SAINT-FROMOND/AIREL Manche - 17 km north of Saint-Lô
The 30th Infantry Division seized a bridgehead on the river Vire
At the beginning of July 1944 the battle seemed endless for the Americans in the Norman bocage. On the left wing of the front line they reached the river Vire. On 6 July Airel is liberated. The following day on 7 July American artillery opened fire on the western bank of the river Vire. It is a preliminary to the assault of the 30th Infantry Division under General Hobbs who must cross the river Vire in Saint-Fromond. At 4:20 a. m. boats carried out the first assault wave, then the second under heavy German shelling. Infantry climbed the opposite bank and pushed back a German kampfgruppe. The engineers started to prop up the old stone bridge, and at 12:30 p. m. the first tanks crossed the river; a floating bridge allowed the passage of light vehicles. Saint-Fromond was liberated. North of the town the Americans spanned the canal Vire-Taute in front of Saint-Jean-de-Daye. On 11 July a German counter-attack of the Panzer-Lehr Division failed to drive back the bridgehead.
   
 
 
 
30th Infantry Division plaque
Saint-Fromond
Plaque remembering the fighting in the area on 7 July 1944. The 30th American Infantry Division spanned the river Vire under German fire and liberated Saint-Fromond.
Situation : at the west side of the bridge

  
  T. M. Pethick stele
Airel
Stele in memory of Thomas Melville Pethick, pilot of the Royal Canadian Air Force, whose aircraft had been shoot down in this area by the German antiaircraft defence on 2 June 1943; he was 21 years old. He was buried in Airel churchyard.
Situation : south of the town, at the edge of D8 road, next to the railway
   
   
ROAD MAP
 
INTERESTING WEB SITES

Page of US Army official web site about units of D-day
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/reference/normandy/UnitList.htm
Manche departmental tourism office web site
http://www.manchetourisme.com/
Web page about Thomas Melville Pethick
http://www.raf38group.org
 
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