Between Omaha Beach and Utah Beach, a true symbol of the Normandy landings is disappearing.
A strategic point on the Atlantic Wall, the Pointe du Hoc site – in the town of Cricqueville-en Bessin (Calvados) – had been stormed on the morning of June 6, 1944 by Colonel Rudder’s rangers. It was one of the toughest battles.
This rocky outcrop, “which we thought was unshakable, supported by history”, writes a surfer on Twitter, has just partly collapsed. Gone to the sea.
In the United States, this place “forever symbolizes bravery and the spirit of sacrifice”, summarizes France 3 Normandy which broadcasts the images of what now remains: “a very frail edge”.
261 American rangers had climbed this cliff with the intention of destroying Nazi artillery pieces that threatened Omaha Beach. Almost all will be killed or injured, but the mission had been accomplished.
Every year, tens of thousands of visitors come to remember. They survey this place visible in the film, monument of cinema, “The longest day”. Filming in Calvados of the attack on this cliff in Bessin took place in the summer of 1961.
But, more discreetly, and despite the work undertaken, the erosion of these limestone cliffs was the strongest.
“We have to face the facts, today the remains of the Battle of Normandy are doomed,” laments Marc Laurenceau, historian specializing in the D-Day landings, interviewed by France 3. “Perhaps the spur will not withstand the autumn rains”, he believes.