Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours’ three D-Day river cruises

Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours created a special river cruise to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Normandy and D-Day landings in 2025.

Walking tour of D-Day landing, Omaha Beach.

The tour comprises eight days of river cruising along the Seine aboard the luxurious five-star Amadeus Diamond from Paris to Normandy and back. They provide three on-board WW2 seminars during the cruise, with two days of comprehensive touring exploring Normandy and D-Day landing sites with an expert WW2 historian. Departures on 11 June, 23 July, and 24 September 2025.

Multi-day D-Day history tour with various activities and excursions.

All meals are included, with onboard gourmet dining that includes continental breakfast buffets, multi-course lunches, and dinners. They also have afternoon tea and late-night snacks with free-flowing hand-selected wines, beef, and soda included at every lunch and dinner.

Guests are welcomed and sent off with a cocktail reception and are free to use onboard Wi-Fi and complimentary on-board bicycles to explore ashore.

Learn more about the history behind Normandy and D-Day with Battlefield Tours.

Mat McLachlan, historian and founder of Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours, said, “Around 3,300 Australians served in the D-Day landings, mostly in the Airforce, but also at sea and on land.” He shares some of D-Day Anzacs stories:

Lieutenant Kenneth Hudspeth, Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RANVR), a teacher from Hobart, Tasmania, commanded one of the first two ‘X’ class submarines (the X20) to cross the Channel for the landings, his mission to mark the access route for the Allied Armada and act as a navigation beacon.

Normandy France D-Day tour.

Lieutenant-Commander Leon Goldsworthy, Royal Australian Navy Volunteer Reserve, from Broken Hill NSW, was one of the bravest Australians at Normandy. He was part of a team of Royal Navy clearance divers who, just weeks after the D-Day landings, worked desperately to clear mines from the booby-trapped harbour near the port of Cherbourg.

Sub-Lieutenant Richard Pirrie, RANVR, from Hawthorn, Melbourne was a talented sportsman who had played AFL for Hawthorn Football Club. On June 6 – his 24th birthday – Pirrie was in command of Landing Craft Support (M)47 in the first wave at Juno Beach, Normandy.

He was tasked with the dangerous job of piloting his craft close in, so a naval artillery observer could direct gunfire onto German defences. Pirrie’s craft simultaneously struck a mine and was hit by a shell, killing him and two others.

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Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours