WW II Battlefield Tour: Western Front

If trains go to what you want to see, take the train.
For destinations away from rail lines, you have 3 choices:
join a tour that provides van transportation
use public buses
rent a car

Just so you don't have a car in London.
And try to avoid having a car and driving into any large urban area.

Don,

A few thoughts on your travel plans.....

• Duxford - you can also get there by train. The best station to use is probably Royston, as they have a Taxi rank. There is a closer station but it's very small. I have no information on Debden. Does your son have any interest in Bletchley Park as that's another interesting Museum (very much in the news these days because of the movie The Imitation Game). I'm also planning a visit there later this year, so have been doing some research.
• Bovington & the Tank Museum - I believe you can get there by Bus from London, but I've always had a rental car so have never really checked the details. I'd suggest planning the better part of a day, as there's a LOT to see there, including the fully restored Tiger 131, which they do run at special events. As I recall, 131 uses the Maybach engine out of the King Tiger, which is also on display at the Museum.
• Another interesting Museum - you may not have time, but another fantastic place to visit is the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton. Having a rental car would be beneficial to get there. It's a large facility so again I'd plan for the better part of a day.
• D-Day beaches - I'd highly recommend taking one of the excellent local tours there, as you'll learn far more about the history than if just driving around on your own. The guides are extremely knowledgeable and have facts that aren't in any books (which they obtained by talking to veterans who have taken their tours). If you need the names of some of the tour firms in that area, post another note. If you decide to take at least one tour, booking SOON would be a really good idea. They won't be cheap, but well worth the cost (IMO).
• Paris - what sights are you planning to see there? Invalides has quite a good display of WW-I & WW-II history.
• Berlin - there are some really good walking tours offered by Original Berlin Walks (including the Bunker, which is now just a car park). There are also Berlin Underground tours and I vaguely recall that it's possible to tour one of the Flak Towers (can't remember the details). You could also take a day tour to Sachsenhausen which I'm sure would be of interest. Taking a tour would be best for that (IMO) as it covers the history, from the "wild camps" to the construction of the camp. It had some interesting aspects, including being the site of one of the world's largest counterfeiting operations. Also, a couple of the recaptured prisoners from The Great Escape were housed there (as I recall, at least one of them also escaped from Sachsenhausen).
• Prague & Munich - there are numerous historic sites to visit in both those locations. In Prague you could visit the Museum dedicated to Operation Anthropod. The Museum on the lower floors of the Church of Saints Cyril & Methodius is small but very nicely arranged. In Munich there are some excellent walking tours in the city that cover the origin of the Nazi movement, Dachau is close and the outstanding Deutsches Museum also has some interesting displays.

Are you planning to drive to France with a car rented in the U.K.?

Good luck with your planning. Hopefully you can get some extra time off work.

I prefer to travel by train, but for Normandy and Bastogne, you really need a car or you need to book a tour. The tours are expensive but money well spent.

A couple of suggestions:

While in London, consider visiting the Cabinet War Rooms. They have kept it just as it was during WWII, and it's fascinating.

While in Bastogne, be sure to see the Easy Company fox holes. If you google this, you can find exactly where they are. It is awesome to walk around fox holes dug during the Battle of the Bulge.

Also, I agree with Ken -- Invalides in Paris has a lot on WWII and is worth visiting.

This sounds like a great trip for you and your sons.

Thank you all for your help and great suggestions!

Hi,

If you manage to have the time to get to Calais, another big war museum is there. It's best to have a car for seeing Normandy. Certain places connected with the war are not covered by bus, say from Bayeux, not to mention the time wasted waiting for the bus. How much time do you have in Berlin? Any time for visiting the war sites in Berlin?

If I was going to plan a trip around WWII sites in Europe, it would have to be centered around the Normandy sites for the D-Day invasions. I know that there are several good tour companies but Dale Booth's tours are absolutely brilliant. A whole day spent in the villages, on the beaches, Pont du Hoc. Highly recommended.

If you make it to Munich, the Dachau camp not far from the airport has very good exhibits of this first, 'model' concentration camp.

Hope you and your son have a fantastic trip!

Hi

given your plans for the widespread travel, I would certainly consider hiring a car for the French and Belgian portion of your trip. I've driven the area myself, and a car is really the only way to maximise visiting time at places.

With respect to your plan to visit the N France area (you mention Abbeville and St Omer), be aware that in that area alone there is enough military history to see to take up an entire week or more! And it spans several centuries of warfare in the area, not just WW2!

However if you are near St. Omer I would strongly recommend visiting the WW2 Nazi V2 site known nowadays as 'La Coupole' - it's a semi-underground concrete location where the Germans assembled V2 rockets to be fired at the UK. It also tells how the V2 turned eventually into the Saturn V, and it also has an interesting exhibition on the Occupation in Northern France.

If you want to see something really extraordinary and off the beaten tourist track, close to Calais are the underground remains of the German V3 (buried long-range gun planned to be fired at London, 75 miles away)...see Mimoyecques. And on the coast, on the Cap de Griz-Nez, is a remaining German cross-Channel gun blockhouse and museum, complete with German Railway gun. You will need a car to get there too. Happy hunting!