The memories (2) of the Piprel family on June 7
(details) The farm of the Ormel after its fire on 7 June
(details) Casino hotel, before war
(details)
(details) Seeing the ruin of the hotel
Casino behind the wreck of pontoon
(morning of 7 June)
At the Leterrier farm (L'Ormel), the Piprel brothers saw the day appear (on June 7) with relief. An American injured man is lying in the yard and a non-commissioned officer asks the farmers to bring him to the nearest emergency station. Pierre and Fernand volunteer. They want to go home to Vierville, and according to the indications, the infirmary is in that direction. The two brothers spouted a horse, garnished the bottom of the "sign" with hay and carried the wounded with maximum care. By the end of the morning, they're back on the farm. We're still fighting everywhere. (it's June 7th, Vierville is in the middle of "cleaning")
"Nearly after we returned to the Ormel, a small group of Germans, whose sergeant with his nose and skinned figure entered the stable, who asked us where the "tommies" were, we replied that we didn't know. They were then threatening, but, seeing a bottle of cider, he took it and drank it with his comrades, and then they left.
We were afraid and thought that they had received reinforcements and had rejected the Americans to the sea. That is why, on the morning of the 7th, we decided to make a reconnaissance towards the village. On the way, grazing the hedges bordering the road, we saw that Mr. Ygouf was still burning..." This morning, the battle resumed beyond the church, spread to Louvières. The Germans bombard the area with Isigny (and also Grandcamp and Formigny).
(afternoon of 7 June)
On 7 June at 4 p.m., the population of Vierville was gathered under the school's preau. But at 5 p.m. (other indications speak of 6:00 p.m. or 8:00 p.m.), German incendiary shells fell on the school and the post, which caused the death of two people. (much more)
On the outskirts of Vierville, from place to place, the spectacle of war spreads before their eyes: houses in ruins, carcases of calcined tanks. Dozens of cattle are lying in grasses, stiff legs, facing the sky. At the main crossroads, the post still burns (it is now late on June 7, after the bombardment of 6pm).
The Piprel want to continue by the road that goes down to the sea. Formal prohibition. They pretend to obey, bypass the dams, sneak behind the houses, slip into the meadows, gardens and orchards, find the underground route that leads them to the cliff, to the ridge that dominates the beach.
They're there. A flat stomach in the grass, Pierre and Fernand Piprel discover the extraordinary anthill. On the six kilometers of the beach, a huge factory operates at full speed. An open-pit factory that dumps tons and tons of equipment, thousands and thousands of men. At the edge of the D-1 exit, the exit from Vierville, lost in the cohue, drowned in the flow of soldiers, trucks and armoured vehicles that are pulled out of the formidable traffic jam, a house with a collapsed roof, a broken walls, a ruin: the Casino Hotel.
The Casino hotel was destroyed on June 6 at around 10.30 a.m. by American destroyers. Today it is rebuilt at about the same location. And always enjoys the same sumptuous panorama.