Of D-Day, everybody remembers the American paratroopers dropping over
Sainte-Mère-Eglise, the bloodbath at Omaha Beach, the heroic capture of
the Point du Hoc, or again the 177 French Commandoes landing at
Ouistreham. What everybody forgets was that in the middle of this front,
there was a sector, Gold Beach, where the Allied offensive turned out to
be particularly effective, so much so that by the evening of 6 June the
25 000 British soldiers who set foot on the beaches at Asnelles and
Ver-sur-mer had reached their objectives, in particular the control of
the Caen-Bayeux road and liberated Bayeux the next day.
But Gold Beach was also the story of the technical expertise resulting
in the building of the artificial port at Arromanches and changing
Port-en-Bessin into a "petrol station" supplying the whole of the Allied
armada. It was in the Gold Beach sector that Sergeant Stan Hallis earned
his Victoria Cross (the highest British military award) in recompense
for his acts of bravery, the only one awarded in Normandy. It was for
all these reasons that the British Government chose Gold Beach and in
particular the village of Ver-sur-Mer to set up the Memorial bearing the
names of some 21 000 United Kingdom soldiers killed on D-Day or during
the Battle of Normandy. A book was therefore needed for Gold Beach to
obtain a rightful place of its own in history among the five landing
beaches.
Thanks to the exceptional documentation gathered over more than half a
century by Philippe Bauduin, a recognized specialist of D-Day, born in
Ver-sur-mer, this richly illustrated book reminds you of what was at
stake in this sector of D-Day, and tells the story of what happened
there, nearest the participants. After the success of Jour-J, ce qu'on
ne vous a pas raconté, les secrets du Débarquement, published in 2016,
Philippe Bauduin and Jean-Charles continue their work together with this
most recent book devoted to 6 June 1944.
