197 Sqn, D-Day - target reference?

[wwrsimon]

Thank you once again foer the replies everyone.

Stephen - I too am having trouble pinning down the reference you gave. Can you let us know the source?

Regards

Simon

[Stephen M. Fochuk]

Daily intell reports as submitted by the squadrons.

[RSwank]

Just for grins, I tried running vT876752 on the French Lambert Zone 1 grid. (Maybe an "8" got changed to a "0"). This comes up with a location roughly SE of Bayeux, but more interesting are the Street Names and related names in the area. "Le Grand Parc". Coincidence? Perhaps but very interesting. There is a hotel/ (maybe a B&B) there called "Le Grand Parc"


The area is here 49.240036, -0.580697 on Google Maps.

[wwrsimon]

Ha, I tried that method without success, but didn't think to change the 0 to 8!

La Cuilette du Grand Parc certainly looks quite Chateau-esque:

http://www.bienvenue-a-la-ferme.com/...0x600/5718.jpg

http://www.bienvenue-a-la-ferme.com/...00/gite_31.jpg

http://www.bienvenue-a-la-ferme.com/...0x600/5717.jpg

Regards

Simon

[Stephen M. Fochuk]

I suspected there might have been an issue with the coordinates. After-all a lot was going on during the early morning of the 6th, but all of the fighter-bomber squadrons were given targets to attack so somewhere, the correct info for 197's target exists.

[wwrsimon]

I sent off a speculative e-mail to La Cuilette du Grand Parc yesterday, and received this reply, translated from the French:

"Indeed Le Grand Parc was a German communications center. There are two bunkers there and foundations of a transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna. It was a goal [target?] of 6 June. The English arrived on 7th."

Simon

[RSwank]

Simon, that is most interesting.

Since they seem to be willing to respond, I guess you could ask them very specifically if the place was attacked by fighter bombers (Typhoons) around 8:00 am on June 6th. I wonder if they have any photos of how the place looked before or just after the attack?

[wwrsimon]

I'm busy gathering some information to send them, and was going to ask those very questions, amongst others. I'll let you know how I get on.

I've had no reply from the Museum at Bayeux so far, by the way.

Regards

Simon

[RSwank]

Simon,

I gather no news on any of this? I think that this area was the "goal" of the 69th Infantry Brigade on June 6th. After landing on Gold Beach, they were suppose to take Saint-Leger (on the Bayeux-Caen road) by the evening of June 6th, but only made it to Coulombs. They took the area on June 7th. Perhaps that is all the Grand Parc people meant to say.

[wwrsimon]

No, no news as yet. It's a busy time for the owners of La Cuilette, but they tell me they have documents about the ground attack in the area, and will scan them when they get some spare time.

Regards

Simon