St Gilles

Discussion in 'German' started by Sean, Dec 24, 2015.

  1. Sean

    Sean Active Member
    Researcher

    Oct 24, 2012
    331
    2
    Male
    Battlefield guide
    Normandie
    Hello there,

    Following the link on the to the film footage posted on page 2 of the 'Herd of Allied Tanks' thread, here are some pictures of St Gilles and the devastation therein.
    The cameraman seems to have continued down the D77 and filmed a couple of segments in the town. If the film is in correct sequence, he then returned up the hill (north) for another short clip.

    I began another look at the film when I saw the photgraph below on the Panzernet.com 'Panzerwrecks' thread here. I hadn't seen this photo before:

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    It was taken from the right rear of PzIV #841, which had been moved into the town after being knocked out a little to the north. The PzIV opposite is #535.
    Anyway, I went back through some books and files. St Gilles has some high-res coverage on Geoportail from 1947. On one of the images another PzIV wreck can still be seen sitting in a field:

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    In the centre were three wrecks, #535 and #841 mentioned above, along with a thoroughly destoyed #532.

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    #532 with #535 in the background. Note the latter had been moved from beside the building. Originally it appears to have been positioned to cover the D77, as in the second photo below:

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    #532 being bulldozed into a heap amongst the rubble, with the turret of #841 visible in the background:

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    A clearer photo of #841:

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    #535 in its resting place tucked behind the large building with 'St Gilles' painted on it. The hole beside the drivers visor which presumably caused its demise is readily apparent:

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    This image from the Geoportail site shows the destruction in St Gilles. With the exception of the church (which has been slightly modified in rebuilding), none of the builings in the immediate vicinity of the crossroads remains. The rough locations of the three tanks are marked:

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    A few stills from the afore-mentioned film, the first clearly showing the number of #532:

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    The cemetery in tha background, which used to be behind (south of) the church, is now a small car park. The town cemetery has been moved back down the road towards St Lô. I don't know what they did with the remains...

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    Back up the road, looking south. The large barn is the darker building on the left, with the church looming in the background:

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    Interestingly, George Wilson in 'If You Survive' describes his entry into St Gilles and the knocking out of a PzIV, on p.19/20:

    "My platoon swung to the right across the fields and came into the village from the right, or west end, and headed toward the central crossroads. My men and I were walking on either side of the road following our lead tank into the little burg. As we approached I was on the left beside a high stone wall, and the first buildings were just ahead, not ten yards beyond the end of the wall.
    Suddenly, a shell exploded inside the first building beyond the wall, and instantly I hit the dirt. When I looked up a few seconds later from my prone position in the brick gutter, a Jerry Mk IV medium tank was cutting around the corner only a short block away and heading directly toward me. Our Sherman tank and the Mark IV began to fire at each other at once from point-blank range. our tanks began to back up as it was firing, apparently looking for some kind of cover........
    Finally, after an exchange of about a half-dozen ruonds each, the Jerry suddenly went up in flames. Two Krauts crawled out of the tank's belly escape hatch and ran back for the corner. Both were knocked down by machine gun fire from our tank."

    On p.21 he refers to 'the burning Mark IV in the middle of the street'.
    #532 would make sense, would it not? #841 was knocked out elsewhere and #535 doesn't seem to have had much fire-damage.

    Cheers,

    Sean
    [hr]
    By the way....


    The excellent Panzerwrecks series has three volumes dedicated to Normandy. #1 here has lots of photos of Cobra-era wrecks from Panzer Lehr Division.
     

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