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When it comes to D-Day, everyone knows about the American paratroopers dropped over Sainte-Mère-Église, the bloodbath of Omaha Beach, the heroic capture of Pointe du Hoc, or the 177 French commandos who landed at Ouistreham. What is overlooked is that in the midst of this front was a sector called Gold Beach, where the allied offensive was particularly effective, to such an extent that 25,000 British troops having landed on the beaches of Asnelles and Ver-sur-Mer, would have achieved most of their objectives by the evening of 6 June, notably the control of the main Caen-Bayeux road, and liberating Bayeux as early as the following day.
However, Gold Beach is also the story of extraordinary technological advances with the construction of the Arromanches artificial harbour and the transformation of Port-en-Bessin into an oil terminal that supplied the entire Allied Expeditionary Force. It was also in this Gold Beach sector that Sergeant Stanley Hollis would be awarded the sole « Victoria Cross » on D-Day for his acts of valour (the highest British award for bravery). It was for all of these reasons, that the British Government chose Gold Beach and, more precisely, the village of Ver-sur-Mer, as the location of a Memorial bearing the names of the some 21,000 United Kingdom soldiers who were killed on D-Day or during the Battle of Normandy.
A book was therefore needed so that Gold Beach could at last regain its place in history as well as its position as one of the five Landings beaches. Thanks to an amazing archive collection gathered over more than half a century by Philippe Bauduin, a renowned D-Day specialist and native of Ver-sur-Mer, this richly illustrated book looks at the events that took place in this key D-Day sector from the perspective of those that were there.
