Medieval Normandy andD-Day Landings Rally 2022

REME Association Caravan & Camping Club

Medieval Normandy and D-Day Landings Rally 2022

Scribe: Joe Dixon-Haxby, Honorary Secretary & Rally Marshal

Club Members at Le Monte St Michel

Craftsman T Anderson’s grave

On 26 June 2022, eight families from the REME Association Camping & Caravan Club started to meet up in Portsmouth in readiness to embark to Northern France. The aim of the rally was to look at both the Medieval history and the D-Day landing sites of Normandy. Whilst waiting for the members to arrive, the early birds visited the Mary Rose Museum at the Historical Dockyards and the D-Day Museum at Southsea and it’s famous “Overlord Embroidery”.

With a 5.00am reveille to catch the early morning ferry for Caen, we camped overnight on Portsmouth Docks, which reminded many of us of the famous “Crash outs” or “Hurry up and wait” times in Germany. A quiet sailing was followed by a short trip to the lovely Chateau de Martragny near Bayeux, our home for the next two weeks.

Bayeux is a medieval town, which hosts an annual medieval carnival. It is also the home to the British Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemetery, the main Normandy Museum and the worldfamous Bayeux Tapestry depicting the 1066 invasion and battle of Hastings. Whilst visiting the British cemetery, our Honorary Secretary laid a wreath on behalf of the Club. Then individual members sought out a REME soldier’s grave to lay a Poppy Cross. A further wreath would be laid by the Club Chairman at the new British Memorial overlooking Gold beach.

There are many cemeteries, memorials, museums, and sites of interest to be found, so we split the landing sites into four sectors. To reduce the emotional stress, which these visits can inflict on one’s mind, we took two days off