The Normandy American Heroes Blog

On June 13^th 1944, 7 days after the D-day landings in Normandy, a hard battle known still today as “the battle of Bloody Gulch” Hill 30 took place in the little village of Méautis, at the Donville Manor.

Graignes is little village situated 13 kilometers from the town of Carentan. This village is more famous for its horse races than for its tragic history on June 6th 1944.

Carentan, a charming little town, due to its strategic position, was thru different historical conflicts, a very contested place (written by a trainee of Normandy American Heroes!)

Bayeux (Normandy – France), the headquarters of Normandy American Heroes, is the perfect stopover to discover the historical sites of WWII if you are planning to stay a minimum of two nights. For a longer stay, let us tailor your trip to Normandy…and beyond.

In order to help you plan your trip, here are the best options to get from Paris to Normandy.

Chapel of Mortain - Hill 314

For 48 hours the sector of the Cotentin was calm. The capture, then the immediate evacuation of Saint-Germain-sur-Sèves: nothing to report. Near and around Saint-Lô, all was quiet. All the weight and the fracas of the battle seemed to take place in the English sector of Calvados.

But it was the calm that preceded the storm. It began with formidable aerial attacks; the communiqué stated that 3000 bombers shelled the enemy positions in the Cotentin for two hours.

Operation Cobra had just begun.

Marble of Thorigny

Cherbourg was taken the 27^th of June 1944, when the harbor long reconstruction began. A few weeks later the heavy equipment finally will commence to be unloaded… This won’t slow down nor stop the artificial port of Utah beach to remain operational, on the contrary!

Utah Gooseberry harbor achieved the incredible engineering feat of unloading more than 730,000 tons of supplies, 225,000 vehicles and 840,000 American soldiers, all before the winter of 1944. In the late 60’s, an Italian company specializing in recycling steel scrapped everything off the coast of Utah beach, which is why you don't see anything standing there today.

For four long years, the people of Normandy had no choice but to live with the Germans.