The
Colleville Trap |
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After a good night's rest in the hotel
at the top of the hill I took a walk to the sea side.
On my way down the hill I passed a beautiful private
garden and a house on the hill which had a gigantic bomb
hole for a backyard. From the presence of the bomb craters
II knew there had to be some German pillboxes in the
area. I asked some of the locals, but as is common in
France they feigned ignorance. So I wandered.
I found a little paved road
called "Rue 6 Juin 1944".
I said to myself, if there's something to see it will
be up this road. So up I went. I got all the way up
the hill, tramped across a field and through some brambles
and finally I found nothing at all. Disheartened I
headed back down the little rue.
And as I walked back down the hill I realized that
I was dead. And had been for about thirty minutes.
There to my left, concealed in the crook of the hill
was a German machine gun nest. I had walked right by
it and not seen it. Which I think must have been the
original intent of the builders. Here, unmarked and
unadorned was one of the first battlefields of the
Battle of Normandy.
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Run your mouse over the pictures to see
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Because the shape of the land naturally
leads from the beaches up the gentle slope of this
hill there is really
only one approach to this fortification. And
that is from the sea side
(to the right). There's no way around it. Which means
the attacking American GIs had to first find it,
probably the same way I did; and then kill it.
Which is not so easy.
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Here you can see the bullet scars on
the face of the pillbox. From the shape and angle
of the scars it's apparent that the Allied fire was
coming from the right (sea side). Which makes sense,
since as I found out "the hard way" that anyone moving
towards the left would get torn apart before they
knew what happened. |
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| Once I knew where
the pillbox was, the entrance was easy to find. You
litterally have
to drop into the hole. It's designed to be quick
to enter and slow to exit. The entrance tunnel is
turned and angled so that if some lucky GI dropped
a grenade
into it, the gunners inside
would be okay. A good part of the force of the explosion
would go right back out the hole. |
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The interior was a bit cramped.
There were a few bullet scars on the walls inside,
but not many. It seems to have been designed with
the idea that it would be assaulted from the sea
side. So as long as you are standing where I was
standing for this picture, then you would be safe
from ricochets as all bullets would be bouncing along
the back wall towards the entrance at the other end
where they would be trapped. In other
words, it would be relatively easy to duck out of
the way of incoming rounds.
The window has a commanding view of the road and
the fields outside.
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I couldn't help but think of the first
GIs to find this pillbox. Their first knowledge of its
location may very well have been the sound of a machine
gun and the sight of their friends falling to the ground.
Judging the scarring on the port holes I'd say there
was quite a bit of fire being concentrated on this box,
and quite a bit coming from it.
It's one thing to read books describing the battles
but it's another thing entirely to stand on that ground
and try to imagine yourself back at that time. The thought
of fighting up that hill, or crossing that field bordered
by a hedgerow is dreadful.
In the movies you see guys running across the fields
in hedgerow country. But you can't run across those
fields. It's difficult to walk across them. They are
all chopped up from being ploughed. And a hedgerow isn't
just a row of trees. It's a ditch two to three feet deep
lined with trees on two sides. It's basically a fortifed
trench with built in concealment. The natural obstacles
to human movement make Normandy an ideal place to wage
a defensive battle. |
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| Next we move on to the fortifications at
Vierville sur Mer where American GIs suffered their heaviest
losses. |
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| Face the terror
in the Vierville Draw by clicking HERE!!! |
| Visit battle site Pointe
du Hoc by clicking HERE!!! |
| Walk 100 miles in
Normandy by clicking HERE!!! |
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