The battery at Maisy was visited by a number of schools in 2007... some from Manchester, Cardiff, France, Holland and Germany.... the answer was the same from all of them... absolutely fantastic.
The kids loved the fact that they were in original German trenches... walking inside clean and well presented original German defensive buildings and all the schools who visited said they would come again.
The could run around and they were safe - most of all their teachers also knew they were safe... a great time was had by all and they all commented on how much easier it was to discribe the whole German defence of the region after visiting the site.
NEW FOR 2008
There will be a display of paperwork relating to the work of Cornelius Ryan the author of The Longest Day... the hugely successful film and book dedicated to the actions of all sides on D-day... it will be on display at Maisy hopefully in March for the year.
3 - original German Howitzers are going to be put back onto the pits on the site sometime in the new year. Not only will this add to the whole visitor experience but, it will be a graphic reminder of the scale of the weapons in use on D-day. These guns could propell a shell 10 miles with ease and there is no better way of getting the point across to a group of school children than having them dwarfed by a huge 5 ton howitzer.
Additionally to the howitzers arriving on the site - we will be building a museum with visitors centre and shop this coming year. The museum will display many of the original WWII items discovered during the digging out of the site - as well as many of the German and US Ranger items recovered locally.
Everything from German Howitzer wheels taken by a local farmer after the battle to make a trailer - to an original WWII Ranger worn invasion vest... so rare because they were only worn on D-day and then disguarded.
Not only will the children be able to pick up Rangers related souvenirs - from caps to pencils, but also informative historical books and information relating to the region.
We are also hoping to have a DVD ready with interviews with the surviving Ranger veterans who in their own words will describe their experiences fighting to get off Omaha Beach, along to Pointe du Hoc and then into Maisy Battery.
So... rather than us tell you all about it... here are a couple of letters received after school visits in 2007...
