This is the transcript of my video relating stories from this book “the breech of Saint Marie du Mont.” That was the name before it became known as Utah beach. It’s a collection of eye witness accounts from the local French people. “La Breche de Sainte Marie du Mont” . Some of you might say “well that couldn’t have happened there” or “that action happened differently”
I’m just retelling the accounts as written.
WN10
Near Wn10 at St Martin de Varaville, the Farmer was M Bertot. Lt Wolf Meydam who commanded the strong point, would say, the English can come but they won’t get me.
But if they come by air?
They won’t take me alive.
There were 6 guns. Guns to take the beach en enfilade and a gun to fire out to sea.
Just after midnight on the 5th, 2 paratroopers arrived. Bertot showed them where the big gun was. They went to find their Lieutenant. Bertot showed him where the mines were and the telephone line.
“You must cut that line” said the American and moved off.
I hope this won’t be like Dieppe thought Bertot as he cut the lines.
The parachutists wanted to attack the strong point but they lacked the necassery weapons. It wasn’t till evening that the 4th division troops got in using phosphorous shells. Only one soldier was taken prisoner. Neither the English nor the Americans had taken Lt Meydam alive.
IN 1944, la Madelaine hamlet, just behind Utah beach, had a school, a shop, a café and this working chapel.
Pierre Lenourry was woken by the first bombing raid. He could see the planes but not the paratroopers. They were further inland. He went back to bed. Suddenly a bomb hit the house. It collapsed around them. Pierre managed to get out but his wife and children were under the rubble. He excavated franticly with his bare hands and found his wife protected by a slab of wall. then the oldest boy. The baby was just a day old and was still sound asleep in its cot.
They all took shelter behind a wall in the garden, and waited.
At around 3:30 a group of paratroopers arrives. They make him keep his hands up while they search the place then leave. Pierre went back to his wife. He had managed to retrieve his best jacket from the rubble. He looked rather incongruous with his best jacket, some Rough trousers and bare feet in clogs.
He went to see if the barrel of cider in the cellar was OK. It was so he had a little drink with the glass which was always there. Then another.
His wife was wondering where he had got too. She finally went to see, and he was nowhere to be seen. She thought “ he must be dead”
He wasn’t. He had gone out the back door of the cellar to look towards the beach. An American arrived and made him put his hands up then walk in front of him. He led him to the beach and put him in a barbed wire enclosure with german prisoners. After half an hour they came to fetch him to interrogate.
Can you show me where the guns are and the mine fields?
Pierre was pleased to tell them all he knew.
He was then put back in the compound with the Boches.
Another inhabitant of La Madeleine was the owner of the café M. Paul Gazengel. He was woken by the bombing and seeing that it was on the coast went back to bed. But soon after he and his wife and daughter were obliged to leave the house as the roof got blown off. They went to an air raid shelter with their neighbours. They heard english being spoken.
Hey, the Tommies are here . His excitement was soon dampened when the wife of a neighbour was wounded in the throat and a grenade went off by the pile of faggots protecting them. He was shouting “Frenchman” as he ran out to come up against the barrel of a gun. The soldier didn’t have a flat helmet like the British. He must be American. The American didn’t seem to believe him.
He called Janine, Marthe, show yourselves so they see we aren’t the Boche. The women came out and the Americans understood . A soldier came up who could talk French asked some questions. Paul told them that the other side of La Madeline had been cleared to put mines in but they hadn’t had time. The dug up fields weren’t dangerous.
Come with me, you can give us some useful information. They marched to the beach. Paul was shocked to see Pierre Lenoury in the compound with the Germans.
They were both taken to the command post. They were amazed to see the sea covered in boats of all sizes. And typewriters being tapped on. The beach was still under fire from WN10 and guns inland.
They show the Americans where the batteries were and which houses are occupied. They’re asked to stay there. They are in fox holes on the dunes, watching the soldiers swarming like ants everywhere. A shell lands near them and both are wounded. Lenoury says Hey were going to be buried alive.
Gazengel, the bar owner, starts mouthing off. I’m not staying here. I’m going home to sleep with my wife.
Your not going anywhere. We’re taking you to England.
Oh great, a free cruise, Tower of london, whisky. I need to tell my wife.
A soldiers sent to find her. She wants to follow. They were half way to he beach when they saw the head of a soldier sliced off. The daughter wouldn’t move any further.
It was just as well. The cruise was rather uncomfortable. They waded up to their armpits to a landing craft. Then changed to a ship. Then two more changes. They were in Weymouth 4 days later. In London they experienced the V1s and bombing raids and were amazed at how the British just carried on as usual.
They were often questioned. During one session Gazengel was asked what he was doing there.
That’s what I’d like to know.
They were interrogated by officers of the Free French.
After five weeks in London they were taken back to France, landing on Omaha beach.
STE MARIE DU MONT
At Ste Marie du Mont, Captain Gluba liked to play cards and drink too much.
“I won’t fight” he would say. “There’ll be no battle at St Marie du mont.”
The sound of planes was heard.
Around midnight some germans crossed the square pulling a big sheet of cloth. They’d found a parachute.
Mme Cousin saw a paratrooper hit the power lines and then the floor. He was lucky the power was off. But then he might be dead he wasn’t moving. There were two Germans up the church tower they must have seen him. After 10 minutes he hadn’t moved then he jumped up and ran out of town.
Mme Eudes was listening to the sounds in the street. She could hear the sound of hobnailed boots and leather boots running down the road. Then a gun shot. Later they found the body of 19 year old Oscar, who liked to do the garden for the officers.
HOLDY BRUCHEVILLE
The commander of Holdy battery was billeted at the Manor de Brucheville. In the evening of the 5th he went out. Shortly afterwards, he sent his orderly back to fetch his rain coat. The orderly said to Mme Gosselin “ The captain told me to tell you that he won’t be coming back.”
At Holdy 4 paratroopers approached the house. Mme Dugouchet said to her husband. “ As it’s not the Krauts, I’m going to bed”
The paratroopers asked, Have you got Germans here.
No. There’s an office, two lieutenants and 40 men in the village. They’ve all gone to the battery. The paratroopers searched the house then asked where the battery was, then asked him to take them.
He showed them the way, and one wanted to advance closer. Dugouchet said , you’ll get wiped out. The American advanced a bit and was wounded in the face.
They went back to the Holdy farm. An officer had arrived. He asked where the battery was.
I’ve just com back with four men. It’s there on your map.
We’re going to attack.
Not from the front . You’ll have heavy casualties. You should go round the village.
The officer took some men up towards the battery and placed them where they couldn’t be seen. He said they should keep up constant fire but not to advance.
He went along the road towards Ste Marie du Mont and placed himself by a bank about 50 yds from the guns. As the men kept up a steady rain of fire from the far hedge, he could pick off the Germans at ease. He shot 37 men. The paratroopers shot 7 and 3 were taken prisoner.
The captain who lodged at the Brucheville manor, never went back.
FISEE
Between Vierville and Ste Marie du Mont was a big house called La Fisée where M et Mme Veyrac lived. They’d been obliged to live in a few rooms on the first floor while the Germans took over the rest.
When the bombing started, the Germans went to a trench by the road to Brucheville and took the family with them. After the bombing raid they came back to the house.
A german soldier had found a container dropped by a plane. He asked M Veyrac what was written on it.
Biscuits he told him.
Perhaps they’re poisoned.
I doubt it, they must be for the English soldiers.
M Veyrac went up stairs and said to his wife to clear up as the English army would be there at any minute.
He went across the yard to get some water from the pump, and saw some paratroopers running into the woods. He went back up stairs and they locked the door.
A German knocked on the door. He asked them to treat a wound on the orderlies head. As they cleaned his wound, he was nibbling an American biscuit.
The officer was pretty hard on his men, but the orderly had a frail disposition and was given easy tasks to do. The germans were fighting the paratroopers in the woods, while the orderly sat in the corridor eating biscuits. He was curious to see what as gong on. so he opened the window. A shot hit him in the forehead and he smashed against the wardrobe before crumpling to the floor.
Down stairs the accountant has stayed to guard the documents. He opened the window , taking the precaution of picking up a pistol first. He saw a paratrooper not far away and emptied the magazine at him. This was the first time he’d fired at anyone. His action sent him into shock. I think I’ve killed someone. I don’t want to fight anymore. He laid on the floor as if he was dead.
The paratroopers pushed the Germans out of the woods. A paratrooper came in the house firing at doors before opening them. In one room he saw the accountant on his bed and shot him. Up stairs he opened doors after firing at them. The door was hard to open because M de Veyracs body was blocking it.
You’ve killed my husband cried Mme de Vayrac. M de Vayrac had been listening at the door when the paratrooper fired at it.
He said don’t stay there come with me. He told her to stay by the medic. She went off to the gate house to the Lebreuilly. They’ve killed my husband she sobbed. They went back to the house and lifted his body on to the bed. She took his identity card and was going to take his watch, but it had gone.
VIERVILLE
Thanks to the mayor, Vierville had managed not to supply any men to the obligatory work service.
In the evening of the 5th June, a bomber crossed over and bombed the Caen to Cherbourg railway.
Later they could hear constant bombing towards the coast . They thought it was the gun battery at st Martin de Varaville but it was the beach defences that had been designated as Utah beach.
The flak guns are busy, then they see balls in the sky. Then see that they are paratroopers. Then they see small groups coming through the village. There have been no Germans in Vierville since May, but the surrounding villages have plenty.
Jean Baptiste Vrac, the local policeman, met 9 paratroopers. Where are we. Are there Germans.
There are at La Fisée and the HQ is at La Maillardier near Ste Marie.
Everybody is out to see what’s happening.
They can see the gliders in the marshes. Some full of men, others with a jeep or guns. The locals help extract the jeeps from gliders.
They ask the way to get Pont Perra. M Boudard gets in a jeep and shows them the way. They were doing 50mph in the lanes. He looses his hat on a bump.
To M. Goudard they ask. We want to go to La Baumée at Heisville where the Langlois live. Goudard was amazed. They knew the houses and who lives there.
At 6 in the morning. Goudard and David are sharing out cigarettes to the other villagers.
An american asks Goudard if he’s got some wine. He goes in to get a bottle, then harnesses the horse to the carriage. Goudard and his oldest son are happy to go to see what’s happening and the American is happy with his bottle of wine. Suddenly a shot rings out from a sniper and the son is hit. Goudard took his son to La Baumée where the medics were. His mother came and a chaplain gave him extreme onction.
He was operated on on the kitchen table. The surgeon said to Mme Goudard, he’s mostly American now. We’ve given him 2 transfusions.
Raymond was hanging on to life by a thread, but in the evening of the 7th, he died.
On the evening of the 6th, the germans started moving into town. Some went into the Gamas house. M Gamas shouted out , there are no botches here. His wife elbowed him in the ribs. Shut up . They are the Boches.
Luckily the germans didn’t understand.
By morning the Americans were back in town but the Germans were pushing back. They’d gone round Vierville to attack from the marshes.
In the house of the Vrac which was just opposite the road to Heisville, two Germans came in and set up a machine gun on a table by the window . They found the field of fire wasn’t suitable so they went to the next room.
An American was about to throw a grenade at the Germans who hadn’t seen him, but he saw there were civilians and stopped.
There was house to house and garden to garden fighting. The Germans felt they could hold out better in the chateau.
A German on the first floor of the school was badly wounded. He took his knife to cut his clothes to make a bandage to stop the blood flow, but died before he could use it.
In Mme Dubost house, a german took off his uniform, put on civilian clothes, left his papers, and crept out of town.
The Americans set up a machine gun in the Vivier farm opposite the church and one in the alley to the chateau.
Around 10 am a Sherman tank arrives and fires at the church tower.
The Germans are forced out of the chateau and are now backed against the floods.
Towards evening the last Germans pull out and the battle of Vierville was finished.
HEISVILLE
The Germans occupied the chateau of Colombières at Heisville until a week before D-day.
The chateau had been chosen as the site of a hospital by the Americans. The owner, Mme Cotelle, was asked for permission to use it.
Around 2 am a glider crash-landed in a field. There was a jeep inside with a Colonel in it. He was in a bad state with three fractures of his legs. The son of the chateau, Germain Cotelle, helped get the men out of the glider. They were the first wounded in the hospital.
Some German prisoners were brought to be held in a compound.
Two Lieutenants asked Germain the way to the strong point of St Martin de Varaville. That’s WN10.
He told them that it was 8 miles away and they asked him to show them the way in their jeep.
At Audouville la Herbert, there was a battle going on. Germain waited in a ditch until it was over. He saw the bodies of some Georgian German soldiers who had been attacked with a machete.
At WN 8 Germain was amazed to see the hoards of soldiers and the sea covered in boats.
His mission as guide over, he set off on foot towards Heisville. He avoids any places where fighting was going on. At a junction of lanes about half a mile from the chateau, he was stopped by some Germans.
“Monsieur, are there Americans at the chateau.”
Before he could reply, a bullet whizzed between them. Paratroopers the other side of a small wood brought down a hail of fire on them.
Germain was in a ditch. any one who showed them selves got hit.
Germain could hear a German machine gun behind him, and the bullets passing over him. Then he felt a shock as a bullet passed along his foot from the heel to the toes. He jumped up and dived over the hedge bank, miraculously , he wasn’t hit. Shortly afterwards two germans who had tried to do the same thing fell dead next to him.
After half an hour the fight subsided rapidly. About 50 Germain left, abandoning their weapons. Prisoners were taken. Germain tried to hobble along but couldn’t get far. Some medics came from the chateau. He soon found him self in his own bed.
The hospital was in full operation. Surgeons were operating , and medics treating wounded. Wounded that needed time of convalescence were evacuated to England. The German prisoners carried out chores and buried the dead.
In the evening of the 9th, a german plane flew over. It must have seen the big red cross in the courtyard. A few minutes later it came back, diving down and loosed off two bombs. The operating tent was flattened and 15 surgeons killed. Many wounded were killed. The second bomb exploded in a field causing huge crater.
7 prisoners were killed and many others took the chance to escape, taking American weapons. A man hunt was on. Running between the tents and even in the corridors of the chateau.
There was a rumour after wards, that a thousand prisoners were executed.
The book this is based on is available here La Breche de Ste Marie du Mont