Wn59 Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
3rd Company, Grenadier Regiment 726.
1 x SK bunker.
1 x Pz. T(f) Renault R5 turret.
Possibly: -
2 x Mortar positions.
2 x Tobruk MG.
1 x MG.
Renault R5 turret.
Wn59 Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
Wn59 Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
This photo was taken from a small American Cub spotter plane some time in 1944, probably just after the village was captured. To the right flank of Omaha Beach, Wn59 is the Wn that was not attacked on D-day but was taken later when the American's were joining up with British Commandos in Port-en Bessin.
Commandos attacking at Port en Bessin a painting by David Rowlands, 'The capture of Port-en-Bessin, 7th June 1944'
Wn59 Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
Aerial photo of the defences, also several houses do not have roofs?.
Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
Belgian gate road block.
Plan of how they would be used..
Concrete road block that a Belgian gate would lock into.
Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
Looking west along the beach with Wn59 up on the cliff above.
How the beach may have looked with all its defences in place.
Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
Now looking east and there would have been plenty of barbed wire, hedgehogs, Belgian Gates and mines along the beach.
Barbed wire being strung out.
Mine laying a beach.
Belgian gate being pushed into place.
Wn59 Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
Trench working up the hill.
Wn59 Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
Foot path access to the cliff walk.
Wn59 Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.9
A very pretty village.
The house used in one of the opening sequences of 'The Longest Day' film.
And Gert Fröbe on his horse.
Wn59 Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
Tobruk with an attached tank turret bolted on the top by a ring of threads seen in the top picture. Pz. T(f) Renault R5 turret.
R5 turret 3.7cm main gun and a co-axle machine gun.
Tobruk with the R35 turret.
Note the bolts holding the turret down.
Wn59 Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
Trenches continuing up the hill.
Wn59 Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
This could be a mortar pit or a machine gun post.
81mm mortar.
Machine gun post.
Wn59 Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
The view down into the village.
Plan of the defence.
Inside an R35 turret.
Inside an R35 turret.
Wn59 Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
The trench running down the hill.
A picture from the Longest Day, it was filmed in the house in the valley.
Field kitchen.
Wn59 Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
The church at Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission plate on the the church yard wall.
Wn59 Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
The church at Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes.
The First World War French memorial.
The grave of Sgt Harry Newman aged 21.
Sgt Newman was the pilot of a Spitfire Vb in No. 234 Squadron RAF flying from RAF Warmwell on fighter sweep over the Normandy coast.
Spitfire Vb the type he was flying with 234 Sqn markings at Biggin Hill 2014..
RAF Warmwell, Dorset.
Maj. Werner Pluskat (Hans Christian Blechin in The Longest Day film).
Maj. Werner Pluskat commanded 1./Art.Rgt.352 and controlled their fire onto the beaches in the area. There are lots tails of Pluskat, some say he was there and some say he was not. He survived D-day and was captured later in the war to live to a good age.
Maj. Werner Pluskat. ( link to Maj Pluskat talking of his experiences on D-day [in German])
SK fire control post.
Up on the cliff was a fire control post that directed the fire of III. Batt. des I. Art. Btl/352. 10.5cm FH 18/40.
10.5cm FH 18/40. The Batteries had their scale of ammunition cut down by half just before D-day and the rest was stored inland to protect in from Allied bombing. The ammunition was being brought forward and was caught in air raid by strafing fighters and the lot was destroyed.
Ste-Honorine-des-Pertes after the Liberation of the village..
© 2013 Richard Drew