I always wanted to visit the site of the greatest military invasion in the history of the world,…read moreand Utah Beach was the westernmost of the 5 landing sites of that D-Day invasion. There is a Utah Beach Landing Museum present (which I did not visit), and various monuments. There is a prominent monument dedicated to Andrew Jackson Higgins for developing the essential Higgins Boat landing craft. Also nearby, but not right at Utah Beach, is a prominent leadership monument featuring Richard D Winters, the heroic commander of the "Band of Brothers", i.e. Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division. He paratrooped in at 1:30am on D-Day and landed nearby. I walked Utah Beach and it's flatter with no bluffs here compared to what we saw later at Omaha Beach about 10 miles to the east. I was surprised to learn the difference in the width of the beach between low and high tide is an astounding 450 yards! We saw this beach near high tide, and you'll see from the photos there's not that much beach, but there was on D-Day when they landed near low tide per the plan so that the barricades and mines and such would be visible. So much world-altering history here on the Normandy Beaches, it's all a must-see!
