With the Cotentinois, we went to meet Pierre SIMON, a resident passionate about history, at the verse drums on the heights of Équeurdreville.

Our pinch immerses us in the history of Cotentin during the Second World War from the occupation until the liberation of the local population. Pierre shares with us the highlights of this period which marked our territory.

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Today we meet at the Couplets battery, on the heights of Équeurdreville, with a breathtaking view of the Cherbourg harbor. How are you doing today ?

Very good, under a radiant sun, with an extraordinary view. Happy. 

To start this interview, I am going to ask you a few questions related to Cotentin. You choose the answer that suits you best and you can, if you wish, tell us why. Let's go ?

Alright, here we go!

Do you prefer Cotentin in summer or winter?

Both. I love Cotentin in summer for its climate, for its sea. And in winter, for its extraordinary landscapes of rain and squalls arriving. It is a region which, from January to December, is always extraordinary.

Are you more of a seafood platter or a local product?

Seafood platter.

Hiking or water sport?

More like a water sport.

Coastline or bocage?

Littoral.

Crafts or heritage?​

Craftsmanship is good when it serves heritage.

Sweet or raw cider?

We taste a sweet cider or a hard cider with special flavors and I definitely like both.

Museum or D-Day beach?

To get to know the D-Day beaches well, it would be interesting to be able to visit the museums before or after, because the museums really shed a special light on these places of historical heritage.

Thank you very much for these answers. I am going to ask you to introduce yourself, tell us a little more about who you are and also explain to us your link with Cotentin.

So my link with Cotentin is that I was born there in the 60s in Cherbourg. I have always lived there and have always been interested in military history. Having had a father who began his career in the artillery, and I have obviously been interested in local military history for a very long time, and that in fact is a fairly all-consuming passion, but which is interesting because There are, there are really many things to see that you don't necessarily see at first glance.

So what interests you is to know more, not just what we are given, but to go a little further.

That's it, knowing how it happened. The human side of the affair for example, when we see all these bunkers which were erected here by the Germans or by the French, it is interesting to know how it was set up, why and in fact what became of them ?

Today, we are going to talk more specifically about Cotentin during the Second World War. Could you reposition us a little? The historical context in which Cotentin found itself at the time of the war?

So at the start of the war, in fact Cotentin, so it's a peninsula as everyone knows. The territory found itself cut off from everything since with the arrival of the Germans, in fact, the civilian populations, a bit like everywhere in France, had to make an exodus towards the South. And we quickly realized that the German troops. Were the most modern of the time in 1940 and we saw the arrival, we saw the surge of armored vehicles, but also horse-drawn troops who quickly made themselves masters of the terrain. And apart from some small resistance, notably at the Martinvast bridge. In fact, Germany quickly took control of the land and, moreover, Cherbourg was declared an open city on June 19, 1940.

How were the towns of Cotentin affected by the German presence?

The German presence was very quickly felt, in particular through the privations that it caused, since in fact the population had difficulty in feeding itself and was rationed, and it was necessary to use a little bit of cunning to be able to arrive still to eat. The big priority at that time was food, being able to feed themselves and their families except that the local population could use the resources of the sea until a certain moment since the entire coastal area was declared a red zone by the occupier. There was no longer any question of going looking for crabs or even Chinese hats under the rocks or on the rocks of Cotentin. And suddenly, it was a little more difficult. Many people here also practiced a little bit of a culture. One crop, in particular, we could still find fruits and vegetables. We could start growing rutabagas, it was the big fashion of the time. Second-rate vegetables, we made coffee with chicory. We destroyed these butts to make cigarettes again so that we could smoke, in short, everything was missing.

Do you think that the fact that we are a territory in which fishing is predominant, still the fairly strong agriculture could have helped the local population to survive better than just with rationing? ?

So yes, the local population here, because of our well-tempered climate, it was not uncommon for us to make a vegetable garden in the smallest of gardens so that we could feed ourselves. The problem was of course the meat, because the meat was monopolized by the occupier, eh the mark was much more expensive. Of course the franc had been devalued and as a result, it was a big supply problem for the local population.

We will now talk about a defining moment in the history of the region, the liberation. How did the liberation of Cherbourg and that of Val de Saire take place?

So to move quickly, we can talk about it for hours of course, but on the morning of June 6, since it will surely speak to the listeners. On the morning of June 6, I will talk mainly about eastern Cotentin, that is to say Val de Saire, the 4th American division landed and the number one objective of the United States and the allies in general , it was the port of Cherbourg since we have the chance here to benefit from a port at the time which is a deep water port with the harbor, the largest in Europe, it still is elsewhere, and which in fact led the Americans to build the famous Overlord plan, which was the invasion of Normandy with the objective “number One” as they said, the port of Cherbourg so as to then be able to supply the troops . This division left on June 6 from Madeleine Beach, Utah Beach, which is known by that name. The American code name and as a result, we went up through Montebourg where we had to fight for quite a long time with the occupying troops, Quineville the same.

There was an old saying which said “who holds Montebourg holds Cherbourg”, it was the reality since in fact, we realized that as soon as the lock, as it is called in Montebourg, released at this At that point, the Americans were able to move a little further north, starting a Battle of the Hedges. It was terrible because at that time, the bocage was made up of hedgerows with fields one a little inside the other and at each hedge, we had to start the fight again. At a terrible human cost since in fact, there were military losses on the American side. They had a really hard time recovering. We had to wait a little bit for the relief in order to be able to continue and to be quick so the battle of Montebourg stopped, we had, the Americans had decided to make two artificial ports. No luck, June 19, big storm. The artificial ports were no longer valid and in fact, we had to see the tonnage unloaded, for example of military equipment, go from 24 tons on June 500 to 18 the next day, therefore an emergency for the Americans to take the port from Cherbourg. The Germans had time to destroy and damage it, to fill the passes, to obstruct all the access points; to almost completely destroy our magnificent maritime terminal which is now the Cité de la Mer, eh, one of the jewels of northern Cotentin tourism.

This meant that the ports of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue and Barfleur were used temporarily while awaiting the liberation of Cherbourg which took place on June 26 exactly. But the American genius had such a task that we had to wait six months before the port of Cherbourg actually became this time once again the largest port in the world since we had an extraordinary tonnage there. And a series of trucks, the Bigaouette Ball, which went almost to Paris and even further so as to be able to supply the American and English war effort.

The local population was able to regain a life, shall we say, close to what it was before at approximately when?

As soon as the Americans arrived, in fact this quasi-starvation in which the people lived was transformed into opulence with chocolate, cigarettes, sweets, meat and as a result, we saw that the port of Cherbourg precisely could succeed in ensuring its traffic so that the Allied war effort could continue to Paris first, and to the Eagle's Nest, so as, finally, to be able to bring the Nazi beast to its knees .

Today, we are at the Couplets battery in Équeurdreville-Hainneville, a place where there are vestiges of the war. So these vestiges are also the memory of what happened in Cotentin. You, if you had places to recommend for listeners, museums or sites that allow you to maintain this duty of memory and also learn about history, what would they be?

So, I have a lot of friends among the local museums, I wouldn't want to forget anyone. There are really a lot of things to see.

We can start with one of the oldest, the liberation museum in Cherbourg. But there are extraordinary museums everywhere, including the Normandie Victory Museum and the Deadman's Corner Museum. The Airborne Museum of course, which is among the first rather on the war effort, this time airborne paratroopers from the assault, the umpteenth and the 4 22nd airborne. And we have museums which, for me, are important. And who are, who are a little more discreet. By this I mean in particular the Cobra museum which is located in Saint-Sébastien de Raids, near Périers, which I particularly recommend because it is really a nice museum. And if you are lucky enough to have the owner give you a tour, it becomes super exciting.

And what's more, that's a bit like what you were saying. Each museum, ultimately, also approaches a point of history in a different way, so each is interesting in its own way.

That's it, each museum has its own specificities, its specializations and also a little bit of a different point of view on the fights. We could also of course mention the Quinéville museum which should not be forgotten. We obviously still have some, I must necessarily forget a few. They will forgive me. There are really lots of things to see at this level.

Above all, don't forget to go and see the places of the fighting, in particular the D-Day beaches, the American beaches here, Utah beach and Omaha. Omaha, call it bloody, because obviously, it went much less well than on Utah Beach since they found terrible defenses. The Allied troops were fortunate to have much greater air cover than the Germans could since there is a ratio of one to 11, let me explain, when you have 10 German planes, you have 110. Americans, which means that in fact the defense plan for the bunkers which were behind the landing beaches was completely turned upside down because obviously, when the armored vehicles arrived as reinforcements, they were literally struck down by the Allied aviation who pinned them to the ground.

And we were talking about the duty to remember, how can we maintain this duty to remember, particularly among future generations? How can we interest them at this point in history?

In my opinion, we must tell them the story well, forget nothing, especially not forget the sacrifice of these young people from Connecticut and elsewhere, who came to die on our beaches for our freedom. If we are free today, it is still thanks to them.

This duty of memory can above all help to make them understand, to make them realize that, above all, it must never happen again.

That's the most important thing.

In my eyes, yes.

As ambassador of Cotentin, to the people who are listening to us, what could you say to them? whether they are from Cotentin, who would like to rediscover their territory or the visitors who could come? What would you say about Cotentin?

So the Cotentin is renewed each time, the history always being the same, we have a whole population of history lovers like me who manage to rediscover things each time. We have the American archives which have been opened. You can look for a lot of things already on the internet, but really, really, I insist, the best is to come and see on site, just the emotion you get when you arrive at Omaha Beach, at the Pointe du Hoc, at Utah Beach. It's extraordinary. It gets to you, it gets to your guts, we don't know why. But we find ourselves in history and it takes very little imagination to imagine what a battlefield it might have been like.

Finally, do you have a good local address, a local favorite to share with us?

I recommend a book “And freedom came from Cherbourg” by Robert Lerouvillois, which concerns the liberation of Cherbourg and every time I have the opportunity, I advertise it a little, as they said at the time. We really have everything inside precisely to see what a shock it could have been, particularly for the armies, but also the local population of North Cotentin.

Listen Pierre, I say a big thank you. It was very interesting to delve a little into the history of the Second World War in Cotentin.

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