NORMANDY 

Normandy-Battle of Normandy-Saint-Mère-Eglise

Memorial sites
and beaches main page

D-Day beaches and War Memorial

St-Mére l'Eglise

 Caen-Musée pour le Paix

   Pegasus Bridge
Benouville
Ranville

Bay of Veys, 0.15 hours on June 5, 1944. The first wave of 17.000 American paratroopers just jumped off three C-47 and will try to land or around Saint-Mere-Eglise or north of Carentan. They dispose quickly their radio beacons, around Saint-Germain-de-Varreville, in order to guide the 819 planes already flying over the Cotentin. Main objective: to destroy the battery of Saint-Germain-de-Varreville, secure the route safe the flooded areas along the coast, capture the bridges on the Douve and the Merderet.
But after two hours of inaccurate flying, the paratroopers of the 101st are loosened above Angoville-au-Plain. Five thousand men are lost and scattered in the small bosket prairies and groves, 20 to 30 km off the rendezvous zones, or drowned in the swamps. Only 1000 men are left. The 82nd, supposed to land east of the Merderet, is parcelled out in different pieces, at the west. However, the 3rd battalion, 505th regiment, lands on the main square and all around SAINTE-MERE-EGLISE, and takes the city at 4.30 AM. In front of town hall, the first American flag is raised on a portion of France!! John Steele will confirm that!
SAINTE-MERE-L’EGLISE, one of the symbols of the June 6 landing, enormously popularised by the motion picture "The Longest Day". Who doesn't remember the adventure of John Steel, the American parachutist, who earned eternal glory by being hooked with his parachute on the bell tower of the church! For two hours, John Steele hung in the air, dangling helplessly, his parachute wrapped around the steeple, feigning he was dead before being taken prisoner. In the town a dummy paratrooper still hangs from the church’s spire and the landings are commemorated in its stained glass: one of the U.S. parachutists with the coat of arms, symbol of the Airborne troops, and saint-Michael, patron of the paratroopers. The other honours the Landing (probably the only one in the world with a Virgin and Child surrounded by planes and paratroopers). In front of the hotel de ville, the milestone 00 of Liberty.
Have a look at the famous church (12th and 15th century) and loiter at the portal. On the capitals you can see sculpted rabbits and foliage. Archivolts falling on bizarre modillions, almost obscene…one of the figures (on the right) seems to stand on his testicles! The music-desk, of the 18th also, is one of the most beautiful of the department.
Nearby the MUSEE DES TROUPES AEROPORTEES (Airborne museum) tel 0233414135 fax 0233417887 works hard to convey to a growing audience that has never known war, the reality of D-Day. While some museums look more like an army surplus store, this one can boast both a C47 dropping plane and a fearfully-flimsy WACO glider with sweet-eyed shop dummies as passengers.  Closed from mid-December to end of January. From Half November to mid December only open on weekends. The rest of the year open every day.
On the outskirts of Sainte-Mère –l’Eglise, the MUSEE DE LA FERME DU COTENTIN is housed in a 17th century ancient farm. It recreates the rural life at the start of the 19th century.  An exhibition of well-displayed agricultural tools, peasant furniture, and diverse domestic objects. It offers a useful chance to get inside one of the high covetable ensemble of stone and slate farmhouse buildings, typical of western Normandy.
It’s also interesting to move ten miles further north to VALOGNES and its MUSEE REGIONAL DU CIDRE ET CALVADOS, paying homage to the Norman zeal for extracting liquids from the apple.

Bibliography

A holiday history of France, by Ronald Hamilton (London-Hogarth press), Region Normandie, ses merveilles, ses cicatrices, by Louis Letellier (ed. Cloison, Rouen 1995), Holt’s battle field guides, Normandy Overlord by Holt, Tonie and Valmai (Sandwich, Kent), La France des petits chemins: Normandie, by J. de la Valléé (ed. Cité presse, Paris 1998), Six armies in Normandy, by John Keegan, (paperback ed. Pimlico)

Ouistreham

Arromanches artificial port

 Bayeux war memorials

 Omaha beach 
     
 
Pointe du Hoc
     
 
Utah Beach