Cérences (Manche)
Les villes de Normandie pendant les combats de 1944
- Liberation: 29 July 1944
- Deployed units:
82nd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Armored Division
Combat Command B, 2nd Armored Division
2. SS Panzer-Division “Das Reich”
17. SS Panzer-Division “Götz von Berlichingen”
Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 6, 91. Infanterie-Division
- History:
The town of Cérences suffered greatly from Allied bombing raids, beginning on June 8, 1944. These raids targeted the train station and the bridge over the Sienne River, whose destruction slowed the movement of German reinforcements.
On July 29, 1944, elements of the 82nd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion conducted a reconnaissance of the crossing points over the Sienne River near Cérences, without capturing the town. They confirmed that the bridge had been destroyed and began searching for other structures that would allow crossing the wetland.
Following the fierce fighting that erupted during the night of July 29-30 in the Lengronne and Saint-Denis-le-Gast region against the remnants of three German divisions isolated in the Roncey pocket, Combat Command B of the 2nd Armored Division was tasked with securing the front between Cérences and Saint-Denis-le-Gast, in accordance with orders received on July 19. From this new line, the Americans were tasked with both preventing the Germans from counterattacking northward and, for those trapped, with escaping southward.
At 6:00 a.m. on July 30, the first vehicles of Combat Command B reached Cérences and liberated the town. American engineers immediately set to work building bridges over the Sienne River and repairing the roads, which had been cratered by Allied bombs.
Late in the morning of August 10, Captain John B. Thompson’s P-47 Thunderbolt, belonging to the 386th Fighter Squadron of the 365th Fighter Group, was hit in flight while returning from a mission in the Sourdeval sector. While he managed to escape from his aircraft over the town of Cérences, his parachute caught on the tail of the aircraft and burst into flames: Thompson died when he hit the ground near the place called Le Fieuf. He is buried in the Waxahachie cemetery in Texas.
Map of Cérences :
