Just causeways

Outside St Mere Eglise, about 3 km west, is the Merderet river. The valley had been inundated by the Germans but raised roads remained over which traffic could move to or from the beachhead. It was therefore essential that the bridges and causeways were held. 

A vicious fight brewed up for the bridge at La Fiere and "The Causeway" at Chef du Pont, with many casualties on both sides.

"Mad Mike" Gavin who led the fight at the Merderet, and went on to high posts in the US Army.

Panorama of the Merderet valley at La Fiere. The manor is to left of shot behind Reggie, with the bridge just in front of it. The valley was flooded from the river bank to about the treeline in the distance.

The German attacks came from this direction. A tank rounded the corner and was disabled by an AT gun behind the manor. However, it continued to fire and KOd the AT gun in return. Three more tanks moved up but were KOd by para bazooka crews. Then another para ran over the bridge, climbed on the disabled tank and dropped grenades in its turret, killing the crew. He got a gong for that gallantry.

The manor had been a defended locality since the middle ages, apparently still having a vestigial moat.

 

The Germans never got the bridge. 

Another key point was The Causeway.

This is the bridge at Chef du Pont. Again the land was inundated so the causeway was the only route to or from. Americans took heavy casualties trying to push over the causeway.

Jerry was in that treeline at rear. Mind you, there were paras scattered all over the countryside so there were no real lines at all.

Leaving all that behind we drove to Ecausseville to see a dirigible hangar built at the end of WW1, but used up until the cold war. It was one of France's first reinforced concrete buildings and is one of the largest hangars left standing.

Model showing construction process

The complex at its peak. Hangar No 1 was a more conventional wooden construction. There's no sign of it left, nor of most of the other buildings.

The hangar now. The Germans used it as a depot during the war but broke the doors in a storm so it stayed open until 1953. Then the door was bricked up and the smaller door you see here was all that was used. The Americans also used it as a store and repair centre, but not until they'd had to forcibly eject the previous occupants. The final use was for Cold-war development of balloons to monitor nuclear tests.

The inside gave some great echoes! Those balloons you see are manpowered. for 50€ you get 20 mins of floating/flying in the hangar (https://aeroplume.fr/). J wasn't keen. 

On to Valognes, the "Norman Versailles". Still very hot when we arrived but by the time we left it had started to rain. Valognes had the heart bombed out of it in 1944 so a lot is rebuilt but there are still some lovely buildings about.

Note the small boxy room backing on to the river on the building on the left? Looks very much like a loo and all the buildings along the river have them. I guess they are no longer used, but the river must have reeked.

Our park-up is Le Vast, which despite its name is rather small but nicely formed, much like J. It's in the middle of nowhere in a little valley but at its peak there were 29 mills here, 21 grain, the others various other industries including cotton spinning. No sign of them now except where the money went - a very nice looking Chateau de la Germoniere.

The mill race got tidied up a bit by the chateau owner.

Le Chateau de la Germonieres

We're parked next to the boules court so J thrashed me at a game of that. The court looked pretty much like the parking lot actually.

Well, rain was threatened and has duly arrived. We've not had any significant rain since we arrived so it's not a bad thing, though the power could be a problem tomorrow.