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The baker’s son

Our last day in Normandy was quite amazing to say the least as we met up with M Gilbert Raimbault. Gilbert used to live where Barrie & Stuart do now… but he lived there during the Second World War when his father was the baker in the village!

He told us that the shed used to be used to store flour & the other materials that they used in the shop before the Germans began to use it to hold prisoners following D Day.

He recalled his father looking out for the prisoners being taken to the toilet which was in a little hut across the garden. He would then go out to pretend to want to use the toilet & shout abuse at the prisoner who was in there & at the German guards for allowing them to use it when he needed it. When the guards turned their backs, laughing, he knocked on the wooden door DOT-DOT-DOT-DASH – Morse Code for the letter V (also the same start to Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony) – which was used by the French to signify that they hadn’t given up.

When the prisoner came out of the toilet, Gilbert’s father would continue to shout at him, but would surreptitiously pass them a loaf of bread to eat.

Amazing courage!

Breakfast in BLUECOAT

So, an early start saw us at the museum at St Martin des Besaces as we’d been invited to join in with the celebrations commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of the village during Operation BLUECOAT.

We missed the breakfast, but saw the band who played & marched from the Salle des Fetes to the museum where we were waiting.

We’d been invited (in part) by our good friend David Mabbutt who used to be the curator of the museum & a fantastic job he used to do in that role; not only passing on information, but showing a genuine interest in people visiting the museum & always trying to ensure that he tailored their visit to meet their interests whether general, or as a result of, for example, a relative having fought in the area.

One of the special guests during this visit was Veteran Colin Yates who used to be in 131^st Ayrshire Yeomanry who were an artillery unit using Sexton Self-propelled 25 pounder guns and supporting the Guards Armoured Division; it was great to see David back in “full curator mode” as he gave Colin & his family (& us “hangers-on”) a personal tour of the museum pointing out key artefacts within its collection.

Coldsteam Memorial

From the museum, we returned to our cars & drove a couple of miles to Hill 309 or “Coldstream Hill” (named after the Coldstream Guards who captured it during Operation BLUECOAT – this had been 3^rd Bn Scots Guards objective once they’d taken Hill 226, but as regular readers of this blog will know, the Scots were ambushed by 3 JagdPanthers & lost 11 tanks in a very short period of time & so the Coldstream were waved through & tasked with taking Hill 309 or “Quarry Hill”.

The reason for the diversion, was the unveiling & dedication of a new memorial to the Coldstream Guardsmen that lost their lives in that battle & Colin Yates was asked to officially “unveil” it.

An interesting item was the “ladder” behind the memorial up to the road which was a section of Churchill tank track (all battalions of the 6^th Guards Tank Brigade – Coldstream, Grenadier & Scots Guards – used the Churchill tank rather than the more widely available Sherman or Cromwell)

Resistance in Le Tourneur

From here, our journey then took us to the village of Le Tourneur where there was an unveiling of another memorial – this time to some local Resistance fighters who used to hide escaping Allied airmen. Interestingly, we all parked our cars in the local orchard… 70 years ago, the cars would have been replaced by tanks & other armoured vehicles.

Presentation of medal & painting

As part of this ceremony, Colin Yates was presented with a commemorative medal & I was invited to pass over the painting that Eain Findlay had commissioned & that we’d collected on our way out. This was presented to M Didier Duchemin the president of the Museum at St Martin.

Churches & memorials

Following on from this, Glyn & I returned to Hill 309 & took some photos of it looking back to Caumont where Operation BLUECOAT had commenced to get some perspective of the distances covered.

We then took a detour back further in time & visited the small church of St Sulpice in Livry, a beautiful church undergoing restoration.

We then returned to near Caumont to visit the memorial to Captain George Grey of the Grenadier Guards – the first casualty of Operation BLUECOAT – shot by a sniper & who was, at the time, the youngest Member of Parliament in the UK. Interestingly, some of the stone for the memorial actually came from the House of Commons.

A further orientation photo for Hill 226 and then we were off back to Tony & Jill’s for a well-earned meal

White horses and bad backs

So, our second trip to Normandy this year started with its usual diversion via a pub… but this time, it was as part of a Mission. Unfortunately, in June, Eain & Muir Findlay weren’t able to join us in Normandy as Eain had badly hurt his back, but for that visit, he’d had a photograph printed onto canvass of one of Muir’s wartime colleagues – John Louden – who had been killed on the slopes of Hill 226 in the Scots Guards’ first battle in Normandy. Muir had helped bury him.

As Eain had been unable to visit Normandy, he’d asked if we would present the photograph to the museum at St Martin des Besaces.

So, we had agreed to meet Eain near where he worked to collect the picture and, taking advantage of the local geography & geology, arrived early enough to visit White Horse Hill before descending to the pub of the same name where beer was drunk & paintings exchanged.

Having taken leave of Eain, we set off for France, via the Chunnel as usual and, again things didn’t quite go according to plan as our initial stop-off point was a little further than planned; though I blamed the French for forcing us to put the clocks forward an hour!

Normal service is resumed

Anyway, “normal service” was resumed as we arrived at our overnight stay in Abbeville with a meal & beer at the Comptoir du Malt – one of the increasing number of brew-pubs establishing themselves in France.