The 25 Best World War II Sites, European Theater: The Ultimate Traveler's Guide to Battlefields, Monuments & Museums

Paperback - 25 May, 2004 - Greenline Publications
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By: Chuck Thompson
ISBN: 0972915079

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Reviews by readers

For two months in Europe I carried this guide. No complaints.

[...]

Chuck Thompson has made something special here and I strongly recommend his book to the historically minded traveler. I graduated a semester early from Lehigh University and played the classic college-boy card: Backpacking Europe. My travels were excellent; thanks in part to "The 25 Best World War II Sites: European Theater." It is a thoughtful, thorough analysis of the magical relics of World War II. In addition, it is a superb travel guide. It encouraged me to see things I would not have seen, to go where I would never have gone. For the young American overseas, I can hardly imagine a more satisfying, paperback companion.

From the "Big 25-list," I went to the Normandy Beaches, twice, and to London, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bastogne, Belgium/Luxembourg, Paris, Munich, Nuremberg, and Rome. When at these places, this book provided a plan of action based on Thompson's maps, directions, and rating system. In addition, Thompson's textual description of each area included both details and the wide picture, providing a compact history book for the weight-conscious backpacker. The obvious highlights, such as Normandy and Auschwitz, are well covered and worth visiting, but it is in the small, lesser-known areas where I felt the true value of this praise-worthy guide.

Let me highlight several places in particular that won me over:

*The Nazi Party Rally Grounds @ Nuremburg* - Germany's a big place and I may not have known where to go without this book. When I left Prague ahead of schedule, this small German town with the darkest of histories knocked me out. So much and so little remains from this mysterious lost time.

*Maginot Line @ Longuyon* - Yes, I walked 12 miles across the French countryside to hunt out these ancient forts. They were closed when I got there; however, this ranks among my best days. Make sure to check the "Auxiliary Sites" section!

*Patton's Grave @ Luxembourg* - On the same day as the Maginot Line. I walked 3 miles outside of Luxembourg at dusk to pay tribute to this great among Americans. I would have found none of these places without Thompson's book.

*Belgium* - The European nexus of both World Wars, this tiny country is thick with history. When in Brussels, travel outside the city center to the Royal Museum of the Army and Military History. Thank you, Jay Blitzer, for taking me to Liege. Before I close up, the town of Yper in Belgium is *the* place for WWI battle sites. I rented a bike there and had an unbelievable time.

In Thompson's introduction, he warns that, "Outside of major cities and a few noted exceptions, the only way to efficiently visit the battlefields and sites covered in this book is by car." On the other hand, an adventurous traveler can use this book with excellent results without a car. I did.

Here is my recommendation: go to Europe, use this book, and learn about human history. Take a Guidebook (Let's Go, Rough Guide, LonelyPlanet) and this book. I planned my trip using Rick Steves' Europe Through The Backdoor. These books will make a smooth trip, overall. Thompson's travel guide makes World War II battle sites approachable and memorable. A Thompson five-star site is a clear winner, hands down. I slapped myself for not realizing the value of Thompson's guide earlier in my trip. I missed Cassino, for example. When is my next vacation?

I thank the men and women whose sacrifices protected the world in the 1940s. For next trip, pack a Thompson-guide and travel Europe through history. May we always have such an easy way to pay our respects.

A Must for History Buffs

Being stationed overseas has allowed us to travel quite a bit. There's much more out there than we thought! Definitely a good book to help you find WWII sites!
--Vicki Landes, author of "Europe for the Senses - A Photographic Journal"

A perfect companion guide for planning or taking a trip to Europe to see WWII sites

When I have visited Civil War battlefields from Gettysburg to Shiloh I have brought along the respective volumes from the Time-Life Civil War series as a convenient way of recalling what happened. While nowhere as nearly profusely illustrated, Chuck Thompson has put together an excellent guide to "The 25 Best World War II Sites: European Theater" for those who are traveling to the Continent and want to see the best sites. This holds true whether they are brought by memories of serving in World War II, to see where relatives fought during the war, or simply to see the realities behind movies like "The Longest Day" or "Saving Private Ryan" (in fact, Thompson makes a point of referencing dramatizations like "Band of Brothers" and other standard WWII fare).

The goal of this guide is to direct travelers in Europe to those places of greatest importance interest with regards to World War II. Thompson's subjective rankings were determined by judging sites on the basic of three equally weighted qualities: (1) their historical significance; (2) the amount and quality of relics or points of interest remaining at a given site; and (3) the merits of each site as a travel destination, its services, natural beauty and general desirability independent of its association with the war. Consequently, Stalingrad and the Battle of the Bulge make the cut whereas Dieppe and Dunkirk do not, with London, Paris and Rome having an inherent advantage over locales that are not cosmopolitan capitals.

The results of this tabulation is as follows: (1) Normandy I: Utah, Omaha Beaches; (2) Normandy II: Gold, Juno, Sword Beaches; (3) London; (4) Auschwitz-Birkenau; (5) Bastogne: Battle of the Bulge I; (6) Belgium/Luxembourg: Battle of the Bulge II; (7) Pas de Calais; (8) Berlin; (9) Washington, D.C.; (10) South Coast of England; (11) Cassino; (12) Paris; (13) Moscow; (14) Normandy III: The Breakout; (15) Munich; (16) Nuremberg; (17) East Anglia; (18) Volgograd (Stalingrad); (19) Norway; (20) Netherlands: Operation Market-Garden; (21) Rome; (22) Remagen/Eifel Region; (23) Anzio; (24) Kursk; and (25) Auxiliary Sites, which lists everything from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam to the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, with the likes of Hitler's birthplace, the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, the Maginot Line, Berchtesgarden, the Medinat el-Alamein War Museum and the Treblinka Concentration Camp in between. This last chapter is arranged by country, so if you happen to be in the Balkans, Finland, Italy, Malta, or pretty much any other European nation, Thompson gives you an indication of what there is to see.

For each of these sites Thompson lists the individual points of interest in the area, provides detailed histories and maps of the sites, and gives direction to everything from monuments and city museums to landing beaches and battlefields. The points of interested are rated from ***** (major site, must visit) to * (only if you have time or special interest), although Thompson wisely refrains from rating Holocaust sites. He also emphasizes in his introduction that these ratings are not meant to judge the relative importance of a battle or of the lives lost there, but to indicate the relative value to a tourist. He also provides an interesting perspective by noting that a visitor will notice that nations like England and Russia weave the mythology of the historic conflict into their national identities in decidedly different ways. However, the main concern here is the utility of this guide for visitors to any of these cites.

For example, in the first chapter devoted to the Utah and Omaha beaches in Normandy, we begin with a description of what happened there during the war year (with a short list of sources and other readings), and a map showing 21 numbered sites. After a brief description of Normandy Today, Thompson goes through those 21 sites, where the Utah Beach/Museum, Point du Hoc/Range Memorial, National Guard Memorial/Bunkers, Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, and U.S. 1st Division Monument/Omaha Beach are the five-star rated sites. Cherbourg is listed as one of the Related Sites Beyond Utah and Omaha, while the Bayeux Tapestry is one of the Other Area Attractions. Thompson also covers Getting To/Around Normandy and Accommodations in the area (e.g., Hotel Du Juin 6).

There are several pages of color photographs included to give you an idea of what there is to see, including the Fuhrer's rostrum at Nuremberg, Patton's grave in Luxembourg, Longues Battery at Normandy, the Gate of Death at Auschwitz-Birkenaur, and the Flour Mill in Volgograd. The number of people who will have the opportunity to see most of these sites is going to be relatively small, but even if all you get to see are a handful of sites in various locations, this is still a worthwhile investment. It can also help you determine what you should see, both in terms of desire and opportunity (for example, getting to Poland to see Auschwitz-Birkenaur might be impractical, but there are, of course, camps throughout eastern Europe, from Dachau west of Munich and Bergen-Belsen outside Bergen to Natzweiler-Struthof in France.

The chapter on Washington, D.C. does show that there are some things to see on this side of the Atlantic, but also speaks to the utility of a European visitor coming here to see World War II related sites as well. Yes, there is a companion volume for "The 25 Best World War II Sites: Pacific Theater" by Thompson, which obviously covers a larger area geographically. But it should provide the same level of utility as this book.

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