Sword Beach QUEEN WHITE????

Discussion in 'NW Europe' started by COMMANDO, Jul 4, 2017.

  1. COMMANDO

    COMMANDO Senior Member

  2. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

  3. COMMANDO

    COMMANDO Senior Member

    so, between what exit roads (ore mention street names of to-day) were those houses situated and do they still exist today?
     
  4. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    you will need members more expert than I to answer that one

    TD
     
  5. tmac

    tmac Senior Member

    As far as I can tell from the map, the western extremity of Queen White sector at La Breche d’Hermanville is now called the Place du Cuirasse Courbet.

    Today, this is the location of the memorial plaza to 3rd British Infantry Division, marked with the division’s triangular badge set into the ground. Commemoration ceremonies are held here every June 6.

    To the left of the memorial plaza – as you look out to sea - is an old holiday villa called La Tour (the Tower), one of the few buildings from 1944 still left in the immediate area.

    The landing craft carrying my father’s unit (F Troop, 318 Battery, 92nd LAA) came ashore here on D-Day after being diverted from its original destination on Queen Red near Colleville because of shellfire.

    When the soldiers landed near La Tour, they thought at first that the building was a church – and you can see a certain resemblance.

    In June 2014, when my brother and I visited Normandy, we were lucky enough to be invited into La Tour by the owners, who have built a modern seaside home alongside the old building. It was a fascinating experience.

    The main route inland taken from La Breche by many of the invasion forces is today called La Rue du 6 Juin, leading to Hermanville and beyond.
     

    Attached Files:

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  6. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer Pearl Harbor Myth Buster

    I just turned to Boss Lady and said "You're all going to die down here."
     
  7. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    From one of the maps above - went to the web site - if you scroll down you will find the exit you are after

    Sword Beach Gallery

    TD
     
  8. tmac

    tmac Senior Member

    This picture, taken from a landing craft, shows La Breche during the invasion. I think it was recently posted on WW2 Talk, but I cannot remember by whom and in what context. So please accept my apologies for using it here. You can see the tower of La Tour in the middle distance, with the original holiday villa in front of it, its roof damaged. The building alongside La Tour on the seafront is well ablaze and is no longer there. The gap between the two buildings leads today to the Place du Cuirasse Courbet and the 3rd Division memorial.
     

    Attached Files:

  9. No problem tmac, you're welcome to use this photo - I too cannot remember where I found it before I posted it there: :D
    Hermanville sur Mer (Sword Beach) picture, mid-1930s

    Michel
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2017
  10. This is QUEEN RED Beach, SWORD Area. The houses on the left are those on the left (eastern) edge of Strongpoint COD (Wn.20), and the photo is taken from the top of the beach more or less opposite the double embrasure bunker housing a 5 cm anti-tank gun towards the centre of the strongpoint.
    For some mysterious reason this Dutch wikipedia page, while mentioning the IWM negative number, B5091, failed to provide a direct link to the IWM page, which would have shown a higher resolution version. It also made up an erroneous caption instead of using the correct IWM one:
    "British troops take cover while waiting to go forward on Queen beach, Sword Area, 6 June 1944. Part of the German strongpoint 'Cod' can be seen in the background."
    D-DAY - BRITISH FORCES DURING THE INVASION OF NORMANDY 6 JUNE 1944 (B 5091)

    Michel
    Edited location: not opposite Twin Villas but rather opposite the 5 cm KwK
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2017
  11. COMMANDO

    COMMANDO Senior Member

    Thank you! As there is on the photo some kind of sand embankmant or a line of dunes and a wire line in front of it it had to be more to the east towards red beach. At the Le Tour there are no dunes and to much houses. Furter west the houses are closer together. Furter west towards Green beach the line of wire was on top of the embankment so could not be it. Near COD seems to fit in and could in my opinion not be to far from where Red and White came together.

    Can we pinpont the houses on the back from other photos taken then or are there other photos how they did look like?
     
  12. The two villas on the left are 'Florina' and 'M'Amy', while the tiny bit of rooftop visible above the Carrier on the extreme right belongs to the two semi-detached houses 'Huldy' (now 'Les Lutins') and 'Mermoz':
    [​IMG]B_005091 vs BZN Sword p116 (Note that the caption on page 116 of SWORD BEACH above is incorrect: the double embrasure casemate actually housed a 5 cm swivel-mounted tank gun, plus it is not at the western end of COD but well nigh half way from both ends)

    More details about the villas on this excellent website:
    Histoire de la construction de Lion-sur-Mer et Hermanville

    from which the following inter-war postcard comes (shot from the other direction):
    [​IMG]COTLesVillasversColle1sH

    All three villas survived the war and are still standing by the beach. Here's a view I shot back in 2008:
    [​IMG]COD East Villas

    Michel
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2017
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  13. COMMANDO

    COMMANDO Senior Member

    Wow ! Thanks Michel ! So the photo is not taken on White beach but almost from the centre of Red Beach if front of COD?
     
  14. Almost in the centre of COD which is on the right edge of QUEEN RED Beach.
     
  15. Villa Mermoz/Huldy was at the western corner of Exit 20 with the first lateral road, whereas M'Amy was at the eastern corner of the same Exit - now rue de Fécamp, the lateral now being called boulevard de la Mer:

    [​IMG]COD 2017 GE - Villas East

    Michel
     
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  16. COMMANDO

    COMMANDO Senior Member

    Thank you Michel... Can I ask you a question....??? Any idea where this photo was taken... Sword Beach - Wikimapia
    [​IMG]

    As far as I know the commandos left their bergens (back-pack) at Riu de Lion neear the wall where another famous photo was taken .... http://onthisspot.ca/images/normandy/sword/routedeliono.jpg so I think it must be beyond that point somewhere but can not trace the buildings on the right hand side. Can you help?
     
  17. COMMANDO

    COMMANDO Senior Member

    Do you have ever seen photo's of the houses on the right hand side... ??? Wonder if its not much further down the road towards Riva Bella? Do we know the right sequence of the photo's by this camera man? Before or after the long wall as showed on the other photo.

    Please have a look at Sword Beach - Wikimapia
    This photo seems to be taken on that same road (Rue de Lion?) but earlier then the other photos as the men still have their Bergens....
     
  18. OK, this last one then :D!

    All these photos and film clips/stills are well known and documented (but not on wiki, be it pedia or mapia or else ;)), and you will have noticed that the IWM has plenty of good-to-high quality scans available online too. For further answers I suggest that you get some of the many books or magazine specials on Commandos and/or SWORD, such as those published by Editions HEIMDAL.

    For this one, help from D-Day Then And Now was imperative, and even so it took me quite a while to locate the spot, which turned out to be at the corner of present-day avenue du Général Leclerc and avenue de la Résistance in Ouistreham, much further east than I expected, almost at the Ouistreham locks:

    [​IMG]MH2012 - Location - ATB DDT&N p545 vs GE

    [​IMG]MH2012 - GE vertical close

    [​IMG]MH2012 - GE vertical

    Michel
     
  19. COMMANDO

    COMMANDO Senior Member

    I have used google street last week on that part of the road but could not pin point it. Many thanks again Michel!
     

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