The museum and memorial at Mont-Ormel are located in the heart of the Battle of Normandy area south of Caen and close to the towns of Falaise, Argentan, and Vimoutiers, around an hour from the D-Day landing beaches.
The memorial was completed in 1965 for the 20th anniversary of the battle and stands on a ridge overlooking the Dives valley landscape of the Falaise-Chambois pocket which witnessed some of the bloodiest fighting in France.
It commemorates the sacrifice of Allied soldiers who fell for freedom, displaying the insignia of the 1st Polish Armoured Division, 2nd French Armoured Division, 359th Infantry Regiment of the 90th U.S. Infantry Division, the Canadian Grenadier Guards of the 4th Canadian Armoured Division, the 21st Army Group, and the Resistance fighters who never stopped seeking to push the Germans from their country.
An orientation table gives the visitor an insight into the locations of the positions of the different units and the course of the fighting during August 1944.
The Memorial wall is flanked by two well maintained museum-piece vehicles – a Sherman and an M8 Greyhound armoured car, both of which featured heavily in the region during the fighting. However, the Sherman is a later-war model than the versions used during 1944. A statue in honour of General Stanislaw Maczek, Commander of the 1st Polish Armoured Division stands in the parkland near to the Sherman which bears his name.
Underneath the memorial is the museum which, although small by comparison to those on the D-Day landing beach areas, still has a fascinating mix of exhibits from this period of the war, plus educational information boards and a film theatre.
The museum will take you around an hour to visit and is well worth the drive inland and away from the constant diet of D-Day-related Museum content.