BAYEUX MEMORIAL
HISTORICAL INFORMATION:
Bayeux was entered by the
Sherwood Rangers late on 6th June 1944, but was formally liberated the next day
- it fell without a fight. Charles de Gaulle established its first seat of
government here until Paris was liberated, and it became the main staging post
for the British Army in Normandy. The streets of Bayeux were too narrow for most
military vehicles, and so the Royal Engineers and Pioneer Corps constructed a
ring-road round Bayeux soon after D Day. Several military hospitals were
established here in 1944.
LOCATION:
The memorial is directly opposite Bayeux War
Cemetery, and lies on the south-west side of the main ring road (built by
the British in 1944) around the city of Bayeux. It is about 100 metres from the
junction with the D5 to Littry, and on the same side of the road, and only a
short distance from the Museum of the Battle of Normandy (which is well
signposted throughout Bayeux).
PERSONALITIES:
The Bayeux Memorial commemorates those
killed in the Battle of Normandy, and the advance to the Seine from 6th June to
29th August 1944, and have no known grave. An inscription of the memorial reads:
NOS A GULIELMO VICTI VICTORIS PATRIAM LIBERAVIMUS
Which freely translated means:
"We, once conquered by
William, have now set free the Conqueror's native land."
The names are recorded by regiment, the greatest representation being from the Gloucestershire Regiment with 171 men commemorated here. This is roughly ten per cent of the total.
Also commemorated here are a large number of men who were killed with the 3/4 County of London Yeomanry when German Tiger Ace Michael Wittmann, ran amok in Villlers-Bocage on 13th June 1944.
PAUL REED 2001
