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1 It is in the night of the 26 / 27 that important German reinforcement arrived at last ( or already, depending on the point of view) , including tanks coming from Rouen and fresh troops. Very early in the morning,
three companies were overrun at Pressagny l'Orgueilleux by a German, counter-attack
supported by armoured vehicles and the situation soon became so desperate
that the Colonel had to issue a special Order of the Day: "The battalion
WILL defend the left flank and by defend I mean TO THE LAST MAN and the
LAST ROUND."
In the centre, the situation was even more difficult than the day before; the troops were actually on the verge of panic and rout when the Germans launched a counter-attack at 11h30 with four infantry companies and Tiger tanks. In the afternoon, the Germans had regained most of the ground they had lost the day before. A confused battle went on all day; somewhere near Panilleuse, 60 men from the 7th Somerset were captured and as to the 1st Worcestershire there were 65 casualties that day.
Douglas Burdon continues: "The
machine gunners had either changed their tactics or they had seen me make
my move. Whatever the reason, I was caught in a hail of bullets. I felt
the heat of them as they passed my nose, while others grazed the seat
of my pants. Had I been half an inch faster or slower I would have been
neatly drilled at one end or the other. I was literally the meat in a
sandwich of bullet bread." Meanwhile, on the Seine, the sappers had finished assembling the 60-ton Bailey bridge called 'Goliath' so that, by 18h30, tanks could now easily cross the river and bring much expected relief to the infantry exposed to the violent counter-attacks. By 21h, over 600 tanks were streaming into Vernon in order to cross the river
On the right, Bois Jerôme, 3 kilometres inland from Vernnonet, was taken after more attacks and counter-attacks , with positions being taken and lost several times and, and on the very far right 4th Wiltshires were pushing towards Gasny and Giverny but, they could not reach these objectives that evening. |
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Dawn came on 28th August,
a misty dawn announcing another warm and sunny day. Everything was silent
again, like two days earlier, and it was clear that once again most
of the enemy forces had faded away during the night, except for a few
snipers and small groups that were silenced by night time - though not
all that easily and not without losses. "The action at Vernon would go down as a famous and important battle honour for the 43rd Wessex Division", General Horrocks commented some time later, but the cost was high with over 560 casualties, dead, wounded and captured. It is obvious however that the speed with which the 43rd Wessex Division secured the Vernon bridgehead was a factor of the greatest importance in the continued disruption of the German armies. A week later both Brussels and Antwerp had fallen into British hands
The days after After a month and a half of daily and uninterrupted fighting throughout Normandy , the division was grounded and the men given a rest. To them, it looked all the nicer as it was unexpected and because of the rapid advance of British forces from Vernon onward, this 'holiday' period was somewhat longer than planned. The weather remained fine, the billeting was comfortable enough and the locals were welcoming... The 1st Worscestershire,
for instance, at rest in Pressagny l'Orgueilleux, took part in several
ceremonies to mark the stay. Signaller Doug Burdon (179th
Field Regiment, Royal Artillery) was billeted for a fortnight in farm
buildings near the village of Fourges, a few miles from the river, on
the left bank and he remembers : this period was "something
of an anticlimax for us. Parades and inspections were the order of the
day, with plenty of cleaning and overhauling of weapons and equipment.
A lucky few were given passes to Paris, which had just been liberated
by the Americans; and we learned on the radio that our leading tanks
had reached the Dutch border. "Crossing the Seine on August 26th, 1944 will forever remain in the of annals of military history as a technical feat indeed, but also as the testimony of the courage of these soldiers" [3] writes Anne Labourdette, Curator of AG Poulain Museum in Vernon. One might add: "and also as a proof of Anglo-French friendship." Indeed; here in Vernon, history
recalls that the English have fought so often here and in France, in
the 10 centuries since William the Conqueror, but in August 1944 this
was not to conquer the country but to defend it and liberate its inhabitants. Military corners in the cemeteries, a number of memorials in the city and the villages, streets that were given the name of British soldiers, all these bear testimony of our gratefulness and our sincere desire never to forget the sacrifices of the Allied soldiers and also to maintain bonds of friendship between France and Great Britain, the United States and all the other nations whose soldiers fell for our liberty.
* Vernon
(near the bridge, along the Seine) : Memorial monument to the 43rd division.
Inaugurated in August 1992 by Lord David Viscount Montgomery of Alamein.
* Vernon : 12 British
tombs in the cemetery ( including 2 RAF men)
The 1944 fighting is still in the news... Lots of tourists come to visit medieval Vernon and Monet's garden at Giverny, however, several times a year, some of them come for very different reasons. I mean they are soldiers from various NATO countries who, from time to time , train here, trying to understand how the Seine was crossed in August 1944 and how the wooded hills over the right bank of Vernon were finally captured. Indeed, crossing a river under ennemy fire was, and still is, one of the mainn operations a modern army must be able to carry out.
Notes [1] A number of war games
using the crossing of the Seine in Vernon as a scenario have been released,
[2] http://www.craycroft.us/browsenotes.php [3] Catalogue of the AG Poulain Museum exhibition in Vernon, August 2004
Dimanche 27 août
1944 - Route de Tilly - La bataille pour Vernon Août 1944 : la libération
de Vernon The Web site of the Worcestershire
Regiment, The testimony of Doug
Burdon, Forward Observation Signaller, 179th Field Regiment Royal
Artillery The testimony of Des Dillon,
Sapper, 43rd Wessex Regiment - Royal Engineers The testimony of Peter
Mann, 1st Battalion Worcestershire Regt The inauguration of the
monument on the Tilly / Gisors road Introduction page to a
War game, the scenario of which is based on Operation Neptune Photographic credits: 2 : http://www.jefflewis.net/graphics/aircraft/P-47_Thunderbolt.jpg
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