Which Normandy beach should you visit?

First, a word about the numbers

You will see confident casualty figures for each beach and they will not agree with each other. The National WWII Museum puts it plainly in its own fact sheet: “many of the numbers associated with D-Day assault forces and their casualties are approximations, and some sources vary widely.” Some sources count an assault division, others add the supporting units; some count killed, others killed, wounded and missing together. Where the sources disagree below, I give the range rather than picking the figure I like.

Utah — the westernmost, and the cheapest to take

The US 4th Infantry Division and the 70th Tank Battalion came ashore here at 06:30, with the 82nd and 101st Airborne dropped inland during the night. Sources give between 21,000 and 23,000 men landed on the day. Casualties for the assault division were around 197 to 200; the Commonwealth War Graves Commission gives a wider figure of about 590 casualties including supporting units.

The honest nuance, which most guides skip: the current pushed the 4th Division about 2,000 yards south of where it was meant to land, onto a stretch that was far more lightly defended, and Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. improvised the assault from the new position. And the sector was not cheap at all — the airborne divisions inland took around 2,500 casualties, with roughly another 700 among engineers, tank crews and naval personnel. Utah was cheap on the sand and expensive in the flooded fields behind it.

What you find today: the Utah Beach D-Day Museum at La Madeleine, built onto a German bunker, surviving casemates, a Higgins boat and the monuments along the dune line. It is flat, wide and quiet.

Omaha — the bloodiest

Eight kilometres of beach, divided into ten sectors from Charlie in the west to Fox Red in the east, assaulted by the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions with Rangers on the flanks. Troop figures range from over 34,000 to 43,250 depending on the source. Casualties are the widest range of the day: about 2,400 by the National WWII Museum’s count, 3,600 with around 770 killed by the CWGC’s, and a range of 2,000 to more than 5,000 in the standard reference works, with some estimates running to 5,000 or 6,000 killed, wounded and missing. German losses were around 1,200, roughly a fifth of the 352nd Division.

Why it was worse than the rest is not a mystery: it was the most heavily defended of the assault areas and the preliminary bombardment largely missed. Stand at the top of the bluff by the cemetery and look down and the tactical problem is obvious in about four seconds.

What you find today: the beach, which at low tide runs out an extraordinary distance; the bluffs; the remains of the WN62 strongpoint; the Les Braves sculpture at Saint-Laurent; and the Normandy American Cemetery on the high ground with 9,389 graves and 1,557 names on the Walls of the Missing.

Gold — the deepest advance

Nine to ten kilometres between Port-en-Bessin and La Rivière, taken by the British 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division with the 8th Armoured Brigade and No. 47 (Royal Marine) Commando. By the end of the day 24,970 men, 2,100 vehicles and 1,000 long tons of stores were ashore, for around 1,000 to 1,100 casualties of whom 350 were killed. Gold pushed roughly six miles inland, the deepest penetration of D-Day.

What you find today: Arromanches and the Mulberry harbour remains offshore, and the Longues-sur-Mer battery, which is the only battery in Normandy still holding several of its original guns in their casemates.

Juno — the Canadian beach

Nine point seven kilometres from La Rivière to Saint-Aubin, assaulted by the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division with the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade and Royal Marine commandos. 21,400 men landed. The division recorded 340 killed, 574 wounded and 47 taken prisoner — 961 in total — while the CWGC gives over 1,000 casualties with 370 killed. Rough seas and a rising tide jammed the beach; the division lost 90 of its 306 landing craft.

What you find today: the Juno Beach Centre at Courseulles-sur-Mer with its guided bunker tour, the Canadian war cemetery inland at Bény-sur-Mer, and the seafronts at Bernières and Saint-Aubin. The British and Canadian sector page covers how to actually get to them.

Sword — and the Caen problem

About eight kilometres from Ouistreham to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, taken by the British 3rd Infantry Division with the 27th Independent Armoured Brigade, commando brigades and Hobart’s Funnies. 28,845 men of I Corps were ashore by nightfall. Casualties are given as 683 in the standard reference, while the CWGC quotes approximately 1,300 casualties with around 680 killed — those two figures are being conflated by a lot of sources, so treat it as a range. Sword failed in its most ambitious objective: Caen was not taken on D-Day and was not fully occupied until the middle of July.

What you find today: the Grand Bunker at Ouistreham, and inland at Bénouville and Ranville the Pegasus Bridge and its memorial, plus the Merville battery. British gliderborne troops landed at the Caen canal bridge at 00:16, the first Allied action of the day.

Which one should you actually visit?

• For the story — Omaha, with the cemetery above it. Nowhere else on the coast puts the ground and the consequence in the same view.
• For the landscape — Pointe du Hoc, between Utah and Omaha. It is not a beach, it is a cratered clifftop, and it is the most intact bombed landscape on this coast.
• For the photograph — Arromanches on Gold, at low tide, from the high ground east of the town.
• For the airborne — Utah and Sainte-Mère-Église, the first town liberated in France.
• For family reasons — whichever one your relative landed on, and do not let a default itinerary talk you out of it.

The standard full-day tour from Bayeux covers Sainte-Mère-Église, Utah, Pointe du Hoc, Omaha and the American Cemetery in that order — which is the American sector complete. See the best way to visit for how to choose, or museums and memorials for what is worth going inside.

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