The Great Casemate of the
Crisbecq battery
Memorial of the 1st Battalion of the 4th Division
Utah Beach 6.6.44 / Crisbecq 6.7.44
Our thanks to Douglas Johnson, American citizen, thanks to whom the names of the soldiers of the 4th US division who died in Crisbecq are again honored every year since 2019 on the site of the fightings of June 1944 . Without the precious information given by Douglas during his first visit in 2017, Crisbecq would most certainly have remained a simple place to visit the landing beaches among many others.
Commemorations of D. Day 2021 : placing of the commemorative plaque dedicated to the soldiers of the 4th ID killed in Crisbecq
77 years after the events, tribute was finally paid to them
at the scene of their fights, on the memorial of the large pillbox of Crisbecq
1st Battalion, 22d Infantry
The leaders of Combat Team 22 pictured in the marshalling area just before loading for the assault on D. Day.
Seated on right : Lt Colonel S.W. Brumby, Commanding Officer 1St Bn 22nd Infantry
1st Battalion, 22d Infantry
Preparations for the landing
Landing on Utah Beach and mouving for Crisbecq from June , 1944
Road map of the Landing on June 6
The 1st battalion facing Crisbecq June 7 / 10, 1944
Road map of the 22nd regiment for the capture of Cherbourg
Crisbecq will in fact be the only strong point of the Atlantic Wall for Utah Beach stopping the American troops for 6 days
After 2 days of hard fighting, part of the 1st battalion (companies b and c) gave up attacking Crisbecq from the front and began to bypass the battery from the south by attacking Fontenay.
On June 9 and 10 Crisbecq was to be contained by a force of tank destroyers and infantry and was to be neutralized by division artillery at the time of the attack. The containing force, commanded by Maj. Huston M. Betty, consisted of Company C, 22d Infantry ; Company C, 4th Engineer Combat Battalion; Company C, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
1st Battalion, 22d Infantry
Capt. Thomas Shields of Company A
(Distinguished Service Cross)
On June 7, 1st Battalion 22nd Infantry began its first attack against the Crisbecq battery, seizing the village of Saint-Marcouf.
Moving out of the village, the Battalion was stopped by fire from the 75mm guns of Crisbecq.
A German counterattack forced 1st Battalion to pull back. It was during this engagement that Captain Tom Shields was killed.
Shields had assumed command of the "1st Battalion" to replace Lt colonel S.W. Brumby (himself seriously wounded during the first battles against Crisbecq).
Ordering the Battalion to withdraw from the battlefield, he called in artillery fire upon his own position to cover the withdrawl, then was grievously wounded. .
He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross
Il a reçu à titre posthume la " Distinguished Service Cross "
Capture of the pillbox
This photo was taken when American troops arrived on June 12, 1944
The pillbox is still intact and the cannon is still in place
Destruction of the Casemate
Photograph of the pillbox after the accidental explosion of July 7, 1944 which caused the death of 7 American soldiers of the 364 th Engineer General Service Regiment
Then came the period of oblivion for 77 years
Photograph of the
pillbox when scrap metal dealers arrived on 1947
The cannon was being dismantled by the scrap metal dealers, and the unused shells during the fighting were put out side
Dud Skoda - 210 mm / 135 kg
77 years later an official tribute is finally paid to the American soldiers who fought in Crisbecq by the representatives of the 22nd Infantry Regiment Society
Plaque in memory of the disappeared from Crisbecq
On June 4, 2021, during cleaning work, the identity plate of Henry SIMMONS (one of the 7 soldiers killed in the accidental explosion of the ammunition bay of the pillbox) was found in the rubble of the bunker
The discovery of Simmons's dog tag has allowed us to know this story of the 7 missing.
Unfortunately the photo of Simmons remains a mystery to us.
Only the photo of Mack Homer is known. We were able to bring it back to life on this historic site through a commemorative plaque placed on July 27, 2021.
June 4, 2021, discovered inside the large pillbox Crisbecq of the identity plate of Henry S. , American soldier MIA in Normandy July 7, 1944
S. Henry and several other Engineer soldiers had been reported missing but the precise location of their accidental death could never be determined due to a violent explosion.
It was therefore in this dynamited pillbox that this accident had occurred
Ring found shortly after, engraved with the initials "M.H."
Mack Homer had been reported missing too during this accident
And schortly after , an other discovery !!!
Douglas Johnson and his friends visiting Crisbecq for the 75th D-Day anniversary
