VII Corps HQ at Le Buisson Farm

Hi All,

During recent work on the 'German PoWs with French Guide' thread, I had cause to have a look at Le Buisson Farm, Major General Joe Collins's first VII Corps HQ in Normandy following the invasion. The farm is located just south of Auderville la Hubert as indicated on the GE finder chart below:

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I believe I have found several sets of footage which were shot at this location; the first being a sequence from Tyler Alberts '101st Airborne Division - Invasion of Normandy Series' DVD (1st Edition). To tie this footage to Le Buisson Farm first requires a high definition look at the farmhouse and in particular the roof line. Only Bing Maps can give us the required level of detail definition:

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Note most especially the difference in distance between dormer windows 2 and 3 compared with 3 and 4 together with what I take to be a match for the step down in roof level. I am hoping these ties work for this screenshot from Tylers's DVD:

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Major General Collins is on the ground talking to First Army Deputy Commander Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges in the armored car - at least I think it's Hodges. Here is another close up of him from the same footage:

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Can anyone confirm him?

This footage had always puzzled me as to location because I assumed the armored car was on a road outside the farmhouse. This new discovery of the location is best explained by the extract from reconnaissance cover NCAP_ACIU_US30_4078_1007 flown on the 6th June:

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Image Credit: RCAHMS/www.aerial.rcahms.gov.uk​

The location is the end of the Le Buisson Farm avenue; not a road as I always assumed. The reader will see that the tree 'A' under which the armored car sits is no longer there today as per the Bing Map extract, but is clearly visible on the 1944 reconnaissance cover - please excuse the 'spider web' of labels - they are all needed

In the same footage is a shot of Major General Collins at left with Major General Manton S. Eddy, commander of the 9th Infantry Division, at right:

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Can anyone identify the VII Corps Major General in the middle - see close up below:

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His uniform seems darker in tone than the others - is he Army Air Force?

Also, I need the reader to take note of the dog in the doorway shot

More to come...

Regards,

Pat

 

Great,

Thanks Niels, how about this war correspondent taking a drink from his canteen while digging a fox hole at Utah Beach?

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The still is from this footage on the Critical Past site. The same footage has him and other correspondents at Le Buisson Farm if I am not mistaken. The still below shows him eating at left of the group of three...

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...with the farm dog hoping for leftovers

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I'd put money on it that the dog is one and the same as the one we see in the B&W footage group shot outside the farm door :s
The location is, I believe on the southern side of the farm buildings across the yard from the farmhouse. The same lean-to configuration seems to be still there today (see Bing Maps extract).

Pushing the boat out a bit further, I also think the scene below, from the same colour footage, is shot from the southern side of the avenue looking across towards the gable of the farmhouse closest to the road:

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Not sure though which of the trees on the southern side of the avenue the correspondents are dug in under - see my candidates on the reconnaissance photo extract in my last post.

Here is another still showing Collins and some of his staff at the eastern end of the farmyard. Note the ramp going down to the inlet from La Grande Crique...

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...which in turn helps to tie down this scenic shot of the inlet:

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Back to my unknown correspondent again. I am pretty sure the two stills below from Tyler's 101st DVD of Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. shows this same correspondent interviewing the General at the gate of the farm:

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Note the curved entrance side wall and pine tree trunk which looks a lot like the Scots Pines presently growing on the road side of the hedge today:

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- even to the extent of the similar cross member growing out over the road - surely not the same tree

If the reader hasn't lost faith in my interpretations so far, this one will really make or break me! Below is an unrelated still from Critical Past footage showing a German PoW being escorted along the Le Buisson Farm avenue:

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The group, if I am reading the scene correctly, are walking east towards the farmhouse and the German is being made to carry a miniature swastika flag. I believe two of the trees in the field on the southern side of the avenue just come into shot as the scene is cut:

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Anyone see any holes in my locations?

Comments and corrections welcomed and appreciated.

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi All,

Cannot confirm this but I think the unknown correspondent might be Jack Lieb of 'News of the Day'. Jack took a lot of silent colour footage in Normandy and then in 1970 done a voice over compilation titled 'From D-Day to Germany'. Here is a trailer put up on YouTube by his grandson whom I am attempting to contact at present.

Again, I may be wrong as I cannot find any later captioned photographs of Jack Lieb.

Any help very much appreciated,

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi All,

This is just a hunch, but having seen this pair of Bradley photos on the WW2 Radio Facebook page here and here, I would wonder if they might have been taken at Le Buisson Farm:

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Anyone know the present day owners well enough to ask permission to take some comparison shots for these and the other photos/footage in this thread?

Thanks,

Pat

 

I was looking through some BP footage today...

Specifically the film titled 'Invasion Scenes - Ships & Troops' (BP ID #2105.14) and guess who I found getting into a jeep at Le Buisson Farm directly after the map case scene in my last post:

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I'll eat my hat if those two photos in my last post were not taken in the courtyard of Le Buisson :s

By-the-way, the two men with Bradley in the photos are Major General Ralph Royce, Deputy Commander US Ninth Air Force and Bradley's aide Major Hansen.

I would still relish conformation though and would be grateful if somebody could ask the owners for permission to photograph the farm buildings across the courtyard from the house.

Thanks guys,

Pat