Utah Beach Museum, Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, France

Utah Beach was the successful landing place of a number of American Divisions on 6th June 1944, and from here they pushed inland to the Carantan peninsula to meet up with US Airborne forces around St Mere Eglise. Between D Day and 1st November 1944 some 836,000 men and 220,000 vehicles came ashore here. The beach also marks the point of 'Liberty Way' which runs from Normandy to Bastogne in Belgium, and is marked by a memorial stone every kilometer - the 00 Kilometer stone being here (with another in St Mere Eglise).

The Utah Beach Museum was originally opened in the 1960s and then renovated for the 50th Anniversary of D Day in 1994. It tells the story of the American landings at Utah and also the Airborne operations around St Mere Eglise. The museum has many rare vehicles, weapons, photographs and veterans artifacts. There is a good 1/35th scale model of the landings, and a film show. There is also a book shop.

References:

Paul Reed's Battlefields of WW2

User Reviews

Kees Tolhoek (9 months ago)
Impressive place and museum.

Philip Roberts (10 months ago)
Really puts things in perspective, the museum is only 6 euro each and worth the money.

C Russell (10 months ago)
The views and outdoor monuments were already worth the trip. The museum was awesome in it's detailed portrayal of both sides of the events of 6 June 1944.

Thewilltofightmore (10 months ago)
Great small museum. I appreciate that the person who created the museum tried hard when it was against the popular opinion.

Erik Jensen (15 months ago)
This was my second favorite landing museum in Normandy behind the Overlord Museum. This one also has an impressive collection of military vehicles, weapons and uniforms and is well worth the stop. I gave it only 4 stars because we almost passed it by. From the road it doesnt look open as the parking is not close to the building and is a bit away from it. There is also a very nice bar/restaurant that offers good food close to the museum with a WWII motif. Both the museum and the restaurant are worth a stop. Just remember it may not look open when you go...but it is.

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Honza Soukup

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