BAYEUX
- D DAY - THE BRITISH MEMORIAL, THE MUSEUM AND THE TAPESTRY
The
city of Bayeux lies some 5 miles behind Gold Beach, one
of the British D Day Landing Beaches, and approximately
half way along the whole invasion area at about where the
British and American zones of responsibility met.
The
D Day mission of the British 50th Northumbrian Division
, which landed on Gold Beach, included the taking of Bayeux
and recce patrols of the 151st Brigade of the Division entered
the outskirts of the city around 2030 hours on 6 June.
By
mid-day on the following day troops of the 56th Brigade
including tanks, entered Bayeux, the Germans having withdrawn
without contesting the city streets. One week later General
de Gaulle came to Bayeux and accompanied by rapturous citizens
paraded through the streets, an event shown on the Bayeux
French Memorial.
Almost
adjacent to the Bayeux Memorial Museum, recently revamped,
are the British Memorial and Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Cemetery the largest WW2 British cemetery in France.
Bayeux
was the first major French town to be liberated and its
famous tapestry, hidden near le Mans during the war, was
preserved intact. Eindhoven, the first Dutch city to be
liberated joins with Bayeux in an annual ceremony of remembrance.
Many
more details are to be found in our Major and Mrs Holt's
Battlefield Guide to the Normandy D-Day Landing Beaches.
Click here.