The Bridge at La Fiere

Today, locals and tourists drive over this innocuous little bridge without realising its significance to the American troops landing on Utah Beach on D Day, 6th June 1944.

The capture of the Merderet Bridge was probably as critical to the Americans as the capture of the Orne Canal bridge (Pegasus Bridge) was to the Britsh on Sword Beach. The area around this bridge and causeway was flooded by the Germans. This meant that the causeway would be one of only two crossings the Germans could use to counter-attack the landing American forces on Utah Beach. Its capture early on D Day was vital.

Captured in the early hours of D Day by 400 paratroopers, the Germans managed to recapturer it by the end of the day. However, those 400 men achieved their objective and successfully protected the flank of the landing troops.

This British visitor would urge any American visitor to Normandy to put this small bridge on their itinerary (it is just outside St Mere Eglise). Yes, there is nothing much to see and it is dwarfed by the Omaha Beach and Point du Hoc stories, but it really does rank as one of the most important American actions of the invasion of Europe in 1944. (I would add a visit to the church and cemetery at Graignes, a little known American action on the days following D Day).

Please take a look at Video History Today http://www.videohistorytoday.com , the first web site to offer unique collections of re-usable original video clips designed for teachers and students.

The idea behind Video History Today is to give schools the raw material to make mini-documentaries and video essays on historical subjects.

Initial packages focus on World War I (Somme and Ieper areas), The Holocaust, the American Civil War and D-Day & Normandy 1944.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• la
• fiere
• bridge
• d-day
• normandy
• utah
• beach

[supernole100]

Was this bridge closer to Saint Lo, or Saint Mere Eglise?

[VideoHistoryToday]

Saint Mere Eglise. If you look in the Statistics & Data I have marked the location on a map.

[CSIBT]

In the movie, Ramelle is a fictional town.

[Sicj]

Epic fight serious stuff.

[rube44]

The Manor house is located to the left of the bridge. Get permission to enter the property.

The owner has a great display of artifacts collected in the area. Note bullets  remaining in the walls of the farm buildings. Read up on anything you can find on LaFiere before you go. This could have been the bridge over the Mederet noted in the last scenes of Saving Private Ryan.

[camdengreen]

Thanks for uploading this!