The Great Escaper: From Portsmouth to Normandy
About the tour: The Great Escaper: From Portsmouth to Normandy
Tour Introduction
D-Day was one of the great turning points in the Second World War. The invasion of the French coastline in Normandy saw more than 156,000 Allied soldiers put ashore successfully in a single day and marked the beginning of the end of the war in the West. Normandy was a battle of seventy-seven days and while many died, most men came home, and in the years that followed WW2, they returned to Normandy as veterans. In 'The Great Escaper', Sir Michael Caine stars as Bernard Jordan, the D-Day veteran who made global headlines when he ‘escaped’ his care home to attend the 70th anniversary commemorations in Normandy, aged 89. The film explores what that return to the 1944 battlefield meant to him as an individual, but also the mental and physical impact shouldered by a whole generation who fought and survived the Second World War. Travel with us to understand Bernard Jordan's story, uncover the stories of other veterans who were there and visit some of the key battlefields of eighty years ago.
Tour Includes
- 4 nights hotel with continental breakfast
- Specialist Battlefield Guide
- Regional coach departures
We offer flexible payment options
Once you have booked your battlefield tour either online, or by telephone (), you have the flexibility of how you pay off the remainder of your balance. You can -
- Use our balance payment facility online to make and track your card payments. You can pay as much as you want up until your final due date or pay it all, the choice is yours.
- Send payments via online banking.
- Send payments via cheque.
- Call us and make a card payment, either a small amount or as lump sum until your final due date.
Our contact and online banking payment details will be on your confirmation invoice to remind you of your choices.
Tour Itinerary
For customers living outside of the UK, if you want to make a booking you will need to provide a UK postcode on our online booking system. If you are not able to provide a relevant UK postcode then you can enter the postcode for London Victoria Coach Station – SW1W 9TP. You should then be able to proceed to complete your booking.
If you do encounter a problem then you can speak to one of our friendly advisors who will be happy to help.
Please Note : After completing your booking, a member of our Customer Service team will be in touch to make sure everything is okay.
Either e-mail our Reservations Department or call on 01709 830 333 and they will check to see whether you can visit a particular cemetery on any of our Battlefield Tours, if we are not able to fit it into our itinerary then you could take some time out of the tour and do this independently by taxi or public transport.
Day 1 - The D-Day Story
After our interchange, we travel to Portsmouth and visit the D-Day Story, the foremost D-Day Museum in Britain located in a key port connected with the Naval operations in 1944. Here we discover more about the Normandy landings and see many fascinating objects that link us to 1944. A new part of the museum is a preserved original Landing Craft Tank (LCT) which is the same type of ship Bernard Jordan served in on D-Day, and we can explore this and see a Churchill and a Sherman tank on its deck.
Bernard served in the Royal Navy, so we walk onto the seafront at Portsmouth and visit the Portsmouth Naval Memorial which commemorates many sailors who died in action at Normandy and who were buried at sea.
We then proceed to our overnight hotel in Portsmouth.
D-Day Story (3)
Key Visits
- D-Day Story
- Portsmouth Naval Memorial
Day 2 - Build up to D-Day
Portsmouth was one of the main ports of departure for the D-Day landings in 1944, and 70 years later, it was also the point of departure for Bernie Jordan on his journey back to Normandy. After Bernie ‘escaped’ his care home in Hove early on the 5th June 2014, he ended up spending all of his cash on a taxi to the ferry terminal, not that that deterred him from continuing on his journey.
In 1944, the force that would land on the Normandy coastline assembled in the countryside around the city, with key marshalling areas for troops being located in the fields and woods on the city outskirts.
Before we leave Portsmouth, we look at some D-Day-related sites around Portsmouth, including one of the loading ramps used by the Navy. We then travel to Dover for the ferry to France, continuing to Normandy and our hotel in Caen for three nights.
Included meals: Breakfast
D-Day Battlefield Sites (2)
Key Visits
- D-Day Battlefield Sites
Day 3 - The Great Escaper & D-Day
Bernard Jordan's war on D-Day took him across the Channel as a leading seaman on a Landing Craft Tank transporting an armoured unit to Sword Beach, one of the five Allied beaches on 6 June 1944. Today, we travel to Sword Beach and look at how the landings worked, from the types of ships bringing the troops in, to H-Hour when the ramps went down and men, tanks and specialist armour hit the beaches. As a qualified electrician, Bernie was tasked with operating the huge ramp on the front of his LCT and the film explores the psychological impact sending his comrades onto the beach, where many would lose their lives, may have had on Bernie.
Sword Beach was no pushover, and we discuss the problems they had breaking the Atlantic Wall here. We also look at the Commando story as men from Lord Lovat's Special Service Brigade came in the follow up waves, but also fought on the beach, including the legendary piper Bill Millin, whose memorial we will see. We visit the 'Sword Beach Cemetery' at Hermanville and the Naval Memorial on the seafront, see the unit memorials to those who landed, and also discuss what places like Sword Beach mean to the veterans who returned after the war.
After lunch, we examine what the armoured units that Bernard Jordan landed on D-Day did in the advance on Caen. We follow the battlefields around the city where the fighting raged in June-July 1944, visit the ground around the Abbey Ardennes where Allied soldiers clashed with the SS, and finish the day at Bayeux War Cemetery. This is the largest Second World War British Cemetery in France with over 4,500 graves. It holds a special place in the narrative of The Great Escaper as both Bernie and a fellow veteran he befriends on his journey travel to the cemetery to pay their respects to fallen soldiers who were close to them. We also look at some of the preserved WW2 tanks in the grounds of the nearby war museum.
Included meals: Breakfast
Bayeux War Cemetery (3)
Key Visits
- Sword Beach
- Bayeux War Cemetery
Day 4 - D-Day: Day of Days
Bernard Jordan was one of many veterans of the D-Day landings and today we explore the wider story of June 1944, looking at the British Airborne story from Pegasus Bridge to Ranville War Cemetery and onto the Breville Ridge. This ground was all very special to the surviving veterans, and we see memorials that many of them had a hand in and tell the stories of their friends who never returned.
We then travel across to Juno Beach and see where the Canadians landed, and afterwards visit the new British Normandy Memorial overlooking Gold Beach where the names of Bernard Jordan's comrades who died are engraved on the panels.
Lunchtime is in Arromanches, where you can explore the story of the Mulberry Harbour, the artificial port that helped secure victory in 1944 and enabled supplies, men, and equipment to be brought in after the beach landings. We finish the day at the excellent Overlord Museum – one of the best in Normandy with an unrivalled collection of vehicles and artefacts from WW2 – before travelling down to Omaha Beach where American soldiers landed on D-Day. We discuss what places like this meant to what the United States calls 'The Greatest Generation'.
Included meals: Breakfast
Pegasus Bridge (5)
Key Visits
- Omaha Beach
- Pegasus Bridge
- Overlord Museum
- British Normandy Memorial
Day 5 - Return home
Return home.
Included meals: Breakfast
Specialist Battlefield Guides
All of Leger’s battlefield tours are accompanied by specialist guides. Their individual in-depth knowledge of warfare will be informative, as well as enhance your overall experience, as they recreate a fascinating perception of the history and factual events of each battle. Discover the actual catalysts for war, the strategies employed and the final, inevitable outcomes, as well as experiencing the emotional human side of the front line.
Please note: On certain tours, you may get tour guides other that the ones listed below.
Hotel
If you prefer, then you can join the tour at the hotel. To do this, we will require a copy of your passport for identification purposes and you must advise us at the time of booking.
No reduction will be given if you should choose to do this.
All hotel rooms benefit from private bathroom facilities.
Some hotels have tea and coffee making facilities. Please check the tour pages for more information or call our Customer Service Department on 01709 830333
Most hotels have a lift, please call our Customer Service Department on 01709 830333 for more information.
Some hotels have ground floor rooms. Please email for information on individual hotels or call our Customer Service Department on 01709 830333.
Your hotels will supply towels in your room.
We are unable to guarantee that the hotel will be able to meet your dietary requirements. We find that the majority of European countries do not generally cater for vegetarians and that the meal supplied may well be what everyone else is having minus the meat.
We will of course endeavour to arrange for a vegetarian meal at the hotel. We do however suggest that you advise us of your dietary requests at the time of booking and recommend that you speak to the receptionist on arrival with regard to your request.
You will stay for one night at the Ibis Portsmouth Centre, and three nights at the Ibis Falaise, or similar.
Travel Options
Departure times given for each region are approximate. Please check your travel documents to confirm the actual timings.
Front row seats can be reserved for £14pp (up to 6 days duration), £22pp (7 & 8 days duration) and £25pp (9 days duration and over) on all European tours. In addition to this seats on the second row can be reserved for £7pp (up to 6 days duration), £14pp (7 & 8 days duration) and £15pp (9 days duration and over). This offer is only available for bookings of two or four persons on the front row and is subject to availability. Guaranteed front/second row seats cannot be reserved on feeder journeys to/from the U.K. port. Children under 15 years cannot occupy a front row seat due to French Law. Central view seats are free.
Please note: On some coaches the legroom on front seats may be slightly less than that available on other seats due to the presence of a modesty board in front.
If your tour is cancelled for any reason and front/second row seats are not available on your new tour you will be refunded the supplement. No other compensation will be payable.
Alternatively, we can take seating requests on your booking. However, requests are not guaranteed. All seat numbers are confirmed on travel documents approximately 7-10 days prior to departure.
We guarantee that all passengers on the same booking will be seated together on the main tour coach. Seats on the transfer coaches to and from the U.K. port are not allocated.
Hot and cold drinks are served on the main tour coaches. Prices are approximately £1 or 1.25 Euro per drink. Prices will be confirmed by the driver. Drinks may also be served on the transfer coaches but this is not guaranteed.
Transfer vehicles are routed approximately 2-3 weeks before departure and will depend on where passengers are booked to travel from on any particular date as to which route is taken. If you require further detailed information regarding the route to the port you can contact our Customer Service Department on 01709 830333 two weeks before you are due to travel.
With regard to the route taken by the main tour coach, this is determined by the driver.
All main tour coaches have on-board toilets. Transfer vehicles to and from the U.K. port may not have on-board toilets. When non-British coaches are used on transfers and tours (air holidays only) an on-board toilet may not be available. However, comfort stops will be made during long journeys.
All coaches feature air-conditioning. Should the air-conditioning system break down for a period exceeding 12 hours, compensation will be awarded up to a maximum of £10 per fare-paying passenger per tour.
Depending on the location of your pickup point, you may be picked up by coach (not necessarily the on you are touring on), minibus, taxi, National Express or Megabus service. You may then be taken to another centralised pickup location or service station. We operate a passenger interchange at Stop 24 Services, where you will meet the tour coach you are holidaying on and then continue on with your outbound journey. Similarly, on the way home, you may also change transfer vehicles at another location, to take you to your final drop off point.
One medium sized suitcase per person, which should weigh no more than 20kg when full. We may refuse to carry larger or heavier cases. Hand luggage can be stored in the overhead racks aboard the coach.
It could be either - This will be confirmed in your travel documents.
When it comes to getting to the Battlefields, Leger Holidays make it easy, with a selection of travel options for you choose from.
Travel Extras
With an overnight stay or a Door-to-Door pick up, our travel extras allow you to create a travel experience to suit your needs...
Door-to-Door service
+ Find out moreOn Battlefield tours of 7 days’ duration or more, you don’t even have to think about getting to your local joining point. If you live within 20 miles of one of our free joining points we’ll pick you up from your home and take you to meet your transfer vehicle, then return you back home at the end of your holiday. The cost is just £30 per booking each way for up to four people per booking.
If you live a little further afield, you can also take advantage of this convenient option for an additional charge – please enquire at the time of booking.
