Transfer to Germany

Hi Guys: I need alot of info from our European friends. I am heading to Germany in the next 5 or 6 months. I will most likely be stationed in Heidelburg. Also, I would like a list of battle fields in Europe that are worth seeing (museums, cemetaries, etc.). I study the PTO and have not studied the ETO that much. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks. Steve

 

Alright Steve,

Where do you want to go?

Normandy, for instance, is excellent it is now considered an open air museum by the French.

If you have any areas that you are particularly interested I can help you out with a lot of areas. I am actually in the process of setting up my own battlefield tours company.

 

Hi Gunner: Normandy is at the top of my list. I would also like to go to the Ardennes, Eindhoven and Berlin. Other than those I am open to suggestions. I will be there for at least 3 years. So I will have time to do plenty of exploring and memorabilia shopping.

 

Normandy is a good place to start.

There are the beaches, obviously, all of them excellent. Omaha is especially poignant. Go there and see how hard it was. I'd start at the old German defence line WN 62. It is right by the American cemetery.

The gun battery at Longeurs Sur Mer is a must see. It has the original guns in the casements as well as an old artillery observation post.

Arromanches is good to see the Mulberry Harbours. It has a good museum there too. There is also a 360 degree cinema there. It gives you a short film about the fighting.

There are plenty of museums, but the best one is The Caen Memorial. It not only teaches you about the fighting in Normandy, it tells you how we got to WWII and its' after affects.

See www.memorial.fr for more info.

Inland there are many cemeteries, especially British ones. Places like Tilly Sur Seulles and Villers Bocage are places to visiot just because of the heavyb fighting. Michael Wittmann made his famous tank charge at VB.

The American sectors are well worth looking at. There is a bridge near Avranches for instance where Patton got his army across before going into Brittany. He got something like 14,000 vehicles across. The bridge is so small!

St James is the other American cemetery. There are also the German cemeteries. They are impressive in that they are all dedicated to peace, there are so many dead in them!

I could go on!

There is an excellent book that I will recommend to you as well. However, I don't have here so I will give you the details later.

The bottom line about Europe is that wherever you go there will be something about the wars. I would also recommend that you take time to see the WWI battlefields as well. In many respects they are even more sad than the second one.
The Somme for instance, where 60,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded in one day.

[ 11 August 2002, 10:02 PM: Message edited by: the gunners dream ]

 

Always recommended is fellow forum-member Sommecourt's website, which gives excellent guidelines and has really useful links for the NW Europe area.

Check out the forum links or Sommecourt's profile to get there.

 

Thanks Martin, I had forgotten about Sommecourts site.

 

Hi Steve, and to let you know im FINALLY catching up on my mails (too many damn projects and not senough time) Anyway--what doi you want to know about Heidelberg? I was there in Oct 2000. See the Heidelberg Schloss, walk the famous lighted bridge, see the very beautiful cathedral close to the river, and also eat some good dinner at Zum Roten Ochsen.

 

Hi Carl: Thanks for the ideas. I will be there at least 3 years so I will have time to check most everything. I plan on doing some serious battlefield touring and breaking in my new camera. A friend of mine has a placein Eindhoven so I can spend some time going over the Market Garden route. The army gives me a few advantages to sightseeing as I can get to some areas that are still off limits to civilians due to the possibility of unexploded ordnance. I will keep Otto well stocked with photos once I get going. If you are military personnel you casn take a metal detector into most areas including the Normandy beaches. I'm looking forward to that. Please keep me informed if you think of other areas to visit.

 

Steve,

The book I recommend you buy before going to Normandy is The Battle of Normandy by Gallimard Guides. You should be able to purchase it online from the Caen Memorial website.

It is in line with the Normandy Open Air Museum signs you will see as you tour.

It basically has every memorial listed, every cemetery, every battle. There are also excellent maps and it will give you an idea of the time it will take to do a particular area. I have to say that I would not leave home without it!

 

Hi Steve,

Heidelburg is great. Been there, seen it. Good to have you over here for the next few years!

I don't know how well your knowledge is about Market Garden, but here are some links of museums:

http://www.airbornemuseum.com/

This museum is loacted in Oosterbeek, at the actual Hotel Hartestein which was 1st Airborne Div.'s HQ. You will remember it from the movie. Surroundings have changed a bit though, nowadays. The bridge (at Arnhem) itself, in case you don't know, is completely different now.

There is antoher museum in Arnhem, but they don't have a site and I haven't visited yet:

Arnhems Oorlogsmuseum
Kemperbergerweg 780
Arnhem
Tel. 026-4420958

When in Arnhem, visit the Airborne cemetery in Oosterbeek.

In Eindhoven; Wings Of Liberation Museum

http://www.wingsofliberation.nl/

Self-explaining. About the liberation of Eindhoven and Market Garden.

In Nijmegen (actually groesbeek, which is close by):

http://www.bevrijdingsmuseum.nl/

In Overloon we have the National War and Resistance musum. Overloon is also the place of a big tank battle that not many people know about...No US forces here, but Brits and Canadians pitted against the Germans.

http://www.oorlogsmuseum.nl/

Than of course you have hundreds of museums all over Holland dedicated to the local history or other minor battles. You have some in the province of Zeeland, in South West Holland. This area has been the site of fierce fighting over a prolonged period of time. The invasion cost the Allies just as many casualties as the invasion of Sicily, but far less on the German side. British royal marines had horrendous casualties and the Allies bombed the germans in submission into the end. Great RAF Daytime offensive. When interested I could give some addresses here too.

Then of course you have the Ardennes, but I think there are others here more knowledgable on that subject. I have been to the big memorial in Bastogne. That was impressive. I've always thought that the whole of the ardennes is one big mueseum; every city, town and hamlet seems to have a tank on their main square...

Hope this helps.

Stevin

 

Don't know if it is still there but the US Army base at Baumholder had a nice museum. Luxembourg had alot of great museums on the battle of the bulge. We stayed at a place that had a schloss and it was turned into a museum. Plenty of armour and artillery pieces. I will have to look it up cause I cannot remember the name of the town.

 

Clervaux was the town we stayed in. The Schloss sits on a hill overlooking the town. Can't miss it. Inside, they have uniforms and the course of events of the battle.

 

Hi Steve--quite welcome. Ill see what more I can dig up for you. Oh by the way--at VII Armys HQ in Heidelberg--which used to be a building used by the German Army--at the gate where the guards are--there are two Eagles still there--with the Swaz removed of course. A good friend of mine in Germany lived there for 18 years--born and raised--now he is in Munich. Anyway--I can ask him for more things to see--official and unofficial.

 

At the Post Exchange, they still have the murals dipicting soldiers and the deutsch volk. Pretty nice and interesting.

 

Hi Guys: Thanks for all the info so far. Once I get there let me know if you are looking for anything inparticular and I will try to find it for you (just dont ask for a Tiger Tank, ME262 etc.).

 

I definitely will take you up on that offer. Aaah eiseweine mmmmmmmmmmm good. Too bad I can't have any jagerschnitzel shipped to me..

 

Hi PzJgr: What is jagerschnitzel?

 

Well, Steve. Remember that Europe is not only WWII. You must visit Verdun and the Somme, and remember the deads of millions in the bloodiest battles in History. It is quite impressive to watch the artillery shell's holes and old trenchers still in the ground. Normandy and the old Maginot line are interesting. You can go to Waterloo in Belgium and visit many places of both battles of the Ardennes. Sedan, place of three important battles in the history of France and Germany.

You can visit the nice bridges over the Rhein and once you're there visit the most beautiful city there is: Cologne.

 

Hi Freidrich: I plan on seeing everything possible. I will spend some time at the WW1 battlefields also. I wont miss Cologne or Dresden, I've been wanting to visit them for several years.

 

Hmmmm, Jagerschnitzel with Pommes Fritz....Don't you miss it Friedrich. It is a Schnitzel with mushroom sauce over it. You will love it.