the opportunity for an informal discussion of our experiences.

Portsmouth

We leave London on the way to Portsmouth. In Hendon, we’ll view an array of historic aircraft at the RAF Museum and the Battle of Britain Museum. In Portsmouth, we’ll visit the award winning D-Day Museum.

Caen

Following breakfast, we will visit the Royal Marine Museum and see Nelson’s HMS Victory. If time permits, we’ll visit the British Naval Museum.

In the afternoon, we board the cross-channel ferry. Dinner is served during the trip. We will then board our coach and travel to Caen.

Caen

After breakfast at the hotel, our tour begins where the first shots were fired, at the crucial Pegasus Bridge. Our historian will describe the taking of this key crossing.

Then we pass the British and Canadian Beaches, Sword, Juno and Gold on the way to the guns at Longues-sur-Mer, the battery against which HMS Ajax scored perhaps the most accurate (and perhaps the luckiest) hit of the war. We’ll see the evidence that remains.

After lunch we will view the Tapestry and Cathedral of Bayeux which commemorates the Norman conquest of England. Done in the Eleventh Century, it is a finely embroidered work on linen.

Caen

Well spend the morning at Omaha Beach where the Americans took the German fortifications after a stupendous fight. Losses were especially high in the first wave of landings. Today the American Cemetery stretches along the bluff. We will study the battlefield; cross the beach, analyze the maps and imagine the courage that saved our freedom that day. We will also pay our respects (at the hundreds of crosses and stars of David) to the deceased.

Point-du-Hoc is a sheer cliff some forty meters high where the elite Ranger Force scaled the German breastworks on D-Day. We will spend part of the morning there, trying to fathom how they did it. In the afternoon, well visit Ste.-Mere-Eglise, taken by the American Airborne on D-Day, and hear the stories of the veterans who took it. After, we’ll stop at the Paratrooper Museum.

Upon return to the hotel, we will gather one last time for dinner as a group and bid farewell to Normandy and this wonderful campaign into history.

Paris

On the way to Paris well view the Bridge at Troarn, the D-Day objective of the 3rd Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers.

We arrive in Paris by noon. Tour members can join the group in exploring the city, or make their own way. In the afternoon, before check in at the hotel, we will visit the area around the Eiffel Tower and Les Invalides, which houses Napoleons Tomb. The evening is free, with easy access from the hotel to Notre Dame, the Tuilleries and the Louvre.

Home

After breakfast, an airport transfer will be provided to the Paris Charles DeGaulle Airport (CDG).