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Zdzislaw Sabat

The Frontline Walk 2026: The Normandy Beaches

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I'm taking part in the Frontline Walk: The Normandy Beaches. I'll be trekking 100km of the coastline stormed as part of Operation Overlord during the D-Day landings of the Second World War.

I'll be doing this to commemorate the sacrifices made by those who fought in WWII whilst helping to support the soldiers and veterans of today.

It will be a physically and emotionally tough challenge, but I'm doing it all for a great cause: the Army Benevolent Fund, the National Charity of the British Army. They support soldiers, veterans and their families when they need it most.

Please cheer me on by making a donation towards my target.

👇👇 I'M POSTING UPDATES FROM EACH DAY BELOW, SO CHECK THEM OUT 👇👇

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Day 3 – the final march 🇬🇧

A lie-in at last – 6:30! – and off by bus at 7:45 to Port-en-Bessin for the hilliest day of the three: 22 km and most of the week's climbing, rewarded with the most beautiful scenery of the walk, high on the cliffs above the Channel.

Port-en-Bessin itself was taken by the men of 47 Royal Marine Commando in three days of fighting, 6th to 8th June 1944 – their memorial stands on the headland above the town, and on the harbour wall an inscription reads simply: 'Here in 1944 Europe was liberated by the heroism of the Allied forces.'

Along the cliffs we reached the Longues-sur-Mer battery – German 150mm guns on a 60 m clifftop between Gold and Omaha, which shelled both beaches on D-Day before being captured on the 7th. Then down into Arromanches, which we first saw on day 1 – the remains of the Mulberry harbour still out in the bay – and a well-earned lunch at the top of the hill on the far side of town.

And then the finish. The path to the British Normandy Memorial is gravel, and as we walked it together our footsteps quickly fell into step – suddenly we weren't walking but marching, and you couldn't help feeling a connection with those who marched here in 1944. We entered the memorial as a group, received our medals, and laid a wreath while our historian recited the Ode of Remembrance – ending with the promise that we will remember them.

The memorial bears the names of 22,442 men and women of all nationalities who died serving in British units in the Battle of Normandy. We walked among the columns reading them. Arturo Fanconi and Sidney Bates, whose stories began our week in Bayeux, are both remembered here. It was hard not to be moved.

Over the past three days we walked about 80km in total ✨ It has been an unforgettable experience: I've learned so much, laughed a lot with a brilliant group of fellow walkers, met some truly inspirational people, and – thanks to YOU – raised funds for an amazing charity supporting soldiers, veterans and their families. A huge thank you as well to the organisers for such a meaningful, expertly run event.

Flyover of today's route: https://www.relive.com/view/vYvEdKz1Xwq

Home tomorrow. We will remember them.

Day 2 – Utah Beach 🇺🇸

Up at 5:30 again, and today the cumulative fatigue kicked in – all of us felt it to a bigger or lesser degree, and for the first time the brilliant medics had some feet to fix. But what a day to earn those blisters: sunshine from start to finish, almost too hot by the end. No one complained 😄

We started at the La Fière bridge and the Iron Mike memorial, honouring the US Airborne. The paratroopers who dropped here had to hold a small bridge over the Merderet at all costs – the causeway behind it was one of the few routes the Americans could use to break out of Utah Beach towards Cherbourg, and the fighting for it was among the fiercest of the campaign.

Then Sainte-Mère-Église, one of the first towns liberated in the early hours of D-Day – where paratrooper John Steele's chute famously snagged on the church steeple. He hung there for hours, playing dead, before being captured. A parachute memorial hangs from the steeple to this day.

Through quiet lanes we reached Utah Beach – passing the spot where the 4th Infantry Division was supposed to land before currents carried them 2 km down the shore. Leading that first wave, aged 56 and walking with a cane, was Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr – the president's son. Realising they were in the wrong place, he simply declared: "We'll start the war from right here!" – and earned the Medal of Honor. Walking the beach itself: sunshine, wide sand, and jellyfish the size of dinner plates! We also passed the monument to General Leclerc's 2nd French Armoured Division, which came ashore here in August 1944 and went on to liberate Paris – Frenchmen freeing France.

With the official 20 km done, we visited the excellent Overlord Museum and then Omaha Beach – the bloodiest of all five, with some 2,400 American casualties on D-Day alone. We ended among the rows of white crosses and Stars of David at the Normandy American Cemetery above the beach, where more than 9,000 are laid to rest – Roosevelt among them. A quiet end to a long day.

Watch the flyover of today's route here: https://www.relive.com/view/vPv4wRkgPRq

Tomorrow: the final day of walking, Port-en-Bessin to the British Normandy Memorial – with a lie-in, as we don't leave until 7:45! 😄 

Day 1 – Sword Beach 🇬🇧

Up at 5:30 and on the road before sunrise – which we watched from the Merville Battery, exactly where D-Day began for the men we're walking for. 750 paratroopers of the 9th Battalion jumped in the dark to silence the German guns aimed at Sword Beach. Scattered across the countryside, only 150 reached the rendezvous – and they attacked anyway, with barely any equipment. When the battery fell, just 75 were still standing. The landings they made possible came hours later.

Then Ranville War Cemetery, resting place of more than 2,500. Among them Lieutenant Den Brotheridge, who led the first charge across Pegasus Bridge minutes into D-Day and is considered the first Allied soldier killed in action that day. And Private Emile Corteil, a 19-year-old dog handler, buried in one grave with Glen, the paradog who jumped with him and died at his side. His mother's epitaph: "Had you known our boy you would have loved him too."

We walked on to the Horsa and Pegasus bridges, seized by glider troops in the first minutes of the invasion so the men landing on the beaches could move inland – and stopped at the Café Gondrée beside Pegasus, the first house in France to be liberated. The owner dug up the champagne he'd buried at the start of the occupation and poured it for his liberators; his daughter Arlette, four years old that night, runs the café to this day.

Via the Hillman Strongpoint we reached Sword Beach itself – where I was moved to find memorials not only to the British but also to Polish forces who gave their lives here.

After lunch, on to Juno Beach, where 14,000 Canadians landed on 6 June 1944, and the story of "One Charlie" – an engineer tank that fell into a flooded crater leaving the beach, three of its crew killed; it was buried under the sand to carry a bridge that opened the beach exit, forgotten for 30 years, then dug up and restored as a memorial. Beside it stands a memorial to General Maczek's 16,000-strong 1st Polish Armoured Division, which came ashore on this same beach seven weeks after D-Day.

We finished at Arromanches: original Battle of Normandy footage in a 360° cinema, and the remains of the Mulberry harbour – "Port Winston", the floating port Churchill championed – still visible in the sea 82 years on.

21 km done. You can check out a bird's-eye view of our day here: https://www.relive.com/view/vKv2VYWK94v

Tomorrow: Utah and Omaha, where the Americans landed. 

Day 0 – arrived in Normandy 🇫🇷

This morning we set off from Wellington Barracks in London, crossed under the Channel and rolled into Bayeux, our base for the next four days.

First stop set the tone: Bayeux War Cemetery, the largest British WWII cemetery in France – over 4,000 graves, with the names of 1,800 more who were never found on the memorial opposite. Row after row of young men. It hits hard.

Our historian Steve brought two of them back to life for us.

Corporal Sidney Bates, a rag-and-bone man's son from Camberwell, was 23 when a German counter-attack threatened to overrun his company. He picked up a Bren gun from a fallen friend and charged the advancing enemy alone, firing from the hip. Shot three times, he kept getting up and going forward until the Germans pulled back. He died of his wounds two days later and lies here with the Victoria Cross.

And Arturo Fanconi – a pastry chef from Somerset, Swiss parents, exempt from conscription. He volunteered anyway, as a Navy medic. When American soldiers were caught in a minefield, he ran half a mile into it, patched them up and carried two men out. Going back for a third, a mine took one of his feet; falling, he set off another that took the other – and he still crawled on in agony, trying to gather his scattered kit to treat the wounded. He was 38. Because he died saving lives rather than fighting, he couldn't receive the VC – instead he was given the Albert Medal in Gold, the last ever awarded.

Tomorrow we lace up for day one: 21 km through the Sword Beach sector, from the Merville Battery via Pegasus Bridge along the coast where British troops landed on 6 June 1944.

Thank you to my Sponsors

£230

Anonymous

£220

Anonymous

£100

Chris Chapman

£100

Victoria Crown

What an incredible thing you’re doing for such a brilliant cause!! So proud of you D!! Can’t wait to hear all about it 🌟👏

£65.10

Aidan

£54.75

Aga Krawczynska

Sto Lat Kochany!!!

£53.55

Nina Sabat

💥 A little boost for your fundraising, my love.. I’m so proud you’re doing this! 🥰 Your fabulous 50s are finally here… March on!!!! Xx

£50

Teresa Sabat

£50

Anonymous

👏

£40

Abi

Cheering you on, D xxx

£33.83

Nigel Hinchliffe

£33.15

Tim Segaller

This is such a great thing to do Dzidek. I salute you for it! Good luck my friend

£30

Monisola Omotoso

Happy 50th D, I hope this next decade delivers on all fronts 😘🎉🎂🎊🥳

£30

Nicholas Feenie

Good luck, Dzidek! Have a great time! 😁

£30

Anonymous

Best of luck sweetie! Proud of you xxx

£30

Deb Banner

Good luck!

£30

Anonymous

£30

R & J

£30

Toby Mildon

Good luck with your challenge Geedek

£28

Clarity Academy Ltd

£23.45

Carole Swygart

£23.45

Abe And Anthony

How wonderful to support such a worthy cause, by walking in the footsteps of our war heroes. God bless you Dzidek. Wishing you all the best on your mission.

£22.80

Anonymous

£22.32

Marcin

£20

Tyler

Good luck YOU GOT THIS!

£20

Deji

£20

Deb Banner

£20

Christine

£12.01

Anonymous

£10

Anonymous

£10

Cathy

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