Re. Odd squares just northwest of Loucelles in 1944

Discussion in 'Ground' started by Ramiles, Jun 12, 2025.

  1. Ramiles

    Ramiles Active Member
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    Re. Audrieu; Lower Normandy; France | NCAP - National Collection of Aerial Photography

    I'm wondering what these "odd squares" were?

    Flatsquares.jpg

    Screenshot (698).png

    Without a 3D aspect - it might be easy to just assume that these were some sort of big block house bunker - but a worn path goes right on to and through one of them so perhaps they were the flat concrete base to heavy gun emplacements or maybe it was merely something simple and agricultural like an animal pen. It might have made sense to have a fence around a military store. It seems odd too that they have such haphazard orientations.

    Screenshot (701).png

    I don't think that there seems to be much evidence now of what was there.

    Just fields.

    Screenshot (697).png
     
  2. Ramiles

    Ramiles Active Member
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    There is yet another of these "block curiosities"...

    Screenshot (715).png

    Just a little bit further north...

    Screenshot (744).png

    Images at... (WWW address - //remonterletemps.ign.fr/comparer/?lon=-0.595190&lat=49.231272&z=16.8&layer1=10&layer2=19&mode=split-h&fbclid=IwY2xjawK5BTFleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFnMWhUZU1UUEZjR1kwdmZKAR6PKPfDKgiQ-ljdcLNEVvdksAVGAMRa0EXkzj8fE0QbfdVYxMY7Wv8l3eiHsQ_aem_7Pv6r7zRrUNEDgenGVnjow )

    Actual link - Remonter le temps

    Can provide a bit more context. There's little - if anything - left of them now, though they do seem to have survived - somewhat - post war.
     
  3. Pat Curran

    Pat Curran Administrator
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    Hi Ramiles,
    I would think these are definitely German fortified positions. The light coloured 'frame' around each are minefields, fenced off from the rest of each field in which the features are located.
    I'll see if I have anything in my files to ID them.
    Regards,
    Pat
     
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  4. Ramiles

    Ramiles Active Member
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    #4 Ramiles, Jun 17, 2025
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2025
    Ducy-Sainte-Marguerite in 1944 - Calvados - Battle of Normandy

    Has "6th Battalion Green Howards Regiment of the 69th Infantry Brigade (50th Infantry Division) crosses National Road 13 (RN 13) on the morning of June 7th and heads for the Caen-Cherbourg railway, which is approximately 2 kilometers to the south. They recognized Ducy-Sainte-Marguerite at 1430 hours. The 6th Battalion Durham Light Infantry Regiment of the 151st Infantry Brigade (50th Infantry Division) settled in the afternoon to the southwest of the village, dominating since that time. The Seulles coastal river as well as the railway bridge crossing it."

    6th Green Howards June 1944, War Diary ยป Normandy War Guide

    Speaks in a great deal of detail about the fighting and dispositions - although their route from Saint Leger to Ducy-Sainte-Marguerite... was just a little further to the west (from where these "blocks" were...

    Screenshot (778).png

    Although most of the action there then would have quite missed where these "blocks" were... as by my current reckoning they were roughly where the " .79 " height marker is here - and the 3rd one just to the north of the " .79 " height marker - where the "oblong black block" on the map is... seeing any of these "black oblongs" from maps on the aerial photos - can - I think - sometimes seem to be a bit hit and miss. There are building that are not on the map and buildings on the map that don't appear on the aerial photos. Sometimes the blocks on the map(s), it often seems to me - are only vaguely indicative of features that were truly there.

    Screenshot (779).png
     

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