On the 6th June 1944 the Allied forces launched its biggest offensive ever on the beaches of France.
D-Day
In one area of this attack,soldiers of the British 3rd Division landed on the beach codenamed "Sword" near a small seaside resort (much like Blackpool,called La Breche),their primary mission objective to take the Regional capital codenamed "Poland",known to you and me as Normandy capital, CAEN.
It was an ambitous objective,to take a large enemy occupied city on the first day of the invasion.
For whatever reason (and there were many)
IT DIDNT HAPPEN
Outside of Caen in the last weeks of June ,near the then small town of EPRON ,was a salient consisting of three locations
La Bijude, La Londe and La Landel. Seeming harmless, a few farms and two large 18th Century Manor houses , in French (Chateau) ,or if you prefer Castles. To the men who fought to take them Castles they were. The attacks on this salient , less than 6 miles from Caen itself were taken but with the highest cost in lives since the Invasion itself. For the men of the 3rd Division and one element of it the 8th Brigade it was to be their "acid test".
In the end an objective that was suppose to take one Battalion of Infantry to take ,took an entire Brigade (3 Battalions ) with support from Artillery and tanks.
Men of the
These men would pay a heavy price to take this salient.For many the 27th and 28th June 1944 would be their last days on this world. For those that survived it would be two days that even after 55yrs they would not forget.
The Web pages are a dedication to those that fought and those that died,amongst them my own grandfather ,a Northamptonshire brick worker turned Corporal in the Suffolk Regiment. He was 31.