My Life during the D-Day Landing 10 kilometres east of Cherbourg
In 1979, Madame Lecoffre related her experience of the D-Day landing. Evicted from her house by the Germans in May 1944, she and her fiancé found out that the Allied operations were underway thanks to stock-breeders from Sainte-Mère Eglise they had met at a fair in Valognes. After telling the Germans that they would be defeated, the young woman was arrested and sent to the prison in Cherbourg where she spent a night in custody. Once back home, she saw the Americans advancing into Cherbourg – a tough battle which took place in the Norman bocage region. Taken by surprise, the American army had to confront a well-organised German defence, determined to fight for the harbor at Cherbourg at any price. The report can be found in the archives of the Memorial of Caen, under the pressmark TE 204.
In the 1940s up till May 8th 1944, we lived on a farm which was partially occupied by successive artillery regiments of German troops. My mother, my grand-father and I had been evicted from the farm we still lived on within twenty-four hours.
We got wind of the landing thanks to my fiancé who had gone to sell a cow at the fair in Valognes. The deal was wrapped up quickly as stock-breeders from Sainte-Mère Eglise had announced the parachuting, and confirmed what they said by showing us belts and other parachute debris. Some of them made their reports in an inn which had been set ablaze two hours later.
We were left without any further news for a few days since we no longer had a place where we could listen to the BBC. Horses and carts were soon requisitioned and drivers conscripted at La Glacerie, charged with bringing munitions into Montebourg. My fiancé went there with a light cart drawn by a half-breed. He succeeded in unloading his cart and, thanks to the confusion that reigned at the depot, was able to come back with a neighbour who had room in his carriage. On their way back, Valognes was in flames.
We had just kept a few animals in the fields at the furthest ends of the farm and, especially in an orchard. Skimming the ground, an airplane machine gunned the nearby water tower and the troops’ horses which were out in the fields close to the stables. The following day, the cavalry occupied the pastures which were sheltered by apple trees.
My mother and I went back to the farm to stand our ground. It had been transformed into a fortified camp. It was fenced in with miles of barbed wire, and the land was drastically disrupted by holes and trenches recently dug by men and by the famous anti-parachuting posts 1The young woman is here referring to « Rommel’s asparagus ». The name was given by the local population, who, called upon by the German authorities, was forced to put up spikes on grounds likely to be used as landing grounds for the Allies. . Some chevaux-de-Frise 2Crossed iron bars spiked with barbed wire which were usually used to prevent vehicules to pass. The word means “Friesland horses” but the French expression was also used by the English speaking Allies.[Translator's note] defended the entrances. “There’s a war going on!” was the only answer to our complaints. ”Not for long”, I replied, “the Bristish are in Valognes!” (We had not yet been told anything about the United States).
We left with our heads high, but we were quickly surrounded by two guards who locked us up in the wine cellar where we waited a little too long in uncertainty. I have to add that the last Germans that had occupied our farm formed an ill-assorted regiment but were severely supervised by a vet and a Class II Warrant Officer, both known for their zeal. With clogs on our feet and ropes tied round our wrists, we were eventually taken to the harbour prison in the evening. We were welcomed by an old prison guard flanked by boys of the Hitler Youth –mere boys playing with kittens on their beds. After interrogating us, they believed our story, but we were, nonetheless, escorted to a cell which had no window panes, but only solid iron bars and a low side, plus… a big butter box for necessary emergencies. We were lucky on two occasions: there was a lull in the bombings which every night poured down on the military gear and the neighbouring towns, and especially, it turned out that it was impossible to drive us to Saint-Lô where we would have remained under the ruins of the prison with so many other civilians from Cherbourg 3On the bombardment of Saint-Lô, see Julien Le Bas’s account and Jean Roger’s account. The prison was spared by the first raids which reached the city on the morning and evening of June 6th,1944. In the night, it was hit by two bombs that burned the building. The majority of the seventy prisoners died there. . I have an unforgettable memory of that night spent in custody: a nearby prisoner’s cough which sounded as if it were tearing up his chest.
In the morning, unwanted women prisoners were liberated and we were given some coffee with milk that we hastened to drink at a girlfriend’s place on the other side of town. Unfortunately, it was the last time that we would benefit from this friend’s hospitality as the bombings of the Val-de-Saire area would reach her and, at the same time, Doctor Deslandes who was so highly regarded by the inhabitants of Cherbourg.
Although we arrived safe and sound in spite of the uncomfortable walk (six miles wearing clogs), we decided it would be better to leave the area of our farm and so, La Glacerie welcomed us.
A few days later, the convoy which had been left near Montebourg came back home. Displaying no sign of triumph, the troop had retreated to hide under the big trees on the farm belonging to my in-laws. This stopover led to a bloody shelling the following morning. The village called La Glacerie had been partly razed to the ground by an air raid 4The town of La Glacerie and its German battery underwent numerous attacks when defending access to Cherbourg. The town was to be freed on June 24th, after severe fighting. That morning, there were, once again, numerous casualties, in the four corners of the village. Then, we retired into the nearby woods where American soldiers found us and drove us in trucks to Le Theil which had been separated from Cherbourg’s defence and which they had been expecting, but the troops had surrendered. The fighting, often violent, took place in the neighbouring areas of high ground. Once calm had been restored, we went back to our farm. The previous occupants had defended their position before surrendering. The blood-stained stretchers in the stables and the tattered uniforms were proof of this. So, too, were the heaps of ammunition lying all around the barbed-wire fence. The Americans had disarmed their enemies here. They had cleaned the area by burying the dead horses in the trenches, sometimes along with human bodies. We signaled that several corpses had remained on the site, and one corpse even had its arm sticking out of a trench. They could be taken off the list of missing people – it’s better for families to know.
We were heart-broken when we returned to our farm. The four walls was all that was left of our family home. The occupied farms of the village had been burnt down before being evacuated. Just before the rebuilding phase, the demolition workers found a nest of ammunition ready to explode under a heap of stones in case the house had remained intact before our return. However, material loss became mere painful memories when everybody met up again once peace had been restored.
The view from the coast road of the black harbor full of landing ships, our fields transformed into transit camps by the Allied forces, our roads transformed by trucks into quagmires where our carts would get buried up to their axles, news –whether true or false– means of communications rendered impossible, the return of peace, of friends and loved-ones: these are my memories of the wartime battles in France.
- 1. The young woman is here referring to « Rommel’s asparagus ». The name was given by the local population, who, called upon by the German authorities, was forced to put up spikes on grounds likely to be used as landing grounds for the Allies.
- 2. Crossed iron bars spiked with barbed wire which were usually used to prevent vehicules to pass. The word means “Friesland horses” but the French expression was also used by the English speaking Allies.[Translator's note]
- 3. On the bombardment of Saint-Lô, see Julien Le Bas’s account and Jean Roger’s account. The prison was spared by the first raids which reached the city on the morning and evening of June 6th,1944. In the night, it was hit by two bombs that burned the building. The majority of the seventy prisoners died there.
- 4. The town of La Glacerie and its German battery underwent numerous attacks when defending access to Cherbourg. The town was to be freed on June 24th, after severe fighting.
- Numéro: TE204
- Lieu: Mémorial de Caen
