Wednesday, June 14, 1944
The days that marked the Battle of Normandy
To the east, US forces are heading north from Utah Beach. The 9th Infantry Division, seconded to the 4th Infantry Division, is responsible for liberating the town of Quinéville, where the German regional command post is located. The progression is relatively fast, sometimes slowed down by artillery fire. Cherbourg, which was scheduled to be under allied control in June 1944, is still far from being under control. But the 9th American infantry division is still progressing, at the cost of heavy losses, towards Valognes.
The men of the 82nd Airborne Division attack in the direction of the village of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte.
Northeast of Bayeux, on the beach of Graye-sur-Mer (Juno Beach), the general of the Free French forces landed: General de Gaulle crossed the English Channel aboard the destroyer “La Combattante“, a ship of the Free French Navy. He met General Montgomery at his command post at the castle of Creully and was then driven in the middle of the afternoon to Bayeux, a town liberated on June 7, when an immense crowd acclaimed him and sang the “Marseillaise“, the French national anthem. He then joined the villages of Isigny-sur-Mer, Grandcamp and Maisy late in the afternoon, pressed by the Allies to re-embark as quickly as possible since the crowd, numerous in each locality where de Gaulle surrenders, embarrassed the movements of the troops.
General Montgomery abandoned the idea, on June 14, of encircling Caen and stopped the offensive of the 1st corps to the northeast of the city. The 30th corps continues its progression.
The provisional government of the French Republic moved to Bayeux that same day.
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