La reconstruction of Vierville
Damage to public buildings
During the landing, most of the public buildings of the Commune were destroyed on June 6 and 7, 1944, during 3 naval and land bombings.
1 - On June 6 between 6 a.m. and 6:20 a.m., the village received some naval shells - 127 mm shells from the "Texas" battleship and various destroyers. These shells were, with hundreds of others, intended for the fortified points of the beach in front of Vierville (WN70 to 73).
No public buildings seem to have been hit by this first bombing.
2 - On June 6 around 2 p.m. , the destroyer "Harding" was ordered to destroy the church bell tower, and to use 40 127 mm shells.
Only the bell tower was targeted, but its arrow collapsed on the nave of the church, and various shells scattered around. The presbytery neighboring north of the church, not occupied, thus received several shells in its roof and another small house, known as the Colliers house, was destroyed.
In the church, were destroyed: the bell tower and the nave. The choir and the sacristy were damaged but remained roughly covered.
All stained glass were destroyed (the systematic removal of old stained glass windows during the war had not been applied in Lower Normandy).
The bells fell on the floor of the vault, without breaking or cracking, but all the accessories - wheels, leaf springs, bed bases, ropes - were destroyed.
The church and the old presbytery, pre-war postcards
The images of destruction
The church and the presbytery after the landing (photos of September 44 and winter 44/45)
1944, September, photo Georges Chedal-Anglay
The presbytery of Vierville, seen from the bell tower, housed part of the castle's furniture moved at the end of February 44 to allow the installation of the Germans of
The TODT Organization
View of the bell tower on the ruined Colliers house
The roof of the presbytery and the bell tower
3 - On June 7 at 8 p.m., the main crossroads was bombed by the Germans, several shells reached the school, the post office and the 3 dwellings, fatally injuring the postman.
View of the crossroads on June 30, 1943, before the destruction of June 7, 44, the photo is filled in with the position of the various buildings
The 2 school buildings (2 classes for 60 to 70 students and a small library in the annex) received 2 or 3 shells. The roof collapsed in part and it was declared 100% damaged. The furniture was chopped by the splinters, the books and supplies disappeared, following the looting and the rain that fell in the room before it was possible to move them. Some furniture has been repaired. Donations have made it possible to meet the needs. Students had to wait a long time before receiving new credits obtained only after 1951.
The ruins of the school, around 1950
The fire pump building was destroyed, it may have been in the school yard. This pump was probably an arm pump drawing from a tank on a wheel. This tank had to be fed by a chain of buckets or various containers, from a water reserve, usually a pond (for example the duck pond of the farms of the time.
The post and housing building - which was also used for the temporary town hall - was set on fire following this bombing.
- In the premises of the Post Office, the postman, Mr. François ALIX, 57, was fatally injured. Transported to the American Hospital of Saint-Laurent, where he died on June 9, 1944.
- The housing were used for Miss Huet, teacher and town hall secretary, to the second teacher (Miss Renouf?) And to the postman Mr Alix.
- A small room on the ground floor served as a mairie since 1943, following the requisition
By the Germans from the premises of Rue de la Hérode.
The furniture of the town hall and the municipal archives had been placed in the attic above the teachers' housing.
But the most useful current affairs files and documents had been left in a small attached room on the ground floor where they escaped the disaster, but not for long, two days later it was destroyed by the Americans who enlarged the crossroads***. All the furniture has been destroyed. The deeds of ownership of public buildings have been lost. The Civil Status and some papers were saved.
***The photo opposite contradicts this indication
In summer 44, we see the wall of the post office building not yet demolished
The bus station was set on fire by an American truck loaded with ammunition that had caught fire.
It was the old Chemins de Fer du Calvados station, closed around 1929, which had been bought in 1938 by the municipality. It served as housing for the Coliboeuf family. Mr. Coliboeuf was a field guard, shouter and bell ringer and with his wife, they had many children in this small station. During the fighting they were all refugees in the station cellar with their dog.
(details)the old station, disappeared on June 7, 44
The center, seen from the bell tower, in September 1945
The town center, seen from the large cypress of Than's mansion, in 1945
(details) the before-war crossroads, seen from the south
(details) On the right, the post office and the building of teachers' housing
(details) On the right the old school
(details) On the left, the building of the grocery store Le Gallois, followed by a small barn that still exists, then the school disappeared, then the housing building
Before reconstruction, provisional solutions
The reconstruction was very long to come. We knew it, but we didn't imagine it would last 15 years. There was more urgency in Normandy with the big cities totally destroyed and where it was absolutely necessary to relocate the inhabitants driven out of their missing homes.
Reconstruction began around 1956 and it was not until the late 1950s that new public buildings became available. It was therefore necessary to find provisional solutions as early as 1944.
For the restoration of the service of town hall, a room in a former bakery-grocery (currently the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lequier) was used until 1954 with at the beginning, a table, a wardrobe, and chairs damaged.
(details) this old postcard shows the bakery of the time in which the provisional town hall was installed. Today it is the house of Mr. and Mrs. Lequier.
The elections of May 1945, in the provisional premises of the town hall. From g to d: Mr Ygouf, Miss Huet, Michel Hardelay, Léopold Le Large (great uncle of Miss Le Large)
This was probably happening in the house currently occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Lequier. rue Pavée
For the temporary post, a small room had been set up in the old town hall, at the entrance to Rue de la Hérode (requisitioned in 1943 by the occupier).
The smallness of this temporary room that could be endured in a pinch until 1949, that is to say during a period when traffic was still low, had become annoying with the resumption of seaside activity in the early 1950s.
For theprovisional school, the former pre-war town hall, was used with a temporary barracks on the same land. This situation lasted at least until 1957
The old town hall, requisitioned by the Germans in 1943, which served as housing and temporary post, from 1944, until reconstruction. Above in 2010, it became an annex to the Museum.
Around 1955 - The former town hall served as a temporary post office and housing, a barrack serving as a temporary school had been installed in the parking lot.
We can also see the party room-cinema (a former American hangar on the beach, given on their departure, then raised by the municipality), it now serves as a museum)
Servant ofprovisional church for several years (from 1945/46 to 1959) a chapel, had been installed in a prefabricated barracks placed in a meadow near the center.
The benches of the provisional church were made with wood donated by the Americans, following the intervention of Mayor Mr. Fernand Leterrier
The bells were lowered from the bell tower in 1945 and raised on a wooden frame on the ground in front of the entrance to the temporary chapel after summary repairs. From 1956 they could no longer be used, the frame having not been planned for such prolonged outdoor use.
In a letter dated November 1958, the parish priest explained to the departmental director of the Ministry of Reconstruction and Urban Planning, Mr. Guillard, the growing state of decay of the shack used for more than 12 years as a parish church.
In September 1944, some masses were celebrated in the ruined church (above, photo Georges Chedal-Anglay)
One Temporary chapel Has been installed, visible on the photos above and below
The presbytery was located before the war north of the church. Integrated into the reconstruction program, but classified in the non-priority category, it has never been rebuilt on this site. In too bad condition after years spent in the rain without a roof, it was razed during the reconstruction of the church.
In the meantime, the priest had to be housed. In the beginning, it was Abbé Prempain, parish priest of Saint-Laurent, who served Vierville since the death of Abbé Robert in 1940, he was housed in Saint-Laurent. His replacement from 1946, Abbé Chemin, was housed until his death in 1958 in a provisional presbytery installed in a wooden house located at the beginning of the Saint-Laurent road on the right, opposite the entrance to the Hamel-au-Prêtre road (it still exists). This situation lasted until the reconstruction of a new presbytery, the last public premises rebuilt, in 1959, it seems, in which the new parish priest, Abbé Forget, settled.
Memories of Jeanne Le Large
Following Colette's burial, here is a photo of this Solemn communion of which I spoke in the welcome.
Colette is in the middle, behind her, Marie-France Skryniarz.
It was May 18, 58. The procession heads to the church in the afternoon for Vespers. It started from the wooden chapel whose roof can be seen.
The boys are in front, they were Louis Laronche, Claude Suzanne, Jean Thomas Jean Olard Emile Thomas and his brother.
The girls are for the first time dressed in aubes. For the boys, I don't know anymore.
It was the first time a mass was held in the church (except for the burial of Abbé Chemin in February). It took a few more weeks for the furniture to be installed for it to be permanently occupied.
May 18, 1958
The reconstruction of public buildings between 1956 and 1960
Around 1952 - The reconstruction of the school has begun well
In 1953, the work was soon completed
(details) The town center around 1965/70
The program for the reconstruction of the municipal premises of Vierville was evaluated around 1948 at 16,158,791 fr value May 1948 (which is equivalent to about 500,000 Euros today, but a precise comparison is impossible).
The municipal council had asked the architect Mr. MARTY, in charge of reconstruction, to recreate a city center with, on the one hand, a school with 2 classes and 2 teacher housing and on the other hand, opposite, a building bringing together post office, town hall, residential premises (postman and secretary) and also a waiting room for the bus station
The first stone of this ensemble was laid on June 6, 1950 during the commemorations of the Landing in the presence of the Minister of Industrial Production, Mr. Louvel.
The buildings were built of exposed rubble masonry, financed by war damage.
The work began with the most urgent, the school (estimated at 10 million francs in 1950), which was completed around 1953.
Opposite, the town hall and post office followed, completed around 1956.
The bus station not having been rebuilt, this made it possible to create, above the old washhouse, a parking space and a regular market (open on Monday morning) when there was nothing of this kind before the war.
The school and the town hall completed, around 1960
To house the fire pump, whose garage was destroyed, an old small elongated building was used that was located on the grounds of the future presbytery.
The pump became a pump motorcycle after the war. The fire department was transferred to Trévières on a poorly determined date today.
The church had been severely damaged (bell and collapsed nave, but choir standing), as well as the presbytery (several shells in the roof) which had to be shaved.
The church (300m2) was part of a national priority plan established for the reconstruction of churches and buildings affected by the disaster. The bell tower was classified but the rest of the church was not and this complicated the financing problems. It was necessary to gather both funds of various origins: war damage (law of 1946, in principle no identical reconstruction), Fine Arts (historical monuments for the classified part can be financed identically), and grants and funds for various public or private competitions to complete. The reconstruction would cost at least 20 to 25 million francs (in value 1950?).
The possibility of a contribution emerged with the sale of the wrecks. In 1950, the president of the Landing Committee, Mr. Triboulet, allegedly allocated a sum of 5 million for the Church, obtained from the proceeds of American wrecks. In addition, the representative of the Ministry of National Education, Mr. Bourdil, would have allocated a sum available during the construction of the Bayeux monument. There would also have been partial private financing by a public works company.
In 1950, the work was entrusted to the architects Paul Colas of Paris licensed in Calvados and Paul Leroy. The bell tower alone was inaugurated on March 21, 1953. The restoration of the rooster on the bell tower marked the end of its reconstruction. But we had to wait for the reconstruction of the church itself. In May 1955, no reconstruction had yet been made for the nave.
The church outside the bell tower had to be completed and put back into service around 1959.
The stas had all been destroyed, they were replaced by modern elements. Some have been the subject of donations from the faithful.
The oldest, called 1st category, have been replaced by decorative colored stained glass windows representing characters with frames featuring rosettes, volutes, etc.
The most recent stained glass windows, called 2nd category, have been replaced by decorative elements representing refined geometric designs with compositions of flowers and borders, roses, etc.
The cemetery was modified following a road detour that made it possible to use the right-of-ways of the old road. On this occasion the fences were rebuilt.
As for the presbytery, the old one was demolished. A new presbytery was built by the municipality on the other side of the new road bypassing the church, and completed around 1959.
The new presbytery housed Abbé Forget until 1975, then Father Tourquetil until his death in 1997.
After the grouping of the old parishes in the new parish of St-Exupère en Bessin in Trévières, the communal presbytery was used by the municipality to house a family from Vierville.
In the vicinity of the new presbytery was the old barn with tithes which could be restored to serve as a store for the municipality.
Above, the dime barn, restored in the 90s (?). Its doors were recovered after the demolition of the small elongated garage that was in front of the new presbytery and which was used to house the fire pump engine (below).
At the beginning of the work on the bell tower, around 1950
Around 1953 - the bell tower is rebuilt, the temporary church is still in place
Around 1954, only the bell tower was rebuilt, the ship was not, the new road was under construction to the right of the church. The school is under construction, the town hall is not built
(details) Around 1958, the church completely completed
Around 1959 - The pesbytery is under construction
The presbytery rebuilt in the 1950s, now disused
The restoration of the rooster on the bell tower marked the end of its reconstruction in 1953.
On November 19, 1953, the bell tower was rebuilt, but the nave is still without a roof
The vault of the rebuilt nave, but compare with the pre-war vault below
(details) The nave before the war, the vault was not rebuilt identically, because it was not classified as the bell tower
