Tom Brokaw called the World War Two generation "The Greatest Generation."  Certainly, this generation saved our western civilization from Nazi terror.  As President Roosevelt expressed it, the generation had a "Rendezvous with Destiny."

Among the very greatest were the soldiers who landed at Normandy on D-Day in the largest military invasion in the history of the world.  These men fought in Normandy during the summer of 1944 and advanced across France that autumn. The Battle of the Bulge during the bitter cold winter of 1944-45 was the largest battle ever fought by the American Army. 

Our first week's journey will follow the path of our soldiers from the landings at Normandy to the Rhine.  Among our many visits, We will visit Omaha Beach and Point du Hoc, and Bastogne at the Battle of the Bulge.

Of course the war did not end at the Rhine.  Much fighting still remained.  Our troops crossed the Rhine in early March and advanced across Germany to V-E day on May 8.  Our second week's journey will include the concentration camp at Buchenwald, and Dresden, one of the most heavily bombed cities in Europe.  En route to Berlin, we will stop at Torgau on the Elbe, where our soldiers linked up with Russian troops advancing from the East.  Our approach will consider both the "worm's eye view" of Ernie Pyle, and the high command environment of General Eisenhower and his staff.

But our trip is more than a retracing of battles.  Education sessions are included to enhance our understanding of World War Two in Europe.  For example, an education session will explore the origins and aftermath of the First World War, leading to the outbreak of World War Two.

Sightseeing and other activities are also included, including a visit to a champagne cellar at Reims, capital of France's Champagne Country.  Cruises on the Rhine and the Elbe are included. 

If the Greatest Generation had a Rendezvous with Destiny, we who have come later owe it to our parents and grandparents to learn about their lives, their times, and their extraordinary contribution to our civilization.  We must keep our appointment with history, understanding that we are not mere onlookers.  We, too, must be personally involved, taking part in the tasks to preserve our freedom.

Our trip promises to be among our most memorable, and we hope that you will join us.

Tom Dowd, U.Va. Program Director 

PS: We are also offering 2 programs in 2005 that focus on World War II in the Pacific. Click here for more information.      Return to the top

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PROGRAM FEATURES

9 Days: Paris-Frankfurt - From D-Day to the Rhine

Included Features:

Round trip transatlantic flights
  - USA to Paris
  - Frankfurt (or Berlin) to USA

Hotel accommodations for seven nights
  - One night near Paris (Airport)
  - Three nights in Normandy
  - One night in Reims
  - One night in Luxembourg
  - One night near Frankfurt

Buffet breakfast and dinner each day

Special Features:
  - Four Education Sessions*
  - Experienced historian as education host
  - Visit to a Champagne Cellar near Reims

*Education Sessions:
  -4th Day D-Day and the Battle of Normandy - Preparations in England - The Role of the Navy 
  -5th Day D-Day and the Battle of Normandy - On the Ground in France 
  -7th day World War I and the Origins of the Second World War 
  -8th Day Battle of the Bulge

Sightseeing:
Normandy: Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, Pointe du Hoc, Bayeux, Ste. Mere Eglise, Bayeux, Pegasus Bridge, and three museums devoted to World War II.  Beyond Normandy: Belleau Wood, Argonne Forest, Verdun, Reims, Bastogne, Luxembourg, Rhineland

Plus:
  -Travel between cities via deluxe, air-conditioned motorcoach with English-speaking tour manager
  -Round trip airport transfers
  -Hotel porterage

Hotels:
  -Paris (Airport): Marriott, Dorint, Millennium 
  -Normandy: Mercure, Holiday Inn, Novotel 
  -Reims: Mercure, de la Paix, Holiday Inn 
  -Luxembourg: Sofitel, Sheraton, International Clervaux 
  -Frankfurt Area: Maritim, Marriott, Dorint 

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Extend this very special trip to 15 Days: Continue on from the Rhine to Berlin
You're already over there, so it's easy - and inexpensive - to follow the advance of our troops across Germany to the end of the war in Berlin.

Included Features when you extend your trip:

Hotel accommodations for six additional nights
  - One night in Weimar
  - Two nights in Leipzig
  - Three nights in Berlin

Buffet breakfast and dinner each day

Special Features:
  - Four Education Sessions**
  - Experienced historian as education host
  - Rhine River Boat Ride
  - Elbe River Boat Ride

**Education Sessions:
  -10th Day The Nazis and the Holocaust 
  -11th Day The Air War - Strategic Bombing - The Example of Dresden 
  -12th Day The Russian Front 
  -14th Day The Potsdam Conference - Berlin and the Cold War 

Sightseeing:
  -Weimar, Buchenwald, Leipzig, Dresden, Torgau, Berlin, Potsdam

Plus:
  -Travel between cities via deluxe, air-conditioned motorcoach with English-speaking tour manager
  -Round trip airport transfers
  -Hotel porterage

Hotels:
  -Weimar: Hilton, Dorint, Elephant 
  -Leipzig: Renaissance, Dorint, Mecure
  -Berlin: Steigenberger, Dorint, Radisson 

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PROGRAM FACULTY (subject to change)

• The program faculty for these trips are West Point graduates with extensive command experience and, for many, combat experience.  The program faculty member will be with you for your entire trip.  The name of the program faculty member and his background information will be available before each trip.

• University of Virginia Program Director: Tom Dowd, Senior Director of Program Development, University of Virginia School of Continuing and Professional Studies. Return to the top

PROGRAM SCHEDULE (subject to change)

What you'll experience...

1st Day: USA - Paris

Fly this afternoon from your departure city to Paris.  Beverages, dinner and continental breakfast will be served in flight. There is also a movie for your in-flight enjoyment. 

2nd Day: Paris

Arrive Paris in the morning, local time.  Upon arrival, you will be met and transferred to your hotel. The balance of the morning is at leisure.  This afternoon we have included a panorama tour of the major sights of Paris.

Those who already know Paris may wish to spend the afternoon at the Louvre or another of the city's world class museums. Or, you may prefer just to stroll along the Champs Elysees, or wile away the afternoon at a sidewalk cafe.  Return to the top

3rd Day: Normandy - Caen

"Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking."
General Dwight Eisenhower, Order of the Day, June 4, 1944. 

This morning we'll follow the Seine west to Normandy, a land of rich pastures and orchards; of castles, cathedrals and medieval towns.

Two of history's greatest epics occurred in Normandy.  William the Conqueror invaded England from Normandy in 1066. In 1944, green and peaceful Normandy with its picturesque landscape and villages was the setting for the greatest military invasion in world history.  On June 6, 1944 - called the Longest Day - General Eisenhower's allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy.

This afternoon we will visit the Memorial Museum of Caen to introduce us to the events of D-Day and the summer of 1944.

4th Day: Normandy - Beaches and Battles

"In this column I want to tell you what the opening of the second front entailed, so that you can know and appreciate and forever be humbly grateful to those both dead and alive who did it for you." 
Ernie Pyle, June 12, 1944

The June 6, D-Day landings at Normandy were the largest military invasion in the history of the world.  We'll spend the entire day, from the beaches to the break-out, following the paths of the American infantry, rangers, and paratroopers. 

We'll visit Omaha Beach, site of the largest amphibious landing, and where more than 6,000 Americans are buried at the American cemetery.  Every American should visit this hallowed ground.  We'll visit Pointe du Hoc, where American Rangers assaulted a fortified German gunsite on a cliff.  This extraordinary feat was memorialized by President Reagan in his 1984 speech at Normandy, "The Boys of Pointe du Hoc." We will see where our paratroopers landed at Ste. Mere Eglise.  Today, this village still hangs a parachute on its church steeple as a reminder of its liberation.

The D-Day book of Cornelius Ryan was called The Longest Day, as was the film starring John Wayne, Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens. The phrase came from the analysis of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, Commander of the German forces in France.  "Believe me...the first 24 hours of the invasion will be decisive...the fate of Germany will depend on it...for the Allies, as well as for us, this will be the longest day."

Rommel was correct.  D-Day was decisive.  Fortunately for us, the beaches were secured.  Although terrible fighting lay ahead, Germany's fate was sealed on this fateful day.  General Eisenhower's prayer was answered.  During the ensuing weeks, fierce battles were fought throughout the hedgerows of Normandy. Tomorrow we will see the site of the largest inland battle, the town of St. Lo.  The break-out from Normandy took 75 days.  Return to the top

5th Day: Normandy: Pegasus Bridge, Bayeux, St. Lo

This morning we will pay homage to our British allies and visit Pegasus Bridge, where British glider troops landed and captured the span over the River Orne, preventing the Germans from using the bridge to reinforce their defenders at the landing beaches.  Landing at 12:30 am on June 6, these British airborne troops had the honor of beginning the Battle of Normandy.

During the ensuing weeks, fierce battles were fought throughout the hedgerows of Normandy.  The largest battle was around the town of St. Lo, which was almost totally destroyed. We will visit the surrounding hedgerow (bocage) country and see the monument to Major Tom Howie, the "Major of St. Lo," who was killed on the Martinville Ridge.

The break-out from Normandy took 75 days. We will visit the Museum of the Battle of Normandy in Bayeux.

The invasion of 1944 was not the first invasion across the English Channel. Nearly 900 years earlier in 1066, William the Conqueror invaded England from Normandy. 

We will see pictures of William's 1066 expedition in Bayeaux.  Honest!  The famous Tapestry of Bayeux, 230 feet long and 900 years old, shows in astonishing detail - via millions of stitches - the life and customs of the Middle Ages and William's epic invasion of England, one of the most important events in world history.    Return to the top

6th Day: Reims

We'll leave Normandy this morning and drive across northern France to Reims.  It was at Reims that the German Army surrendered to General Eisenhower on May 8, 1945.  The Reims cathedral is among the most magnificent in Europe. We will visit the Cathedral and the site of the German surrender.

Reims is also the capital of the French Champagne Country.  We will visit a champagne cellar and of course be treated to samples.  Champagne has been produced here since the 17th century when the Benedictine monk Dom Perignon conceived the idea of blending the grapes of the region to produce the subtle harmonies of delicious champagne.   Return to the top

7th Day: Verdun - Luxembourg

What were the causes of World War II?  Our educational session this morning will focus on this topic.  The war can be considered as an extension of the First World War, which destroyed the European civilization that existed in 1914. Woodrow Wilson called World War I "The war to end all wars."  Although hindsight is always 20-20, this prediction was wildly wrong. In one of the ironies of history, our troops in eastern France in 1944-45 retraced some of the same battlefields where American "doughboys" fought in 1918. 

We will visit Belleau Wood, where U.S. Army and Marine Corps troops helped to stop the German advance from reaching Paris.  In the Meuse-Argonne Region, we will see the Pennsylvania State Monument and the American memorial at Montfaucon.  It was in the Argonne Forest that Sergeant Alvin York showed his extraordinary courage and marksmanship, and where the "Lost Battalion," led by a Wall Street lawyer called up from the reserves, was surrounded by the Germans for five days, refusing to give up.  A precursor of Bastogne!  Although American troops were not involved, we will also visit Verdun.  The Battle of Verdun, lasting from February to December, 1916, was the longest and largest single battle in world history. Return to the top

Next, we enter Luxembourg and return to World War II. We will visit the American Military Cemetery, where General Patton is buried.

8th Day: Bastogne - The Rhineland

"They got us surrounded - the poor bastards"  American Army Medic

"Nuts"  General Anthony McAuliffe

The Battle of the Bulge, as the Ardennes Campaign is widely known, was the largest land battle of World War II. It was also the largest battle ever fought by the American Army.

The last offensive of the German Army, the battle cost 19,000 Americans killed in action.  But our troops held the line and the offensive was a disaster for the Germans, who had put their soldiers in a noose to be cut off by reinforcing Americans under General Patton.  The above comments during the siege, from an unnamed army medic and General McAuliffe, became the most widely quoted comments of the war in Europe. We will visit Bastogne, where our soldiers were surrounded for a week, and see the town's monuments to this epic battle.

After the German defeat at the Battle of the Bulge, it took our troops several weeks to reach the Rhine. Today, we'll proceed east from Bastogne and arrive at the Rhine in a few hours.

Dinner this evening, with German entertainment, will be at a popular Rhineland restaurant.  Return to the top

9th Day: Return Home

If you are ending your trip at this point you will fly home from Frankfurt

Or extend your trip from Frankfurt on to Berlin and the end of the war in Europe
You're already over there, so it's easy - and inexpensive - to follow the advance of our troops across Germany to the end of the war in Berlin.

What you'll experience if you extend your trip to 15 days...

9th Day: Rhine Cruise - Weimar

This morning enjoy a delightful cruise on the Rhine.  See the vineyards of the famous Rhine wines, the many barges on this busy waterway and perhaps best of all, the fairy tale castles around almost every bend in the River.  Of particular note are the famous Lorelei rocks immortalized in the classic poem of Heinrich Heine.  Set to music, the poem tells the story of boatmen lured to their death by a beautiful maiden sitting on the rocks, combing her long blond hair while singing her fateful song.

After our cruise, we will proceed to Weimar. Return to the top

10th Day: Weimar - Buchenwald - Leipzig

The cultural history of Weimar is awesome. Goethe, Germany's greatest writer, lived here; Schiller, who wrote the words to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony "Ode to Joy," lived in Weimar.  Johann Sebastian Bach stayed ten years in Weimar, composing his immortal music.

The former concentration camp of Buchenwald is near Weimer.

"I pray you to believe what I have said about Buchenwald.  I reported what I saw and heard, but only part of it. For most of it, I have no words"  Edward R. Murrow, April 16, 1945

Today we'll focus on our enemy of World War II - Germany and its Nazi Regime.  We will consider that most difficult question: How did a people that produced such immortal writers and composers also give birth to the most evil group and the most evil deed - the holocaust - in world history?  Our visits to Weimar and Buchenwald will bring no answer to this question, which scholars have considered for decades.  Nevertheless, we will understand more than ever why it was necessary for America's "Greatest Generation" to enter and win World War II.

Arrive in Leipzig this afternoon.  Return to the top

Leipzig was heavily damaged during World War II.  Located in the former East Germany for 45 years, the city was slow to rebuild.  A panorama tour of Leipzig will show us buildings outside the city center that still have not been repaired.

The flow of history can be complicated.  From 1870 to 1939, Germany started three wars by invading its neighboring countries. But in the early 19th century, it was a different story.  In Leipzig we will visit the huge monument to the Battle of the Nations, commemorating the victory of the ermans against the French invaders.

11th Day: Dresden

Situated along the River Elbe, Dresden was once called the Florence of the North.  It was heavily bombed during World War II and became a symbol of the terrible destruction of war.  Located in the former East Germany for 45 years, the city did not rebuild as quickly as its more fortunate neighbors in the West.  Nevertheless, Dresden's magnificent Baroque buildings, the world class art in its museums, and the city's lovely setting on the Elbe combine to make Dresden one of the most beautiful places in Europe.

The bombing of Dresden in February, 1945 has prompted criticism that such massive destruction was not necessary. Strangely, the German bombing of Coventry and London has not attracted as much complaint. Our education session today will focus on the American bombing campaign and its effectiveness.

A local guide will show us the Old City of Dresden, including the Semper Opera, the Hofkirche, and the Zwinger Gallery. We'll see the Frauenkirche, the most important Protestant Church in pre-war Germany, being rebuilt, stone by stone.

After our tour, walk along the Elbe or visit the Zwinger Gallery.   Pause at an outdoor cafe and reflect on the triumphs and tragedies of this beautiful city of the Old Europe.     Return to the top

This afternoon we will be treated to a boat ride on the Elbe.  This evening we'll enjoy dinner at a popular restaurant in Dresden.

12th Day: Torgau - Berlin

In 1945 General Eisenhower decided not to direct our troops against Berlin.  Instead, he elected to leave the capture of Berlin to the Russian Army, advancing from the East.  The American and Russian forces therefore linked up at Torgau, a city on the Elbe, east of Leipzig, on April 25

Enroute to Berlin, we will stop at Torgau and visit the meeting site and small museum commemorating the Russian - American link-up of armies.  Return to the top

13th Day: Berlin

Berlin is Germany's largest and most fascinating city.  The wall is down, checkpoint Charlie is now a museum; Berlin is again free and undivided, and again the capital of Germany.

Sightseeing this morning includes Potsdam Square, the Brandenburg Gate, and a remnant of the infamous wall.

See the Russian War Memorial, Alexander Square, and drive along Unter den Linden, the main avenue of pre-war Berlin. See the Schoneberger Rathaus (city hall) where John F. Kennedy delivered his famous, "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner) speech in August, 1961.  After a short look at Charlottenburg Castle, our tour ends at the top of the Kurfurstendamm (ku'damm), dominated by the bombed out shell of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and its new, starkly modern replacement. These buildings have become symbols of the Old and New Germany.  They are among the most impressive sights in Europe.

The afternoon is at leisure.

Berlin has 85 museums.  Perhaps the most impressive is the Pergamon on Museum Island housing some of the world's most precious artifacts of classical antiquity.  The famous Pergamon Altar, dating from 160 B.C., is a masterpiece of Greek art.  Nearby is the magnificent Berlin Cathedral, the largest Lutheran church in Germany.     Return to the top

14th Day: Berlin - Potsdam

Potsdam was the site of the momentous "Big Three" conference of Truman, Churchill, and Stalin in 1945, where the partition of Germany was determined.  The Conference also showed early signs of the Cold War to come, as the Soviet Union changed from ally to adversary.

We will also see Sans Souci, the beautiful palace of Frederick the Great of Prussia, the political and military leader who started Prussia on the road to dominance among the German states.

This afternoon is at leisure in Berlin.  Stroll along Unter den Linden to the Brandenburg Gate.  Visit the Reichstag, again the site of the German Parliament.  Enjoy a drink at the Gendarmen Platz. 

For a closer look at the Nazi period, the following museums are worthwhile.
  -Topography of Terror exhibit, offering a riveting pictorial of Berlin from 1933 to 1945. 
  -House of the Wannsee Conference, where the decision was made to exterminate the Jews (the "Final Solution.") The House is now a museum of the Holocaust. 
  -For the Cold War period, the Museum of the Allies includes the extraordinary Berlin Airlift of 1947-48. 
  -The recently opened Jewish Museum traces the history of German Jewry from the Middle Ages to the present.

From evil to redemption to renaissance, Berlin has seen it all.  Return to the top

15th Day: Berlin - USA

This morning we will be transferred to Berlin Airport to board our return flight to the U.S. Cocktails and meals will be served in flight, and a movie will also be available. 

Arrive back in the U.S. this afternoon. Return to the top

 

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