Normandy Landings

The Musée du 5 Juin 1944 « Message Verlaine » (June 5, 1944 “Verlaine Message” Museum) in Tourcoing commemorates the “Verlaine Message”: the message broadcast by the BBC Radio program “Les Français Parlent Aux Français” to France at 9:15PM on June 5, 1944, which alerted the French Resistance to the imminent Allied invasion of Normandy.

The Musée Airborne (Airborne Museum) in Sainte-Mère-Église commemorates and displays artifacts from the American airborne infantry of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, and their role in the Normandy Landings and the Battle of Normandy from June to August, 1944.

The Mémorial 39-45 (39-45 Memorial) in Saint-Malo is a memorial museum constructed within a concrete blockhouse located in the Fort d’Alet, formerly part of the German network of coastal defences during the Second World War. The small museum contains a permanent exhibit on Saint-Malo in wartime, and displays military weapons, equipment, and uniforms as well as preserved and reconstructed weapons and rooms from the original blockhouse.  

The Mémorial Pégasus (Pegasus Memorial) in Ranville is a museum and memorial to the activities of the British Army’s 6th Airborne Division during Normandy Landings and the subsequent Battle of Normandy from June to September, 1944. Under the command of Major-General Richard Gale, the unit engaged in numerous offensive operations in support of the D-Day landings and the Allied advance to the Rhine.

Le Grand Bunker: Musée du Mur de l’Atlantique (The Grand Bunker: Atlantic Wall Museum) is a concrete bunker which served as part of the Atlantic Wall: the German series of coastal defensive fortifications constructed to oppose Allied landings during the Second World War following the occupation of France. The bunker was a five-story concrete blockhouse which served as command post and fire-control point for its section of fortifications; constructed by Organisation Todt and located on the heights of the beach, it was captured on D-Day.

The Musée du Débarquement (Normandy Landings Museum) in Arromanches-les-Bains commemorates the D-Day (French: Jour J) Landings of June 6, 1944, and the subsequent Normandy campaign. Inaugurated on June 5, 1954, it describes itself as the first museum constructed specifically to document the landings.