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Ouistreham /Hermanville-sur-mer

Sword Beach was the code name given to one of the five main landing areas along the Normandy coast. Stretching 8 kilometers from Ouistreham to Aubin-sur-Mer, the beach was the easternmost landing site of the invasion.

 

Pegasus Bridge is the name that the bridge of Bénouville received in honor of the British parachutists after the operations of June 6th, 1944, during the Second World War, whose emblem was Pegasus the winged horse. It was situated on the channel of Caen in the sea, in Normandy. During operation Deadstick, an element of operation Tonga, the code name of the taking of the bridge was Euston 1.

Its taking by British commandos who arrived by night by gliders is one of top-facts of the landing of Normandy on June 6th, 1944.

Ouistreham is around the mouth of the Channel from Caen to the sea. Hermanville-sur-mer is north of Ouistreham. Colleville-Montgomery is west of Ouistreham.

During World War 2, Ouistreham was occupied by German troops. From 1942, the beach zone became a no-man’s-land. 80 concrete works and an observation post of artillery were built

On 6 June 1944, Philippe Kieffer’s No. 4 Commando landed at Ouistreham and fought their way to Pegasus Bridge, with the 177 Free French of the No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando given the honour of spearheading the advance

Philippe Kieffer (24 October 1899 – 20 November 1962), was an officer in the French Navy. Kieffer was promoted to lieutenant on 1 July 1942. On 19 August 1942, men of the 1st Company of the 1er Bataillon de Fusiliers Marins Commandos were engaged during the Dieppe Raid (« Operation Jubilee »).

In 1943, the French Commando had grown to two troops, and was regularly used for night raids on the shores of France and the Netherlands during the preparations for the invasion of Normandy. In 1944, the 177 men of the « 1er BFM Commando » were integrated into the British No. 4 Commando.

No. 4 Commando was a battalion-sized British Army commando unit, formed in 1940 early in the Second World War. Although it was raised to conduct small-scale raids and harass garrisons along the coast of German occupied France, it was mainly employed as a highly trained infantry assault unit.

The beach of Hermanville, part of Sword Beach, was one of the targets of Operation Overlord on 6 June 1944. The German stronghold was located on the coast. A Norwegian destroyer sank in front of Hermanville.

The sector at Hermanville was known as Queen Beach where elements of the British 3rd Mechanised Division landed. The South Lancashire Regiment landed on Queen White and East Yorkshire Regiment on Queen Red, by 10:00 the village had been cleared. Offshore from Hermanville a Gooseberry was established, this consisted of a breakwater formed with ships sunk into position, including the French battleship Courbet.

The beach of Colleville was a place of the landing in the morning of June 6th, 1944, in particular, 177 French of the French-British commando squad of Philippe Kieffer and British troops. In 1946, in tribute to the British liberators and to their commander-in-chief, Marshal Montgomery, Colleville-sur-Orne became Colleville-Montgomery

The Hillman Fortress was a German bunker complex and command post built during the Second World War and located near Colleville-Montgomery in Normandy, France. The bunker complex, designated as Hill 61 and codenamed Hillman by the British, was attacked on 6 June 1944 by the British Suffolk Regiment, part of the 8th Infantry Brigade of the British 3rd Infantry Division. The Suffolks had landed on Sword Beach at around 08:30 that morning and began heading inland to clear their objectives.The well-designed and defended bunkers proved difficult to take and the Suffolks brought Shermans from 13/18 Hussars and a second assault over-ran the site. The well-defended bunkers were proving an incredibly difficult task for the infantry. The combined armour and infantry succeeded in taking most of the complex by 20:15. The last remaining bunker surrendered on the early morning of 7 June by which time the Suffolks had lost two officers and five men killed and 24 wounded.

Tessa & Juliette

diapo-anglais tessa juliette

 

Arromanches

 

PRESENTATION

Central to the D-Day beaches, Arromanches is today known worldwide for the remains of its famous wartime artificial harbour. It’s a French commune in the Calvados deparement in the Normandy region of North-western France. It’s a seaside town (ville balnéaire) populated by 540 inhabitants.

CONTEXT

  • 01/09/1939

-World War II began on September 1st, 1939 by the invasion of Poland.

-Quickly, the forces of the IIIrd Reich conquered a large part of Europe and the half of France.

  • 07/12/1941

-On December 7th, 1941, the United States also went to war.

-The president was Franklin D. Roosevelt.

  • 1944

-In 1944, The Russians, the British and Americans were advancing painfully (=avancer/progresser) slowly.

-The only way to change the course of the war and make a swift and decisive victory possible was to invade the northern coast of Europe precisely where the enemy had its strongest defences.

  • 06/06/1944

-On June 6th, 1944, the Allie began landing in Normandy: the longest day had begun.

MULBERRY HARBOURS

  • Churchill, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, wanted to build a harbourd to supply the ground forces (troupes au sol)

  • The Dieppe raid subsequently confirmed his remarkable intuition: if the ports needed for an invasion could not be captured, then they would have to be built.

  • The mulberries comprised floating roadways (routes flottantes) and pierheads (plates-formes de déchargement) which went up and down with the tide.

  • In order to avoid rough seas, huge hollow concrete blocks and old hulks were sunk in order to form to form a breakwater.

  • The task of manufacturing all these components was undertaken by the British, whose war industry was already ioverstretched. And yet in less than 9 months, the British had completed the work. Huge quantities of raw materials were used and tens of thousands of men were involved in this massive scheme.
  • Arromanches was liberated in the evening of June 6th and the very next day the first ships were scuttled. June 8th saw the submersion of the first Phoenix blockships and June 14th the unloading of the first cargoes. Totally operational by the beginning of July, the Mulberry Harbour in Arromanches was to prove its worth during Montgomery’s large-scale offensive against Caen later that month. During its busiest week, more than 18,000 tonnes of goods were unloaded each day.
  • The remains of the artificial port can still be seen off Arromanches and several dozen PHOENIX blockships continue to provide a calm and sheltered stretch of water. A true feat of engineering, the port at Arromanches provided the key to victory in Europe.

D-DAY MUSEUM

The permanent exhibition on D-Day in Arromanches was officially opened on June 5th 1954 in Arromanches by René COTY, the President of the French Republic.

It was the first museum to be built in commemoration of June 6th 1944,

The D-day Museum overlooks the very spot where one of the Mulberry Harbours was constructed and where its remains can still be seen today, just a few hundred metres from the shore.

The landings took place on the 6th of June in 1944. The main objective was to take the occupied France from the Germans. This allied military operation is considered as a turning point in World War II. On 6th of June, the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy, as part of Operation Overlord.

The Normandy landing took place over five French beaches : Juno Beach, Gold Beach, Sword Beach, Omaha Beach and Utah Beach and the « Pointe du Hoc », a cliff between Omaha Beach and Utah Beach.Transport of troops and vehicles was provided by 1213 warships, 736 support ships and 4126 cargo gear and barges. 156000 soldiers and 20000 vehicles landed on the beaches of Normandy and of Contentin.

Among the soldiers there were Americans, British, Canadians, French, Poles, Belgians, Czechs, Dutch, Norwegian, …

On the evening of June 6, more than 20000 Allied soldiers had landed at the cost of enormous losses.

ARROMANCHES CIRCULAR CINEMA

Located on the Arromanches clifftops, the Arromanches 360 Circular cinema dominates the remnants (vestiges) of one of the two artificial Mulberry harbours set up by the Allies. On 8th June 1944, two days after the liberation of Arromanches, the first Phoenix blockships were sunk. They formed a dike (digue) to permit the ships to unload. On 14th June, some ships started to unload their cargo. In 100 days, « Port Winston » permitted to land 400 000 soldiers, 4 million tons of equipment and 500 000 vehicles. It remained active until 1st December 1944. A few dozen « Phoenix » blockships are still visible today.

« Normandy’s 100 Days » is projected on 9 screens in a circular room. It mixes D-Day beaches pictures and pictures of Normandy today. With this film, we can journey to D-Day. Unpublished archives retrace the 100 days that changed the world. This film is a tribute to the soldiers of all nations and 20,000 civilians killed during this battle that raised so many hopes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yHbTbUXMIUI

Alix-Anne & Inès

 

Pointe du Hoc

 

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pointe du hoc english"

Situated just between Omaha Beach and Utah Beach, the Pointe du Hoc dominates the sea from its vertical cliff  25 to 30 meters high. It is set with a battery: 6 French 155 mm howitzers are installed on plates

It was necessary to take this battery because it represented a threat for two landing beaches (Omaha and Utah). This was the mission given to a special American unit, especially created for the occasion, the 2nd Rangers Battalion. The Pointe du Hoc was the objective, in the previous days and months before the landing, of massive bombardments. The position, at the top of cliff, remained however very difficult to conquer.

The initial attack was envisaged at 06:30 a.m. and 225 Rangers took part in the attack and they were lea by Colonel Rudder.  At 07:00 a.m the Rangers were to announce to the allied boats (using a lighting pistol) that the Pointe du Hoc was taken and 500 other rangers (the 116th infantry regiment ) came in as reinforcement to retain the German counter-attacks. If they didn’t , the 500 Rangers reinforcements will be directly sent to Omaha Beach, sector Charlie.

In the morning on June 6 the landing crafts were approaching  the beach, but the current was strong; the landing crafts were going to the east and, a mere ten meters before reaching the cliffs of the Pointe de la Percée, Rudder realized that the cliff in front of him was not the right one… The landing craft turned right on time and sail towards the West. They arrived finally near their objective, but only at 07:00 a.m, the Allies think that the operation is a total fiasco, since they haven’t seen yet the lighting rocket announcing the taking of the cliff.

The Germans had 30 minutes to be prepared and they established their defense :

two American landing crafts were destroyed before they arrived on the beach and  they quickly installed firemen’s ladders to climb the cliff while the Germans launched grenades.

in 15 minutes, the place was taken but the Germans withdrew the 155 mm guns and They were replaced by wood pylons which misled the allied recon planes.

Lieutenant-colonel Rudder organized the defense of the place and he asked forreinforcements but the 116th regiment met a lot of difficulties and couldn’t arrive immediately. The losses were, indeed, very high: 90 were killed.

Later, A patrol of two Rangers, discover approximately one kilometer south of the battery the 155 mm guns, hidden behind a hedge, in a shooting position. About fifty German soldiers were present, approximately a hundred meters south of the guns. The young Lieutenant who led the small patrol gave his orders: his comrades had to provide a very intensive covering fire on the Germans while he would be launching grenades and destroying the aiming systems with the butt of his weapon. After having made a success of this operation, they  returned to tell Rudder about their discovery and about what they did. During two days the rangers tried to defend the place but many of them were captured or killed because they couldn’t ensure a solid defense line and the ammunition and food had practically run out.

In the early morning, on June 8, 1944, while the Germans launched what must be for them the death-blow, the American tanks from the 116th infantry regiment finally arrived at the Pointe du Hoc with the infantry. The German attack was finally pushed away.

Of the 225 rangers engaged only 90 were still able to fight and lot of them were injured

Maxence D & Maxime

 

Battle of Normandy /Caen Memorial

 

Today we are going to talk about The battle of Normandy and the Memorial of Caen.

Firstly, we will speak about the landings which took place in Normandy, in France during the Second World War, exactly on the 6th of june 1944.

The Landing beaches were located between the tip of the Cotentin Peninsula until the town of Ouistreham. There were five beaches which expanded over 80 km. The beaches were Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword Beach.

At this time, Nazy Germany had invaded a large part of Europe. In order to beat Germany, the allies created a new front in the West. The best starting point was England. Indeed, Charles de Gaulle, the leader of “ free France” was in England at that time.

Normandy seemed to be the best place for the landing. The Germans did not think the attack would take place in Normandy, but rather in the North, near Calais . The landing should take place in the early morning, when there was a full moon during the mid high tide. The conditions were gathered between the 5th of June and 7th of June. The invasion was planned for the 5th of June 1944, but there was a storm, so it was delayed until the next day, the 6th of June.

Now, we will talk about Operation Overlord. Overlord was the code name of the Battle of Normandy. The operation began on the 6th of June with the Normandy landings called “Operation Neptune” and commonly known as D-Day.

The battle of Normandy is one of the greatest battles of the Second World War in Europe. It lasted from 6th of June until the 29th of August in 1944 in Normandy. The Allies wanted to open a new Western front against the Third Reich.

The battles of Normandy opposed the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Free France, Poland, Australia, Free Belgium Forces, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Free Czechoslovak Forces and Greece to the Axis, that is to say, Nazi Germany.

Each member of the Allies invaded a part of the coast. The USA invaded Utah Beach and Omaha beach. England invaded Gold Beach and Sword Beach was invaded by the English and the Free French. Canada invaded Juno Beach.

Nearly 71 years after , this battle remains the biggest logistic operation of invasion with three million soldiers chiefly American, English, Canadian but also other forces like Free France, the Polish , Belgian, Dutch and Czechoslovak troops which crossed the English Channel to land in Normandy.

The battle took place in several phases :

Firstly, the allies wanted to land in June. At the end of June, the taking of Cherbourg was a success. Indeed the town’s port could be a base for the reconquest of France. But the landing after June was less favourable to the allied cause. Indeed, the Germans defended with tenacity fields and took them one by one. So it was very difficult. There were many losses. The advance was discouragingly slow. Furthermore, the British and Canadians were blocked at the gates of Caen although they had hoped to take it in the evening of 6th of June.

Then, there was the liberation of Caen. Montgomery decided to try a frontal attack on Caen. The Canadian and British finally entered Caen on 9th of July. The Germans successed in restoring their line in the South of the city and continued to block the road to Falaise.

After there was Operation Cobra, it was the American breaktrough. Operation Cobra was launched on 25th of July with massive aerial bombardments to the west of Saint-Lô that opened up a passage through the enemy lines. The Germans were very weakened. The Americans quickly moved forward, approximately 60 km in six days. They arrived in Avranches on the 30th of July. The war of movement had replaced the war of position.

Next, there was the Falaise Pocket . General Bradley had the idea to make an enormous encirclement. The Anglo-Canadians arrived from the north whereas the Americans arrived from the South. The aircraft and artillery destroyed the pocket, that is why it is smaller today.

Finally, the Germans crossed back over the Seine.

Overlord was very hard. The battle of Normandy which was supposed to last three weeks, actually ended 100 days after the landing.

The battle of Normandy caused 140 000 deaths including 20 000 civilians.

Now, we are going to talk about the Memorial of Caen.

The Memorial of Caen is a museum which is about the Second World War and the history of the twentieth century.

The memorial is dedicated to the history of violence and intensive, outstanding conflict in the 20th Century and particularly the Second World War. The museum was officially opened on 6th of June in 1988 by President François Mitterrand.

I was ill so I was not able to go to Normandy. ( Manon)

I was going to explain what we saw in the Memorial of Caen.

A woman gave us a guided tour to explain all the events during the Second World War. We saw the propaganda posters. She explained the destiny of the Jews at the time.

She spoke about the Shoah by shootings. It was very terrifying.

Next we saw a boy’s schoolbag. He was Jewish and he was grabbed when he went to school. It was very moving.

We also saw the battle clothes, those that struck me were the uniforms of the Soviets because they were very thick to protect them from the cold. All the battle dresses had the flag or the sign of their country on the arm.

Next, we went into a bunker. It was underground and 70m long . The atmosphere was dark and oppressive. At the end of the gallery, there was Anne Frank’s portrait.

Another day, we went to the cinema. We watched a film about the landing. I chose to show you this video because I find that it looks a little like the movie that we went to watch. There was also the same moving music.

Julie & Manon

Alan Turing

Alan Turing was born on the 23rd of June, 1912 in London, England. He was a great Mathematician, logician, computer scientist and cryptanalyst.

He worked during the second world war on a project of codebreaking. The germain created a code to pass message between them ,and Alan searches how to understand it. Thanks to his work he help to win the war !We can qualify him like the hero of second world war.

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