Features

France - Ouistreham - D-Day + Lots

by Mike Levy

Perhaps the most important battle of the Second World War began where a Brittany Ferry ends. Many years ago I took the ferry from Portsmouth to Caen and discovered something rather shocking as I disembarked: the ship does not go as far as the city of William the Conqueror. Your journey with Brittany Ferries actually ends in the tiny French seaside resort of Ouistreham, about 15km down river (or canal to be more exact) from Caen. Though your voyage may end where you least expect it, your adventures start right here. Ever since I decided to give up getting to Caen on foot (now there’s a good bus service), I have instead made Ouistreham my destination. I am usually the only passenger on the giant roro ferry to step outside the tiny terminal building, walk over the quiet road and find myself deep in rural Normandy. If you follow my simple footsteps you will also find yourself in a charming M Hulot-style seaside town that welcomes English visitors with a mixture of delight and charmed surprise. You will also find yourself on what was Sword Beach, a crucial piece in the D-Day jigsaw, the battle to free Europe from the Nazis. In the very early hours of 6th June 1944, a group of British and French commandos stealthily landed at Ouistreham; there on the that dark and stormy night 66 years ago, the liberation of Europe effectively began. It may strike you as odd that the first building to be liberated was the town’s old casino – it is not recorded if any Germans were in there at the time betting on a Nazi win in the war. In fact Hitler’s army was utterly surprised by the gigantic forces that landed first at Ouistreham and then all along the beaches of Normandy.
The story of the D-Day landings unfolds everywhere you look in this little town. The huge swathe of sandy beach stretching west into the horizon was the setting for the British-led assault on the eastern flank of the invasion area. Now the beautifully unspoilt sandy beaches are havens for sand yachts and sun worshippers. Don’t expect too much sophistication here: this is where Parisians come for a quiet weekend and apart from the modern casino, there is very little razzmatazz. What there is aplenty is first class Norman cuisine, great Calvados and an embarrassment of moule marinier.
For all the simple charm of this very French beach town, it is the legacy of the greatest seaborne assault that leaves its mark. The town and area are awash with moving memorials, museums and memorabilia. Even the most ardent pacifist would be hard pressed to hold back a tear at the thought of all that slaughter and the great battle for a just cause – the defeat of Hitler’s evil empire. Just behind the modern casino, is a powerful memorial to the French commandos who made up the advance party on the beach. A few metres away is a small but very informative museum to the exploits of this group and their British commando comrades. Stroll along the peaceful villas of the Rue 6 Juin and you come to the Atlantic Wall Museum housed on the site of a massive reinforced German bunker used to mow down the troops as they stormed Sword Beach. The museum reconstructs life in the wartime redoubt and you can climb up to the lookout point which gave the Nazi troops such a good view of the approaching invasion. There is an unexpected bit of Hollywood in the grounds of the museum: the landing craft used in the Spielberg movie, ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (the one that airbrushed the contribution of the British to D-Day). When I was there a group of French teenagers seemed more thrilled that Tom Cruise had sat in this transport than anything they had seen in the bunker.
A very pleasant 30-minute walk along the beachside path takes you to Hermanville-sur-mer. It was here in this old village that the mass of the British forces came ashore on 6th June ’44. It is impossible to imagine the scene of carnage, chaos and cacophony that this now peaceful beach must have seen and heard all those years ago. Again there are several memorials en route including a rather touching statue to General Montgomery (‘Monty’) the head of the British army. His name lives on in the nearby village of Colville-Montgomery.
Even if wartime stories fail to move you, take a bus or walk to the Pegasus Bridge – one of those great iconic bridges that carry with them not just people and traffic but a golden treasury of amazing true stories. The bridge across the Caen Canal is around 6km north of Ouistreham (it takes about 25 minutes on the bus no. 1) and has achieved legendary status in the annals of that savage but necessary war. It was here in the early hours of D-Day that six gliders (yes gliders!) landed a few metres from the important bridge. The aircraft contained members of the 6th Airborne Division of the British parachute regiment. Their task was to fly in silently and in total darkness, with no equipment other than a watch and a compass, and take over the bridge. There followed a fierce gun battle with the unsuspecting German soldiers. Within minutes the bridge was in British hands and a nearby café became the first house in mainland France to be liberated. The Café Gondree is still there and has become a shrine to the memory of those brave airmen. A beer in the Café G is a must. Just over the canal on the Renville side is the Museum of Pegasus Bridge (so called because the winged bird was the emblem of the 6th Airborne). The museum is astonishingly well done and should be on your itinerary if only for the reconstruction of the glider and the moving film which tells the story of the bridge. The museum also contains the original bridge – in its entirety and a moving memorial to the many men who lost their lives in the operation.
The marshy land around the Pegasus Bridge area is rich in wildlife and is criss-crossed with long-distance walking paths – one of which takes you back to Ouistreham. Taking you back is a good metaphor for this place – a town that cannot, and should never, shake off its past. It is a place of endless sands and timeless memory.