NOTRE-DAME-DES-ROCHERS/STE-HONORINE-LA-CHARDONNE Orne - 15 and 13 km east of Condé-sur-Noireau
The chief of the Army Group B was missing
Mid-August 1944 the IInd SS-Panzer-Korps fought fiercely against the allied progression north of the Falaise pocket to prevent the encirclement of the Vth Panzer-Armee and the 7th Armee. The German armoured divisions were bleeded white. On 13 August in the vicinity of Condé-sur-Noireau the 21st Panzer-Division had been fighting since more than two months. On 14 August Hitler authorized a withdrawal of the armoured units to launch a last decisive counter attack. The German defensive display was reorganized. East of Flers the river Orne was defended by the IInd Parachutist Corps with its headquarter near Sainte-Honorine-la-Chardonne. The 9th and 10th SS-Panzer-Division retreated toward Putanges through Notre-Dame-des-Rochers. The 11st British Armoured Division subordinated to the XXXth Corps under General Horrocks entered Flers on 14 August. On 15 August General von Kluge Chief of the Army Group B was missing and was unable to communicate with his Commanders. The XXXth British Corps moved on eastwards, Sainte-Honorine-la-Chardonne and Notre-Dame-des-Rochers were liberated on 17 and 18 August.

  
     
   
 
 

11st British Armoured Division monument
 Notre-Dame-des-rochers
 Monument in memory of the soldiers of the 11st British Armoured Division who fought in this place on 17 August 1944.
 Situation : « Le pont Huant » locality, south of the town, at the edge of the D805 road, on the left before the bridge
   
 
  Lieutenant Nesbitt - 574th Squadron stele
 Sainte-Honorine-la-Chardonne
Stele dedicated to Lieutenant R. Nesbitt, of the 266th Squadron of the Royal Air Force, who crashed in the area on 12 June 1944. The stele commemorates also the crash of a bomber of the 574th Squadron of the 391st Bomber Group (9th US Air Force) in the sector of Sainte-Honorine-la-Chardonne on 7 August 1944.
 Situation : near the church
     
 
ROAD MAP
 
INTERESTING WEB SITES

Personal web site about the German infantryman
http://www.deutschesoldaten.com/
Personal web site about British artillery during World War II
http://members.tripod.com/~nigelef/index.htm
Personal web site about the Second World War tanks
http://www.chars-francais.net/de1942a1945.htm
Web page about the Tiger I of Saumur Tank Museum
http://Tiger1.info/saumur/
 
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