WORCESTERSHIRE veterans of the Normandy landings are being offered the opportunity to visit the former battlefields of northern France this summer.
Many county soldiers took part in the D-Day campaign that started on June 6, 1944. Members of the Worcester-shire Regiment fought throughout the struggle, from the landing beaches to the final stages as the Allies bottled up the German Army in the so-called Falaise Gap.
And now, 63 years after the conflict, survivors of the struggle to free Europe from Nazism are being invited by a leading Midlands war research group to revisit the sites that once echoed to the sounds of conflict.
The War Research Society offers a unique service by escorting relatives to view the graves of their loved ones, a facility that is not normally provided by other tour companies.
Organiser Alex Bulloch said: "We will take people to any of the 18 British cemeteries in the Caen area and there will also be visits to British, Canadian and United States landing beaches."
Of particular interest will be a visit to the recently uncovered German underground fortress complex near the notorious Omaha beach, scene of much bloody fighting on the first day of the D-Day landings.
The bunker system was discovered by Gary Sterne, an amateur historian, after buying a Second World War map from an old American soldier. He discovered the complex buried in brambles, and after finding a secret entrance, was astonished to find a labyrinth of control rooms and equipment abandoned by the fleeing Germans.
Mr Bulloch added: "The tour will take in this underground fortress, which lies in the American sector and had lain undiscovered for more than 60 years when it was found purely by chance in 2005. It has recently opened as an historical interest museum."
The 1st Bn The Worcester-shire Regiment saw much action in Normandy during the summer of 1944 and was present when large numbers of German soldiers were captured after becoming encircled during the final stages of the campaign in northern France.
The trip to Normandy by the War Research Society will be for four days and three nights, returning on Sunday, July 29.
The cost is £250 per person and includes half board at a hotel.
For information on the tour and other trips to the battlefields of northern Europe, contact Alex Bulloch on 0121 4599008 or Brian Long 01629 650780.
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