- Source: Liberation Route Europe
Liberation Route Europe is an international remembrance trail that connects the main regions along the advance of the Western Allied Forces toward the liberation of Europe and final stage of the Second World War. The route started in 2008 as a Dutch regional initiative in the Arnhem-Nijmegen area and then developed into a transnational route that was officially inaugurated in Arromanches on June 6, 2014, during the Normandy D-day commemorations. The route goes from Southern England (commemorating the early years of the war) through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands to Berlin in Germany, then extends to the Czech Republic and Poland. The southern route starts in Italy. As a form of remembrance tourism, LRE aims to unfold these Allied offensives of 1944 and 1945 in one narrative combining the different perspectives and points of view. By combining locations with personal stories of people who fought and suffered there, it gives visitors the opportunity to follow the Allied march and visit significant sites from war cemeteries to museums and monuments but also events and commemorations. In April 2019, Liberation Route Europe became a certified Cultural Route of the Council of Europe.
The Route
= Great Britain
=After the fall of France in 1940 and their own defeat on the continent, The Royal Air Force (RAF) defended their island. The action became known as the Battle of Britain. The route starts in London and goes through Kent (from where the Dunkirk evacuation was controlled) and Hampshire (where Operation Overlord, the D-Day landing, was planned and prepared).
Important remembrance sites
Imperial War Museum
Churchill War Rooms
Dungeness
Dover Castle
D-Day Museum Portsmouth
Southwick House
= France
=Normandy
During Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious assault in history, Allied forces landed on five beaches along an 80-kilometre (50-mile) stretch of Normandy coast on D-Day. This operation marked the start of the liberation of Western Europe. The route here comprises the five landing beaches: Omaha Beach (from Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes to Vierville-sur-Mer), Utah Beach (Sainte-Marie-du-Mont), Gold Beach (between Port-en-Bessin and La Rivière), Juno Beach (from Courseulles to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer), Sword Beach (from Ouistreham to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer), along with Pointe du Hoc (Criqueville-en-Bessin) and Ranville (British Airlandings) or Longues-sur-Mer (German Battery).
The following Battle of Normandy resulted not only in the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers, but also many French civilians. Almost all of the larger cities in the region were badly damaged.
Important remembrance sites
Museums
Liberation Museum Cherbourg
Juno Beach Centre
D-Day Museum Arromanches
Mémorial de Caen
Memorial Pegasus
Merville Battery Museum
'The Grand Bunker' Atlantikwall Museum
Airborne Museum - Sainte-Mère-Eglise
Crisbecq Battery Museum
Memorial of Montormel
Memorial Museum of the Battle of Normandy - Bayeux
Utah Beach D-Day Museum
Cemeteries
Bayeux British Military Cemetery
Bény-sur-Mer Canadian Cemetery
La Cambe German Military Cemetery
Normandy American Cemetery
Monument
La Fière Bridge and Iron Mike Monument
Paris
An uprising of the population against the Germans on August 19 forced the Allies to send troops to liberate Paris, although it was not a priority. The French 2nd Armoured Division entered Paris on the evening of August 24. The capitulation was signed on the Île de la Cité, German troops surrendered at the Montparnasse train station. Two days later a triumphal parade, led by General Charles de Gaulle, was held on the Champs-Elysées.
Important remembrance sites
Historial Charles de Gaulle
Memorial General Leclerc de Hauteclocque and the Liberation of Paris—Jean Moulin Museum
Army Museum—Invalides
Order of Liberation Museum
= Belgium
=Ardennes
The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region. They were eventually pushed back by the Allied forces to the Siegfried Line.
Important remembrance sites
Bastogne War Museum
Mardasson Memorial
Bastogne Barracks
Battle of the Bulge Museum—La Roche-en-Ardenne
Henri Chapelle American Cemetery
Brussels
Brussels was liberated on September 3 by the Guards Armoured Division of General Allan Adair including the Belgian 'Piron brigade'.
Important remembrance sites
Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History
Kazerne Dossin
Fort Breendonk
= Luxembourg
=Luxembourg was in the vicinity of the Battle of the Bulge offensive and had to wait until 12 February 1945 before being completely liberated.
Important remembrance sites
Museum of Military History—Diekirch
Luxembourg American Cemetery
= Netherlands
=The Dutch section of Liberation Route Europe is concentrated in the provinces of Gelderland, North-Brabant, Overijssel, Zeeland and Limburg. In these provinces a large network of 176 'audiospots' has been developed to combine historical sites and personal stories.
Gelderland
The main historical places on the route here are Arnhem (Battle of Arnhem) Nijmegen (Operation Market Garden), Groesbeek (Operation Veritable), Wageningen (German capitulation), Oosterbeek (Operation Market Garden), Otterlo (Liberation of the East) and Lent (Men's Island).
Important remembrance sites
Museums
Airborne Museum Hartenstein
National Liberation Museum 1944–1945
Museum De Casteelse Poort
Cemeteries
Airborne War Cemetery Arnhem-Oosterbeek
Canadian War Cemetery Groesbeek
Jonkerbos War Cemetery Nijmegen
Loenen Field of Honour
Memorial for the mass grave Huissen
Audiospots: 76
North-Brabant
Important remembrance sites
Museums
Overloon War Museum
General Maczek Museum Breda
Camp Vught National Memorial
Museum Wings of Liberation
Cemeteries
Bergen op Zoom Canadian War Cemetery
Overloon War Cemetery
Audiospots: 61
Overijssel
Important remembrance sites
Cemeteries
Holten Canadian War Cemetery
Audiospots: 7
Zeeland
Important remembrance sites
Museums
Liberation Museum Zeeland
Roertriangle Museum
Cemeteries
Flushing Commonwealth War Cemetery
Audiospots: 10
Limburg
Important remembrance sites
Museums
Eyewitness Museum
Cemeteries
Netherlands American Cemetery—Margraten
Ysselsteyn German War Cemetery
British Military Cemetery Mook
Brunssum War Cemetery
Nederweert British War Cemetery
Audiospots: 22
= Germany
=North Rhine-Westphalia
During the autumn and winter of 1944–45, the longest battle of the Second World War on German soil took place in the Hürtgen Forest. With this battle, which ended in an Allied victory, the war returned to Germany and opened the road to Berlin.
Seven 'audiospots' have been installed in the region.
Important remembrance sites
Museums
Museum Hürtgenwald 1944—Vossenack
Field Hospital Bunker Simonskall
Vogelsang International Place
Cemeteries
Halbe Forest Cemetery
Hürtgen War Cemetery
Vossenack German Cemetery
Reichswald Forest British War Cemetery—Kleve
Audiospots: 7
Berlin
Berlin is the endpoint of the route. The Battle of Berlin was one of the last battles of the Second World War in Europe. Many soldiers died in widespread house-to-house fighting where Soviet soldiers faced desperate German resistance. On May 2, 1945, the Berlin garrison surrendered to the Soviet army. The unconditional surrender of Germany was signed on the 8th.
Important remembrance sites
Museums
Allied Museum
German-Russian Museum
Cecilienhof Palace
Topography of Terror
Monuments
Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Reichstag
Seelow Heights Memorial
Soviet War Memorial Tiergarten
Soviet War Memorial Treptow Park
Friedrichstraße Railway Bunker
Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe
Cemeteries
Soviet-Russian War Cemetery Simmerath-Rurberg
= Poland
=Gdańsk
On the 1st of September 1939, the battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Westerplatte in Gdańsk. This is regarded as the first shots of the Second World War. After the war, Gdansk would become an important symbol of Polish resistance.
Important remembrance sites
Museums
Polish Post Museum
Stutthof Museum
European Solidarity Centre
Monuments
Monument of the Coast Defenders
Cemeteries
The Cemetery of the Defenders of Westerplatte
= Czech Republic
=Plzeň
Plzeň is the capital city of the Czech Republic's western region of Bohemia. In May 1945, the US Third Army led by George S. Patton entered Plzeň to liberate the Czech people from six years of occupation by Nazi Germany. The locals remember these events today and they remain immensely grateful to the US Army.
Important remembrance sites
Patton Memorial Pilsen
16th Armored Division Memorial
Thank You America Memorial
= Italy
=The Liberation Route Europe in Italy connects important remembrance sites connected to the landing in Sicily, the Gustav Line defense, the Battle of Montecassino, the landing in Anzio, the Gothic Line defense.
The Liberation Route Europe Foundation
The Liberation Route Europe is developed and managed by the Liberation Route Europe Foundation with offices in Utrecht and Brussels. Its purpose is to bring together all of the institutions related to World War II—museums, universities, regional and national governments, tourism authorities, veterans associations, war graves commissions and so on.)—and to coordinate their efforts at an international level.
Martin Schulz, former President of the European Parliament, serves as the patron of the Liberation Route Europe Foundation.
References
External links
Official website
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- Vladimir Putin
- CMA CGM
- Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque
- Negara berdaulat
- Liberation Route Europe
- Scenic route
- Jenny-Wanda Barkmann
- Bohemia
- Cultural Route of the Council of Europe
- Operation Overlord
- First Army (United States)
- J. Lawton Collins
- Siegfried Line campaign
- VII Corps (United States)
