History Associates, the leading U.S. historical services firm, along with the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), and app developer NeoTreks Inc., is pleased to announce the availability of a new mobile app guided tour of Pointe du Hoc, the historic World War II battle site in Normandy, France. The free app takes advantage of GPS technology for smartphones, so visitors can track their exact location in relation to historic events and access detailed information while touring the site.
"The Pointe du Hoc site on the cliffs of the English Channel is a very austere location, still bearing the scars of that fateful day in 1944, when U.S. Army Rangers scaled cliffs to defeat the Nazis on D-Day," said Dr. James Lide, vice president at History Associates and lead historian on the project. "The site lends itself well to a self-guided smartphone tour, which can bring historical events to life while leaving the battlefield essentially untouched." Although it is designed for a walking tour of the site, the detailed information on the app makes it an entertaining multimedia learning tool as well. Most of the content is contained within the downloaded app so that it can be reviewed without cell service.
The app provides a tour map with eleven "tour stops" and seven additional points of interest. At each stop, the app provides a summary of events, historical photos of the site, audio narration, videos, chronologies, biographies, facts, and more. "Historic tour apps are a tremendous way of making history more tangible," noted Dr. Lide. "Even if you aren't at the site, you can imagine standing next to the antiaircraft bunker that served as the ranger command post on D-Day, looking at pictures of the bunker during the battle and listening to a former Army Ranger describe what it felt like that day."
Working in close collaboration with ABMC and the technical app development team at NeoTreks, historians at History Associates first researched and organized the multimedia narrative for the tour and then formatted the material for integration into the NeoTreks app platform. The resulting app tells the rich story of the courage and sacrifice of the U.S. Army Rangers who fought that day. Many of whom gave their lives and are buried in the ABMC cemetery nearby.
Technology partner NeoTreks Inc. created the platform for the app, which can be used on the Apple iPhone(R) and on GPS-enabled Android(TM) phones. "We are excited to work with the ABMC and History Associates to develop this app, which so effectively teaches us the history of this important World War II event," commented Michael Bullock, president of NeoTreks.
The application is currently available for download free of charge from the iTunes store. A version for Android and a French-language version are also in development.