Hermanville sur Mer (Sword Beach) picture, mid-1930s

Discussion in 'NW Europe' started by tmac, Oct 22, 2012.

  1. Nice find!

    Some of the landmarks are well known, others less (I tried to increase contrast, but the result is not very good!):
    [​IMG]

    Villas "La Charmette" (right) and "La Gaillarde":
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    A photo of La Gaillarde & La Charmette that I took back in 2008, with Exit 15 on the far right. Neither of the villas has changed much, except for the shortened chimneys and added skylights on La Gaillarde:
    [​IMG]

    The squarish house on the left of the photo above, just East of Exit 16, is also a survivor from pre-war days:
    [​IMG]

    For photos of Villa "Les Algues", which was "Immediately WEST of EXIT 12", see:
    http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/35890-1050-port-maintenence-re-d-day-and-beyond/#entry449175

    Michel
     
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  2. Arty

    Arty Member

    Folks,

    I found a pic of whilst wandering the internet recently (well it's new to me). It's prompted me to re-open this thread.

    The first image is a pre war post card purloined from Delcampe.net. It was probably taken circa 1930.

    The second image comes from Lionsurmer.com. The caption on the website is simply: "6 juin 1944 - debarquement". The shot was actually taken soon after 1030 hrs06Jun44. It depicts activity on the far right (ie. western end) of Queen White. The LCT4 on the right (pennant no. 668) belonged to the 40th LCT Flotilla which was responsible for putting the Stafforshire Yeomanry ashore that day,


    Arty
     

    Attached Files:

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  3. Nice find Arty!

    I had quite forgotten about this photo, and this version is sharper than the uncropped one I knew. I wish we could find the original, where perhaps the identity of the Crab could be ascertained, although I doubt the turret number is visible from this angle. Perhaps the radio callsign on the hull side might be readable on a hi-res version. I suppose this is one of the Obstacle Clearance flails, maybe the one landing from LCT 112 at Exit 11 (Lane 8), just to the right of the three houses on the photo.

    The cameracraft is indeed landing Shermans from the Staffordshire Yeomanry, as can be seen from the number "52" on the canvas (?) thing on the top of the tank closest to the camera:
    Caen (Tanter) p133.jpg
    Source: "Caen, Une Ville Trop Loin", Joël Tanter, Editions Charles Corlet 1990, ISBN 2-84706-150-9.

    The author gives the IWM as the source for this photo, but I could not find it anywhere.

    Michel
     
  4. Arty

    Arty Member

    Michel,

    I can’t say I’ve seen the pic in the IWM website, however thanks for posting the full pic. Meanwhile this post is slightly gratuitous - although the event depicted is indeed related to the events at La Breche d’Hermanville on 06Jun44...

    The first pic attached is a pre war post card of the lock at Ouistreham - from Delcampe.net.

    The second pic, is another pre war postcard - the shot, looking south west, was apparently taken from the top of the lighthouse - it’s also from Delcampe.net.

    The third pic, is a post war aerial looking roughly north east - again from Delcampe.net.

    The fourth pic, comes from the very ‘bowels’ of USAAF archives. That is, I found it in Fold3.com - where it appears without a specific date or location. It is of course Ouistreham. The reverse of the photo is pure propaganda which reads: “Intermittent showers of Allied bombs likely throughout May --- and here four 1000 pounders are shown on their way to another Nazi target. Fourteen times in a single week, Martin B-26 Marauders and Douglas A-20 Havocs of 9th AF unleashed a record total of bombs on Hitler’s Europe. The joined with allied bombs [sic] to bring a pre-invasion deluge of destruction of the common enemy.”

    The target in the photo is in fact the coastal artillery battery at Riva Bella - known to the Allies as Ouistreham I - to the Germans as 1./HKAA 1260, located in WN08 (on the left of the photo we can see the position’s anti tank ditch). The date is likely to be 04May44 when the battery was attacked by the 386th Bomb Group, or, 19May when the 387th Bomb Group visited (on 06June the battery was the primary objective of No. 4 Commando which landed on the far left of Queen Red at 0755hrs, however, the guns had been moved inland around 29 or 30May to a dispersed position near St Aubin D’Arquenay. It was No. 6 Commando which actually captured the guns around 1200hrs…)

    Pic No. 5 comes from Google earth - a comparison of the wartime shot.

    Arty
     

    Attached Files:

  5. Thunder_from_Heaven

    Thunder_from_Heaven Junior Member

    Gents,

    I'm hoping someone on here may be able to help given the wealth of SWORD beach knowledge that has already been posted up.

    I'm trying to locate the point on Queen White beach the2nd bn Royal Warwicks landed at. In their war diaries a Gable Ended House is mentioned as the aiming point for the LCIs to bring them ashore.

    I have walked SWORD beach (not all of it - and until now probably the wrong sector) and have had no joy finding it. I have no prior recce photos to go on or anything other than the quote of gable ended house from the war diaries.

    If anyone can help I'd be ever so grateful, as it's a project I'm putting together for my father as my grandfather landed with the Bn on D-Day.

    Thanks in advance

    Jon
     
  6. Jon,

    The only "Gable Ended House" on the sea front on QUEEN WHITE I can find is Villa Cendrillon (Cinderella). It was "Gable Ended" on both sides, with a protrusion however on the West side:
    Cendrillon 1.jpg Cendrillon 2.jpg Cendrillon 3.jpg Cendrillon 4.jpg Cendrillon 5.jpg Cendrillon 6.jpg Cendrillon 7.jpg Cendrillon back.jpg

    Otherwise, it might be the nearby Villa Les Algues, which was Gable Ended on the West side only, and was definitely used as a landmark known as "Sad Sack Villa" by 2 Tp 77 Aslt Sqn RE. See Posts #19 to 23 here:
    http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/35890-1050-port-maintenence-re-d-day-and-beyond/?p=449175

    I would think that Les Algues is the more likely of the two, because it was larger, isolated, and closer to a planned exit from the beach, Exit 12.

    It does not make a big difference either way, because both Villas were only about 50 yards apart. Unfortunately they have both disappeared, so it's not surprising that you could not find any, but the next villa to the West, Rose des Vents, is still there. So you may take it that you grandfather landed, or at least was planned to land, somewhere between Rose des Vents and Exit 12, which is avenue Félix Fauré in Hermanville-sur-Mer.

    I couldn't find a decent photo of the present-day Rose des Vents - I should have shot more photos last time I went...

    If the War Diary includes the Annexures and Appendices, there might be a sketch of the "Gable Ended House" similar to that of 1 SUFFOLK as posted by Drew5233 in Post #60 above?

    Are you certain that your grandfather landed from an LCI(L)? There were a number of LCT carrying the vehicles of 2 WARWICK as well.

    Michel
     
  7. Jon,

    One more photo, not very high resolution I'm afraid, but which could be useful in locating the present-day location of your grandfather's presumed landing spot. Names of the villas which survived are underlined, whereas those which did not are between brackets:

    Exits 11-13 Villas - sword_beach_luc_sur_mer002.jpg

    Michel
     
  8. Thunder_from_Heaven

    Thunder_from_Heaven Junior Member

    Gents, thank you so much for the information and photographs. I'm hoping this weekend to have enough time to properly analyse them and plot them on my various maps etc.

    Thank you again for sharing the wealth of info you have, this forum is a wonderful place and I am very grateful!
     
  9. Time to bump this thread!

    I am posting this photo again, shot from the port side of the bridge of an LCI(L) of the second production series:
    69.1 - LCI(L) opp La Breche - m168-10b_lci_375 - RUR Museum, Belfast.jpg

    in order to compare it with the following photo which I recently found:
    69.2 - La Breche on fire, PW - 0026.jpg

    It looks like the continuation to the right of the previous photo, and is shot from the port ramp of an LCI(L), most probably the same craft as the previous one.

    A torn-off ramp from an LCI is directly ahead, along with a couple of bikes. The vertical white canvas rectangle indicates the right limit of WHITE Beach. Here is a postcard shot from a similar angle but from much closer:
    69.3 - Breche Tour - 858_001.jpg

    Michel
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2017
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  10. Arty

    Arty Member

    Nice find Michel

    Interesting that the photographer has managed to capture a four-engine aircraft in the pic. A Stirling or Halifax glider tug on the way home perhaps? Given the state of the tide (in the two pics of the LCI(L)) this might give us time of around 2130hrs....

    Just a thought
    Arty
     
  11. Spitfires of the Sea

    Spitfires of the Sea Stephen Fisher

    Adding to this thread 6 years later with a request. Does anyone know which house might have been the one described by Force S as 'the house with the tower' in Ouistreham? Here's it's description in the Force S orders:

    Capture.jpg

    In theory, if it's 200 yards east of the infantry position given, it would put it approximately here (although I suspect it would have been a little further back):

    Capture.jpg

    The nearest building visible in this locality in 1945 is this one, but it's not particularly white...

    Capture.jpg

    I'm sure I've seen it mentioned elsewhere as well, although at the moment only in Tony Ditcham's memoir A Home on the Rolling Main, where he mentions targeting a building close to it.

    Many thanks,
    Steve
     
  12. The "low white house with tower" is almost certainly the building in front of the landmark noted (Ouistreham) "CHURCH SPIRE 112784" on the photo reference Booklet B, page B mentioned in the Force S orders:
    Booklet B - Page B - Mouth of River Orne.JPG
    low white house with tower.JPG

    Michel
     
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  13. Spitfires of the Sea

    Spitfires of the Sea Stephen Fisher

    Cheers Michel. Danny also informs me this was the old semaphore station, which given its design and location makes perfect sense.
     
  14. As usual Danny is way ahead!

    Plenty of pics of the semaphore on delcampe.net, but I only saw those before it got its tower, so didn't recognise it:
    910_001.jpg

    The "nouveau sémaphore" (with tower):
    381_001.jpg
    076_001.jpg
    035_001.jpg
    639_001.jpg
    275_001.jpg
    436_001.jpg
     
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  15. No wonder I did not recognise it: they are two distinct buildings, at slightly different locations, as Danny kindly pointed to me :D.
     
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  16. Spitfires of the Sea

    Spitfires of the Sea Stephen Fisher

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