The largest city in the centre of ‘bocage’ or hedgerow landscape during WW2, Saint Lo was a strategic crossroads linking Caen to the east, Cherbourg, Carentan, and the Cotentin peninsula to the north, and Brittany to the south west.
It was occupied on June 17, 1940, and became a major headquarters for German forces.
Today there are very few remaining structures from the era which can still be seen due to the heavy bombing of the city on June 6 and 7 and subsequent air and ground attacks as US forces fought the Germans for control.
Branded as the ‘Captial of Ruins’, it’s estimated that around 95 per cent of the city was destroyed during the Battle for Saint Lo before it was finally liberated on July 19, 1944.
Now heavily overgrown and surrounded by new builds, General Erick Marcks’ 84th Army Corps HQ bunker is one of the few buildings which can still be seen today. It stands to the north of the city near the road to Carentan and is not accessible to the public.
A second large bunker – used for communications – is believed to still remain underneath the La Poste building in the centre of the city, although some hand-drawn maps of the time put it closer to the edge of the sports centre buildings.
The highly-decorated Marcks – who had already lost his left leg during fighting in Ukraine in 1941 - was injured in a bombing attack on June 12, 1944, and died of his wounds later that day.
But it is a US soldier who the city remembers, Major Thomas D Howie of the 29th Infantry Division, who was immortalised as the ‘Major of Saint Lo’.
On the eastern side of the central city area there is a memorial to the man who commanded the US 3rd Battalion on a rescue mission to save the 2nd Battalion who were cut off by German forces.
After neutralising the Germans and resupplying his compatriots he started to lead his men in the push to liberate Saint Lo but was killed during a mortar barrage on the outskirts of the town.
To ensure he would be the first American into Saint Lo, his body – draped in an American flag – was driven into the town on the bonnet of a jeep and laid on the ruins of the St Croix Cathedral.
While there is respect shown for their liberators by the citizens of Saint Lo, there is also a large memorial to the local population of the city who suffered enormously during its capture. As many as 800 civilians, and up to 200 of those incarcerated in the city’s prison who were victims of the bombing and artillery attacks, are also remembered with a large memorial on the city walls of the Medieval citadel and further memorials can be found on the gatehouse of the prison – the only remaining structure from the original building.
During its occupation, German forces began a major tunnelling operation into the rock underneath the walled part of the city and it’s believed this was used as a hospital. The entrance can be found next to the civilian memorial. Today, the cavernous tunnel system is the base for the Saint Lo rifle shooting club.
You can also see the remains of a dud 155mm US artillery shell stuck in the side of the Eglise Notre-Dame. The explosives were removed, and the shell later replaced in its position as a reminder of the battle for Saint Lo and the devastation caused. The church itself was completely rebuilt but you can see the gaps where arches used to be and a distinct colour in the building block from the original damaged building to the repaired areas.