A1 airfield at Saint-Pierre-du-Mont: an extract from La Renaissance

Excerpt "The Renaissance of Bessin"

Works made in a few days

Field aerodromes to facilitate landing operations

It is well known that the operations of the landing owe their success, of course, to the courage of the troops on the ground, but also to the efficiency and the air power of the Allies. Ground support required a maximum reduction in aircraft response distances. That's why, as early as the first days after D-Day, the Engineers launched the construction of field aerodromes.

It was not the slightest technical performance to see planes take off and land on French soil as early as June 7. They took code names, the letter "A" for American airfields (and "B" for the British), followed by a number chronologically assigned to their location. Some witnesses can talk about it today, including the "A1", usually known as "St-Pierre-du-Mont". In fact, most of the right-of-way of its facility is located in the territory of the commune of Englesqueville-la-Percée.

(It was the American troops who named this airfield. A hypothesis on confusion is that on the major maps of the time, the inscription SI-Pierre-du-Mont covers the land used, whereas that of Englesqueville only attaches to the village itself)

And it is his former mayor, Henri Lepelletier, 23 years old in 1944, who evokes this neighborhood. "A great job in a few days. That's when we first saw the bulldozer. He came in front of a tree, and we thought he's not gonna be able to rip it out. And then, hop, at first, the tree fell!".

Construction equipment had been in place since the morning of the 8th. A1 is considered built from June 9 to 13. "Some say they saw planes running there on the 9th in the evening." This is not impossible, as these lands were already in use at the construction site. In addition, A1 is still considered as "RRS" (Rearming and Refueling Strip - re-arming track and fuel), the installation is then summarized. There's no time to waste. The construction technique is very rustic. "A simple levelling on which piles were attached, either from the grilling or from the plate. An extraordinary job, in a few days." For an average runway, it was more than 2,500 grill rolls and 30,000 pickets that were required, a drop of water in all the equipment disembarked.

"Some people then participated in the labour force. But we couldn't get close; they were suspicious." The activity is overflowing: "The planes were constantly coming and taking off. One crashed when he came back in flames." Because in these days, the Germans are still close and the P47s of the 366th Fighter Group commanded by Colonel Holt still have a lot of work to do.

As a result, there are not so many opportunities to make real contacts. " Some of them stayed well in a farm, but most were in tents. " Intense atmosphere for a little over two months. In the meantime, Mr. Lepelletier was himself incorporated and, when he returns, the A1 is silent. He has been abandoned since 25 August. "Companys have come to restore everything. They got the wire mesh back. The owners of the plots were able to recover some material." It is known that many of this fence has served and still serves fences in many farms in the area.

Practical: on the D514, 2 km from Vierville, take the road to the right where a telephone booth is located. A monument is erected 300 m away, the track extended from there, westward, a little over 1,500 m long, on an east/west axis. All the installations occupied in width, the space from the road to the cliff.