The memorials of Vierville: images and history

One Sunday, summer visitors took a seat at the Vierville blockhouse to attend a party. On the land side, the Gay-Sçavoir gave a folk show; on the sea side, the Vaumicel equestrian club offered equestrian demonstrations appreciated by the public.

The cut recalled the murderous role of the cannon of this blockhouse on the morning of D-Day. She described the work as classified and announced that the American army should erect a memorial there. This remnant of war then also served as a dominant point to follow the afternoon shows.

The German blockhouse dominating the Vierville–Saint-Laurent sector was being transformed. Its platform was to host an American monument in tribute to the troops who had silenced the enemy cannon. The inauguration was announced for June 6, 1969, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Landing.

The cut announced for June 5 the inauguration of the monument to the American National Guard, as part of the anniversary ceremonies of the Landing. The work was erected on a German blockhouse, by the sea, in Vierville-sur-Mer.

During the report, the monument was not yet completed, but its first inscription was already visible: a quote attributed to General de Gaulle, "Weapons tortured but they also shaped the world. Shameful and beautiful, their story is that of men. ”

This page of photographs shows the inauguration of the National Guard monument in Omaha Beach. Another view shows children in Norman costume attending the ceremony.

A third photograph shows the arrival of Marshal Leclerc on the beach of Omaha. The photographs are credited to Alain Le Berre.

In an article signed by Colonel James B. Deerin and published in August 1964, the National Guardsman reports on the memorial voyage of representatives of the National Guard Association of the United States, the NGAUS.

A legend announces that a monument dedicated to the members of the National Guard who died during the liberation is to be installed on the German observation bunker in Vierville, opposite Omaha Beach. Another photograph shows Major General James F. Cantwell, president of the NGAUS, offering Mayor Michel Hardelay a work from the Heritage series representing Lafayette's return to the United States. The legend also names Thomas North, of the American Battle Monuments Commission, the majors generals William J. Witte, Clarence E. Shoop and Ralph Olson, members of the association's Normandy commission, as well as the mayor of Vierville during the war. An image shows the delegation of the Land and Air Guard passing by a guard of honor to join a commemorative ceremony.

The representatives of the NGAUS devoted the rest of June 6 to the ceremonies of several coastal villages. On June 8, the association organized a reception and dinner at the George-V Hotel in Paris, in the presence of senior officers of the Allied nations and American officers assigned to the SHAPE and the US Army Europe. Lieutenant General William Quinn, commander of the U.S. Seventh Army, and Prince Pierre of Greece and Denmark, President of the Allied Confederation of Reserve Officers, were among the guests.

In Paris, the delegation participated in a memorial service at the American cemetery of Suresnes. General Cantwell then laid a wreath at the monument of the French Resistance on Mont Valérien. Before arriving in France, the participants had spent two days in London, invited by the Council of Territorial Army and Auxiliary Forces Associations, an organization presented as comparable to the NGAUS.

Upon returning, General Cantwell greeted a group whose members had all paid their personal expenses. He believed that the trip had strengthened relations with the Allied forces, both active and reserve, and paid tribute to the national guards and other American soldiers who died in Europe. He wanted the association to maintain this memory by participating in future birthdays. The photographs are awarded to the American Battle Monuments Commission.

A tribute to Jean-Roger Sainteny and the Alliance network

A first break reported a tribute organized on a Sunday in Vierville-sur-Mer. Among the steles dedicated to American units, a monument on the beach was dedicated to the Resistance. Alumni of the Alliance group had gathered there in memory of Jean-Roger Sainteny, known as Dragon.

Édith Desaleux, an eighty-six-year-old Alliance resistance fighter at the time of the article, explained that the hope of the Liberation had given them the strength to continue the fight. Present in Paris in 1944, she evoked the liberation of the city as the most beautiful day of her life: the flags that appeared on the windows and the sound of the bells remained wonderful memories for her.

With other Alliance survivors, she participated in the ceremony and recalled the fight of Sainteny. Mayor Jean-Marie Oxéant stressed his attachment to Vierville, before laying a wreath.

The Vigil of the Sixtieth Anniversary

A second cut reported an evening organized on a Tuesday by France Bleu, Ouest-France and the Caen Memorial in the municipal hall. Nearly two hundred people had attended. The objective was to give the floor to the witnesses of the Landing, the war and the immediate post-war period, and then to preserve and transmit this memory. Many young people had listened to their elders.

The third grade students of Hemingway College in Port-en-Bessin, accompanied by their history teacher Jean-Jacques Leprende, had questioned witnesses about relations with the Germans, the Resistance, the deaths of the Landing, the future of the bodies and the cleaning of the beach. Christophe Prime, historian of the Caen Memorial, completed the answers. He animated the evening with Stéphane Parry, France Bleu journalist, and began by recalling the events of June 6, 1944 on the six kilometers of Omaha, between Vierville, Saint-Laurent and Colleville.

Different experiences depending on the place

The testimonies of Fernand Olard and Janine Anger showed that the inhabitants had not all experienced the same highlights. Some, hidden in ditches, had not seen anyone on June 6, while they had lived very hard the next day, evoking a German counter-offensive.

Narcisse Coulibœuf, aged sixteen in 1944, said that his father wanted to ring the bells on the morning of June 6, but his mother had prevented him from doing so. He also remembered the confusion of American soldiers who thought civilians had already left. He and his father, his brother had been taken to the American command post of Ruquet.

Witnesses mentioned few civilian deaths in their area on D-Day, citing the baker's maid, her little boy and the postman. The bodies of the soldiers and the cries of the wounded, on the other hand, remained deeply present in their memory. Jean-Claude Ygouf described his fear of the dead at the end of a field and the image of a soldier shaving in the middle of chaos.

After the years of deprivation, they also kept the memory of the abundance brought by the Americans during the operation of the artificial port, until November 1944: meals offered, cigarettes and sweets carried in the aprons. Fernand Olard evoked the cagibi under the staircase filled with preserves and provisions, as if the family was preparing another war. Georgette Olive remembered an outing to the Port-en-Bessin cinema, followed by a severe reprimand on her return.

The evening had officially ended after two hours, but the exchanges had continued. Teachers and associations had found valuable information for their memory work. The cut announced the broadcast of recordings on France Bleu on March 12 at 2:30 p.m. and March 14 at 12:10 p.m., as well as a file on the Ouest-France website.

Four testimonies in portraits

Fernand Olard was five years old in 1944. After leaving the trench where his family had taken refuge, he remembered that the Americans had wanted to evacuate the inhabitants by boat. Gathered at school, the group had to leave after the roof explosion. The sea was covered with boats and wrecks; buildings and roads had disappeared under the destruction, and bulldozers were pushing back the rubble. It was necessary to advance among the bodies. Later, he would fish for lobsters in the wrecks. He brought some images of the cliff closer to scenes from the movie Private Ryan.

Sergine Ginet, originally from Bricqueville, was a teenager during the Occupation. She said she came back at 7:05 a.m. when the curfew was set at 7 a.m., after lingering with friends on her way back from milking. A German had driven her in front of officers, then brought her home by kicking her in the lower back. She kept in contrast the memory of a happy period after the Landing, when she ate and smoked with the Americans.

Janine Anger was nineteen years old and then bore the name of Bonaparte. She lived near the church with her parents and her fiancé. She mentioned twenty-four aerial torpedoes that fell on June 6 in one hectare of their field. The family had gone in slippers to Louvières and found themselves with twenty-one people in a pond descent transformed into a shelter. On the way back, the destruction was considerable. His parents then befriended an American Red Cross soldier installed in the Château de Vierville, who came to eat at their house and considered them as his French parents.

Fernand Skrzyniarz was nine months old in 1944. He reported the story transmitted by his parents: on June 6, they left with Mr. Igouf, their employer. During the shooting, his mother had received a grenade splinter on her wrist. As her child was still asleep, she had feared that he was dead. He also remembered that, for about ten years, children in the area were invited to sing French and American hymns at the American cemetery during the ceremonies of June 6. That's where he tasted his first Mars bars.

On Saturday, June 6, a new stele dedicated to American military engineers was inaugurated in Vierville-sur-Mer. Veterans from the 6th Engineer Special Brigade attended the ceremony, led by Mayor Jean-Marie Oxéant and Colonel Georges A. Itzel, former member of this unit.

The newspaper recalled the role of the military engineers who landed in Omaha on June 6: opening a passage through the German defenses to allow the progress of the Allies. A first monument had been erected under the cliff after the war, in a location deemed unsatisfactory.

In his speech, the mayor stressed the importance of military engineering for the liberation of Europe, through the construction of ports, aerodromes and bridges necessary for the advancement of troops. The veterans evoked their memories and thanked the inhabitants for the signs of sympathy and recognition received at each of their visits. After the unveiling of the stele, wreaths were laid in memory of the victims.

On June 6, 1998, fifty-four years after the landing, a crowd attended the inauguration of a granite stele dedicated to the 6th United States Army Special Engineer Brigade, near Omaha Beach.

Colonel George A. Itzel, master of ceremonies, invited Jean-Marie Oxéant to unveil the monument hitherto covered with a blue veil. The French and American anthems preceded the speeches. The colonel thanked the commune of Vierville, which had offered the land.

The mayor recalled the role of genius in the preparation of the Landing and in the logistical support for the advance of troops. He wanted the calm of the valley, its greenery and the wind in the trees to offer visitors a place of peace and recollection, in tribute to those who fell against tyranny. Many veterans of the brigade attended the ceremony with emotion.

The cut announced the inauguration, on Saturday, June 6 at 11 a.m., of a monument dedicated to the 6th Special Engineer Brigade of the American Army in Vierville-sur-Mer.

She recalled that a first monument had been built at the end of 1944 on the cliff, on the edge of St. Lawrence, by German prisoners commanded by Captain Henry Simiele, of the 147th Engineer Battalion. After fifty-four years of bad weather and vandalism, it had deteriorated. A new monument had therefore been planned on a land offered by Vierville, on the side of the road connecting the beach to the village.

The previous Thursday, a granite block from Vermont had been placed on its base. His transport had been provided by the companies Shapiro, of Baltimore, and Sotecan, Le Havre.

Colonel George A. Itzel, a former member of the brigade and president of the veterans' association, retraced the action of the unit. According to her account, she had landed at 7:45 a.m. on June 6, 1944 in Omaha, in the Dog Green sector, to remove the German obstacles. The resistance had upset the initial plan and led the brigade to fight alongside the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Division.

Also according to this testimony, the five thousand five hundred men of the brigade had then organized the landing of troops and equipment until December 1, 1944. The cut advanced a total of 8,500,000 tons landed, accompanied by a note from the editorial staff giving an average of 58,000 tons per day, before the relay taken by Cherbourg and Antwerp.

The commemorations of the fortieth anniversary of June 6, 1944 gave rise to several demonstrations in Vierville-sur-Mer, in addition to the ceremonies of Colleville-sur-Mer and Pointe du Hoc marked by the presence of Presidents Reagan and Mitterrand.

On Tuesday, Mayor Oxéant and the City Council welcomed 500 veterans of Omaha. A plaque dedicated to the 58th American armored artillery regiment, according to the newspaper's designation, was inaugurated on a base at the end of an existing monument. Seventeen veterans were housed in homestays.

In the evening, a special ceremony of the National Guard brought together twelve American generals and a representative of the White House. On Wednesday, at 10 p.m., a large crowd attended a military parade facing the sea and the return of the Rangers to the site of their landing.

The mayor, Captain Donnely, of the 58th Armored Artillery Regiment, and Colonel Amundsen, of the 11th Port General Staff, gave speeches. They then laid flowers with Roger Jouet, general councilor of Trévières. A torchlight retreat led participants to the school hall for a wine of honor open to the inhabitants.

On Thursday morning, a last ceremony at the foot of the cliffs accompanied the installation of a plaque in honor of the Rangers.

Two cuts gathered on this document trace the preparation of the inauguration of the memorial of the 29th American Infantry Division in Vierville-sur-Mer.

The first reports the arrival, on a Saturday morning, of one hundred and twenty soldiers of this division, led by Colonels Langy and Blake. After a stop at the American cemetery, with wreath deposit and medal presentation, they gathered in front of the recently erected memorial facing the sea, where their predecessors had landed on June 6, 1944. This visit was made possible by an exceptional one-day permit after maneuvers in Great Britain. Mr. Rivers, Superintendent of Colleville Cemetery, and Mr. Oxéant, Mayor of Vierville, attended the morning ceremonies. The group continued the afternoon in Saint-Lô, whose 29th division had contributed to the liberation.

The second cut announces the inauguration for Saturday, September 17, in the presence of one hundred and twenty veterans who participated in the Landing and Major General Cook, commander of the 29th Division. A ceremony at the Colleville-sur-Mer cemetery was scheduled at 10:45 a.m., then the unveiling of the stele in Vierville at 3 p.m., forty-four years after the Landing.

The monument, made of Vermont granite in this American state, had been financed by a subscription from the elders of the division. The article also recalls the summer visit of soldiers of the 29th division returned to operation by the US Secretary of the Armed Forces, after exercises in England.

One Saturday, a gray marble monument dedicated to the 29th American Division was inaugurated in Vierville-sur-Mer, in the presence of one hundred and fifty veterans from the United States, accompanied by their wives, as well as French and American civil, military and religious personalities. The newspaper inscribed this tribute in the memory of the sacrifices of division, from the First World War to the Landing.

The article opened with a numerical account of June 6, 1944: it mentioned more than fourteen thousand men of the 29th division landed in Omaha in the morning, and twelve thousand taking position in the evening. These figures are those advanced by the cut.

After a wreath laying in the morning at Colleville Cemetery, the afternoon ceremony was led by Robert Miller, president of the monument committee. Memory, sacrifice and freedom were the themes. The mayor, named Jean-Yves Oxéant in the newspaper, affirmed the desire to transmit to the children the recognition received from their parents towards the Americans.

Senator Philippe de Bourgoing, representing Raymond Triboulet, President of the Landing Committee, took up this message in English. Reverend John Schildt and Father Georges Tourquetil then invited the public to pray for the dead and the missing.

Two American veterans unveiled the monument, accompanied by Mr. Françoise, president of the Vierville veterans, and Mr. Hardelay, former mayor. In the recollection, veterans and wives laid a rose at the foot of the building.

One Sunday, about thirty veterans of the 29th American Division, accompanied by their families, returned to Omaha Beach. Welcomed by the mayor and veterans, they gathered around the stele dedicated to their division, in memory of the comrades who died during the Normandy landings and liberation.

The newspaper recalled the arrival of the 29th Division in Omaha on June 6, 1944. Among the visitors, Tom Johnson, a former member of the Headquarters Battery, wanted to show these places to his grandchildren.

A separate brief, kept at the bottom of the denomination, announced the general meeting of the Vierville–Saint-Laurent hunting society, scheduled for Saturday 20 at 9 p.m. at Vierville town hall.

American veterans of the 29th Division, accompanied by their families, went to Vierville one Sunday to commemorate the events of June 1944 and lay wreaths in front of the monument.

Their day began at the Pointe du Hoc, followed by a lunch in Grandcamp offered by the municipalities of Isigny and Grandcamp-Maisy. After Vierville, they continued to the American cemetery of Colleville, with a ceremony and a visit to the site. Colonel Walker laid a wreath on the grave of F. Peregory.

On a Saturday afternoon, a plaque commemorating the action of the 81st American Chemical Mortar Battalion during the Landing of June 6, 1944 was inaugurated outside the church of Vierville. Flag bearers, civilian personalities and military authorities joined the road from Formigny to Vierville, at the foot of the church.

After the national hymns and an invocation from Dean Tourquetil, serving the parish, Mr. Oxéant, mayor of Vierville, took the floor. Dr. Castello, a former member of the battalion, Kasten Mayer, Brigadier general of the American forces at NATO, then Commander Hausman, also a former member of the 81st, succeeded him. The latter unveiled the plaque dedicated to soldiers who died for freedom. A blessing and the laying of wreaths followed.

The newspaper recalled that the four battalion companies had supported the regimental teams on Omaha, under incessant enemy fire, to establish a bridgehead. He indicated that the unit had then fought almost without interruption until the end of the war, alongside the First and Third Armies, and had lost two hundred and two men for a number of less than a thousand.

Among those present were Rivers, superintendent of the American cemetery; Jouet, vice-president of the general council; the mayors of the neighboring municipalities and the municipal councilors of Vierville; Ribet, cantonal president of veterans; Lieutenant-Colonel Gezequel, of the 32nd military division; Major Breynes, of the Bayeux gendarmerie; and Chief Warrant Officer Tougard, chief of the Trévières firefighters. Several veterans and many residents showed their attachment to the memory of the Landing.

A wine of honor at the communal hall of the beach ended the ceremony.

Eighteen American veterans of the 81st Mortar Battalion and their families came to spend a few days in Europe. After a stop in England on the site of their camp before the Landing, they reached Vierville to remember June 1944.

Ten years earlier, they had participated in the installation of a commemorative plaque on the wall of the Vierville cemetery, on September 17, 1983. After a visit to the village, they attended a mass celebrated by the parish priest Tourquetil in a full church. A wreath was then deposited with the veterans, in the presence of Mayor Mr. Oxéant, who welcomed the delegation.

Mr. Frankel, representative of American visitors, recalled their attachment to Vierville, which they considered their piece of France, and the meaning of this plaque dedicated to freedom and honor. He mentioned the battles fought side by side by French and Americans, citing 1774, 1917 and 1944. He also paid tribute to Dr. Christopher Costello, first lieutenant of company D, decorated with the Silver Star for his bravery and died a few weeks earlier.

Pierre Chedal-Anglay provided the translation of American speeches. The guests shared a meal at the L'Omaha restaurant before gathering at the American cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, where several of their comrades were resting.

The procession reached Vierville by the road along the sea, welcomed by the population. He stopped in front of the castle gate, which had served as headquarters for the staff of the Fifth Corps of the First American Army during the Battle of the Liberation.

A bronze plate, fixed on the left pillar of the front door, recalled this episode. It was inaugurated by Mr. Le Troquer, welcomed by Mr. Leterrier, mayor. A wine of honor was then served in the courtyard of the castle, before the departure of the authorities for Isigny, the last stage of this day of commemorative pilgrimage.