On June 6, 1944, at dawn, the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division of the United States National Guard landed on the low seas in front of Vierville, supported by tanks, Rangers and Geniuses.
The beach was heavily defended and dotted with obstacles. The fighting was difficult and deadly, especially before the descent of Vierville. There were several hundred deaths in the A,B, D companies of the 116th regiment, and about fifteen tanks destroyed at the 743th tank battalion.
In this photo taken on June 6 at around 11:00 a.m. at high sea, we see 11 American tanks motionless on the road by the sea. On the right the Hardelay villa under demolition and without a roof.
Two large barges (LCI 91 and 92) were set on fire a little further away from St. Lawrence and many LCTs were sunt by undermined obstacles that could not be removed by the special teams of the Engineer
The wreck of the LCI 91 in 1945
From 7:00 a.m., 60 Rangers and GIs of the 116th climbed the cliff between Vierville and the Percée, helping to neutralize the defenses of the Germans on the coast west of Vierville.
For their part, 700 survivors of the crossing of the beach, led by General Cota and Colonel Canham, climbed from 8:00 a.m. on the cliff between Vierville and St-Laurent,occupying the town on the morning of June 6 and isolating the Germans in their defenses at the foot of the descent.
Colonel Canham installed his PC in the Isles district while his weak units tried until the evening to clean up the vicinity of Vierville and advance towards the Pointe du Hoc.
In the afternoon, the bell tower and the church were destroyed by naval artillery.
In the South, West and East, the Germans managed to ban, as soon as they left the village, the roads of Formigny, Grandcamp and St-Laurent.
The bunker of the 88 cannon at the bottom of Vierville and the debris of the anti-tank wall exploded
On the right, the anti-tank wall, on June 8, crossed by a tank destroyer. In front, GIs of the 2nd US Infantry Division, who have just landed from an LCI. They are filmed in color by an American reporter.
At the end of the day, the Americans had cleared the road from the beach to the village, destroying the anti-tank wall and allowing about twenty tanks to climb into Vierville, thus securing the village.
On June 7, the Americans had to repel a German infantry counterattack and then eliminate the last resistance scattered in Vierville, while new units landed and crossed the village. In the evening a artillery bombing claimed new victims, including in the civilian population.
Meanwhile, specialized soldiers began to pick up the dead from the 2 camps and bury them in a temporary cemetery, in front of Vierville beach. On June 6, the Americans had lost 3,800 killed, injured or missing, including more than 1,000 dead, throughout Omaha Beach. Almost half had fallen on the beach of Vierville.
From June 7, the "Sea Bees" (the Genius of the US Navy) began to install in front of Vierville an artificial port "Mulberry" similar to that of Arromanches. Put into service on June 16, it was destroyed by the storm of June 19/21.
A floating pier "Lobnitz". On the right and at the top of the photo we see the descent of Vierville
LCTs on the beach, in front of the ruins of the villas in the center
A floating walkway "Whale" on June 16 in front of Vierville
Aerial view in July 44, we see the castle and the remains of the Mulberry
The destruction of docks and floating bridges did not prevent the Americans from keeping pace with the landings of reinforcements and supplies, using all their amphibious means, and sheltered from a dike of old sunk ships. Exploitation thus continued effectively, allowing Americans to succeed in Normandy.
The remains of the port are visible at low tide.
The Headquarters of the 11th Port settled at the Château de Vierville for several weeks.
The central crossroads of Vierville bitten by an American, on June 8, 1944
(It was a GI of an air engineering battalion that worked on the temporary airports of Saint-Laurent and St-Pierre du Mont)
