Op Normandie - Bayeux

Bayeux was founded as a Gallo-Roman settlement in the 1st century BC under the name Augustodurum. The city was largely destroyed during the Viking raids of the late 9th century but was rebuilt in the early 10th century under the reign of Bothon.  The cathedral was completed by William Is half brother Odo, Earl of Kent and dedicated in 1077.

Bayeux Cathederal
Notre Damme

In 1066, William I, Duke of Normandy invaded England and defeated Harold at the Battle of Hastings. William became King of England  and became known as William the Conqueror. To record the events leading up to and including the Battle of Hastings a tapestry 70 meters long was woven. It was displayed in Bayeux Cathedral.

Bayeux Tapestry
Harold Crowned King of England

Bayeux Tapestry
Battle of Hastings

The city began to lose prominence when William moved his capital to Caen.

Bayeux had a turbulent history. It was burned to the ground by Henry 1 of England following the defeat of his brother in the struggle for the rule of Normandy. Under Richard the Lionheart the city prospered. During the Hundred Years War it was repeatedly pillaged until captured by Henry V in 1417. The city returned to French control in 1450 when it was recaptured by Charles VII of France following the Battle of Formigny.

Bayeux returned to prosperity and  stone buildings began to replace the old wooden structures.

Bayeux Water Mill

On the 10th May 1940 Germany invaded France, conducting two main operations. The first operation was a push through Belgium engaging allied forces who had advanced into defensive positions. The other operation being a thrust through the Ardennes, along the River Somme, then linking up with the forces attacking Belgium in order to surround allied forces.

The German Blitzkreig quickly overpowered the Allies, forcing the British Expeditionary Force to evacuate through Dunkirk. Another operation launched on 5th June 1940 outflanked the French Army on the Maginot Line. Paris fell on the 14th June.

An armistice between France and Germany was signed 22nd June 1940, and France was divided into various zones, primarily the Occupied Zone under German control, and the Free Zone where Marshall Petain formed the Vichy Government. Bayeux was in the German Military Zone.

On the 11th November 1942, Allied forces invaded Vichy French North Africa in Operation Torch prompting the Germans to occupy the Free Zone and take control.

For French people, life in German occupied France was marked by daily privation, in the curtailing of freedom and the lack of vital needs, like food. The German requisitions were the principal cause. In Normandy, many farms provided food to the occupying troops who were mostly stationed on the coast.

German Orders to the French People

German Propaganda and Orders
Battle of Normandy Museum

 Resistance to German occupation and the collaborationist Vichy regime was also organised on French territory. From the beginning of the German occupation, acts of resistance by individuals or by small groups became manifest: the laceration of public notices, graffiti...

German Orders and French Resistance Graffiti
Battle of Normandy Museum

As the war progressed, members of the Resistance organised in networks or in the maquis. The networks were clandestine organisations, which established escape routes for prisoners, arms caches, leaflet distribution, sabotage and intelligence.

The German reaction to resistance was brutal. Deportation and executions, as well as reprisals against innocent civilians were perpetrated by the occupying forces. Deportations of French Jews and other people were also a feature of Nazi rule, many thousands loosing their lives.

Bayeux Town Hall

Bayeux Town Hall
WW2 Memorial

In 1943 the Allies had began to plan the invasion of France, and Normandy was chosen as the location for Operation Overlord. In preparation for invasion the French Resistance would undertake actions to hinder the Germans. On 5th June 1944 the BBC broadcasted the message "the dice are on the mat", the code to initiate action. The Resistance cut German communications, hindered road traffic by felling trees and reversing road signs, as well as sabotaging the rail network.

On 6th June 1944, the Allied forces landed on the Normandy Beaches.

Bayeux lay in the area of GOLD BEACH, the 50th (Northumbrian) Division Area. By the evening of June 6th, the British had landed 25,000 men on Gold Beach and were in control of a quadrilateral measuring roughly ten kilometres by ten. Most of the day’s objectives has been achieved. The advanced elements of the 50th Division were within sight of the N13 trunk road and the outskirts of Bayeux on the evening of D-Day.


Men of 50th (Northumbrian) Division move inland
-Day 6th June 1944

On 6th June German forces had withdrawn towards Caen which was to become their main effort for the defence of Normandy.

Bayeux became the first French town to be liberated on 7th June 1944.



British Troops Bayeux June 1944

On the 14th June 1944, General De Gaulle, the leader of the Free French arrived in Bayeux which was to become the initial seat of government for the newly liberated French people.

General De Gaulle
Bayeux 14th June 1944

Bayeux 1944

Bayeux 2015

Bayeux has played a prominent role in two invasions that have changed the course of British history. The Norman invasion of England in 1066, and the Normandy invasion in 1944. The Bayeux memorial bears the names of more than 1,800 men of the Commonwealth land forces who died in the early stages of the campaign and have no known grave. It's inscription transcends the centuries linking the two notable invasions.

"NOS A GULIELMO VICTI VICTORIS PATRIAM LIBERAVIMUS"

“We, once conquered by William, have now set free the Conqueror’s native land.”

 



Bayeux Memorial