From the backyard fence of Cassigneuls, you may scent the ocean. Seaweed, salt within the air, slight rot that escapes from mudflats when the ocean recedes nearly to the horizon. Lower than half a kilometer from the airline, behind the clear blue home of Remy and Marguerite Cassigneul, begins the seaside.
However since 1944, they have been now not there.
Marguerite Cassigneul was 17 years previous on the time. At the moment, it's a chic previous girl, a black sweater, a silk scarf with pink poppies, blue eyes a bit bother, however alert. It's not tough for her to speak concerning the occupation, the conflict earlier than 1944. However when she desires to speak about June 7, after the touchdown of the Allies on the seashores of Normandy, her voice fades.
The Germans have been pushed again into the nation on the afternoon of June sixth. "On the seaside, those that haven't returned," mentioned Marguerite. The our bodies have been nonetheless there. "A soldier lay there curiously twisted, I didn't know the place there have been ups and downs, so I noticed: he had no head." She's crying. "I'll always remember the present."
Her husband Rémy takes over and tells the story of a lifeless officer, mendacity on his abdomen, face within the water. "He was so alone and once I see the ocean, I see this image time and again, so I don't go there anymore."
Suspicious, they listened to the Germans' footsteps
As a part of "Operation Overlord" on June 6, 1944, greater than 150,000 British, American and Canadian troopers have been in Normandy with heavy tools. Rémy Cassigneul was then 19, he's now 94 years previous. "There was no extra water, there have been many boats coming in. 1000's of ships, huge, small, stuffed with weapons, troopers, even vehicles, infinite, some not braking once they approached the seaside, they only saved driving, utilizing amphibious autos, it was the Allies. "
The Cassigneuls, married since 1948, met throughout adolescence through the conflict. They lived then 4 kilometers from the seaside, neighbors of the village of Tailleville. 70 inhabitants, about twice as many cows and horses. She lived along with her mother and father and a sister on a farm, he labored and lived within the "citadel" subsequent door, an imposing mansion.
Video: When Allied bombs hit Normandy
The documentary "D-Day - The Battle of Normandy" will air on Thursday, June 6 at 22:00 on the pay-TV channel SPIEGEL Geschichte, out there on Sky.
The Germans arrived in 1942. "The mayor got here to inform us: the German troopers at the moment are all over the place within the villages, they are going to keep, you'll take two," says Marguerite Cassigneul. "The commander ought to dwell with us within the citadel," Remy provides. Gross sales boches"Soiled Germans," hissed the village folks behind closed doorways.
"However my father warned us: be good to them, no unhealthy phrase, it scared us," says Marguerite. "We didn't know: what are they for?" They climb our stairs with their heavy boots, our rooms are walled one after the opposite with their rooms. "
"Have you learnt Rommelspargel?"
Then got here, truly worn thick boots. The household listened suspiciously to the steps underneath the roof from the eating desk on the bottom ground. No one spoke. "However then we went down, very younger and shy, and mentioned: Howdy, we noticed that they have been like us," remembers Marguerite. They heard one another nicely, lived facet by facet and typically one with the opposite, ate collectively, labored collectively.
However after all, every thing went in response to the foundations of the German commanders, as Rémy explains: "We needed to carry sand and blend it with concrete, for the Atlantic Wall" - a set of bunkers and fortresses almost 2700 kilometers lengthy alongside the European Atlantic coast. The Germans employed the inhabitants as a compelled labor pressure to construct the bulwark.
"And have you learnt Rommelspargel?" As well as, Remy was felling younger bushes within the forest, reducing branches, lining up naked trunks in lengthy rows in fields and pastures: thus, paratroopers and enemy planes had no place the place to ask. "Asparagus Rommel." From ten o'clock within the night, there was an exit barrier for all of the villagers, "curtains closed, mild off," and now and again the officers and their canines got here to examine the streets. "We don't like them," mentioned Remy, "however the Germans who constructed the bunkers with us didn't like them both."
He additionally barely loses a nasty phrase concerning the Germans who lived within the village through the occupation. "There have been good folks there." A German soldier as soon as smuggled a letter from a French compelled employee to his Norman spouse in France. "He may have been suspended for that."
Worry of dying whereas hiding
Marguerite Cassigneul says that after the conflict she would have preferred to jot down letters to the 2 Germans who lived on her farm. However after June 6, they have been all gone, enlisted to combat on the consistently altering entrance strains of the Battle of Normandy.
The touchdown of the allies within the early hours of June 6 was a complete shock for the villagers. On the night of June fifth, everyone seems to be asleep as typical, say the Cassigneuls. However then, round seven o'clock, the Germans knocked on the door and shouted "Invasion!", Everybody ought to cover. From the ocean, the thunder of explosions reached Tailleville, the sky was darkish with smoke, it stank burning.
Remy sank within the citadel cellar with dozens of others. Marguerite was "hidden within the steady, underneath the hay". They waited till the tip of the afternoon, with no meals or water, afraid to die of it. Marguerite speaks quicker now that the recollections in her head are effervescent. "Instantly all of us froze," a rifle barrel slid by the steady door. "We thought: now we should die." The door is open - Canadian troopers.
They invited all of the inhabitants to assemble within the village. With arms raised and in single file, the household ran to the market, "My father took out the calvados bottle at an additional worth for the troopers and confirmed that nothing was poisoned, after which we put ourselves in one another 's arms, which was actually a second of freedom for us. "
A sniper on the roof of the church
The Canadians had a goulash gun with them, there was soup for everybody and extra schnapps. Remy interrupts Marguerite: "Now inform this to the soldier." As a result of the enjoyment lasted solely briefly. She simply spoke to a younger Canadian, stunning, blonde, stunning, she remembers. Then a wierd noise, a hissing or slightly: a hissing sound. The blood flowed from the cranium of the Canadian, he fell ahead. "Somebody shouted: shortly, a stress bandage!"
A German sniper entrenched himself on the roof of the church, the residents fled to their houses, wounded Canadian troopers took Marguerite's mother and father with him. He died on the desk in his front room.
Video: a handful of sand for the lifeless
The village not being thought of protected, the inhabitants have been evacuated to the seaside on the morning of June 7, when the battle towards the Germans was already over. There, Marguerite noticed the headless soldier, Remy, the solitary officer, his face immersed within the water. Then they have been allowed to go residence, with the pictures of their heads and the trauma they nonetheless can't hand over immediately.
"Then the bombers got here in. We counted 75 planes," remembers Rémy. Caen is the closest main city, about 15 kilometers away, the flames lit up the nighttime skyline. Town middle was nearly utterly destroyed by bombs, about 2,500 folks died.
Area destroyed, Europe liberated
Though the Germans are already in retreat, the Allies have pursued the "scorched earth" technique: nothing ought to curiosity the Germans extra within the area, it shouldn't be doable to construct a place anyplace. Then the cities fell one after the opposite.
A Marguerite's aunt escaped along with her child from Caen to Tailleville at Marguerite's mother and father' home on the farm. When the fires went out and the bombers left, Marguerite and her sister entered town in ruins: "Wherever there was rubble, the streets have been barely recognizable." The aunt's home was nonetheless standing.
The battle of Normandy lasted three months. On the finish of July 1944, about 1.5 million Allied troopers landed on the seashores and fought about 400,000 German troopers. There are fairly totally different estimates of the variety of victims. In the long run, almost half 1,000,000 folks died - Allies, Germans, civilians. 180,000 homes have been utterly destroyed.
In a meadow close to Tailleville, the Canadians constructed a makeshift airport. "The Caen ambulances arrived within the village and went each minute to the airport," mentioned Remy concerning the state of emergency that has lasted for a number of weeks.
It was solely after the liberation of Paris in August 1944 that chaos was over. Luckily, the Killings didn't have kinfolk however misplaced associates and neighbors. Pastures, fields, stables, every thing was destroyed. They needed to begin from scratch. "It was liberation, sure," says Marguerite Cassigneul. "However we couldn't have a good time firstly, the enjoyment got here later."
SPIEGEL-author Elise Landschek Unbiased journalist in Berlin, she spent seven days in Could in Normandy. His analysis was partially supported by the Normandy Tourism Affiliation.
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