How did a future president of the United States end up in this village in Orne?

26 August 1944Boar is freed. However, its territory is a wasteland. The landscape around Chambois (Orne) is a vast battlefield, where the corpses of soldiers pile up on the paths.

On that day, no one would have wanted to be present to see this gruesome picture. Except General Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in Western Europe. The future President of the United States (1953-1961) wanted to see with his own eyes the results of the war by traveling through the liberated pocket of Falaise-Chambois.

“This visit was arranged solely to see the destruction of the German army, on the sidelines of its trip to Chartres and then to Paris to visit de Gaulle,” recounts Jacques van Dijkeauthor of several reviews on the battle.

Unplanned visit to a village in Orne

Focusing on aspects of the Battle of Normandy, this 76-year-old retired Dutch army narrates this visit with passion. His attraction to the region came to him during holidays in Bas-Aubry from the summer of 1978 to 1985.

With my wife, who hated my passion for scrap metal because it was haunted, and my son, I wanted to find remnants of the war.

The story has continued since then with Orne, where the tourist eventually settled down to continue his research and enjoy the tranquility of his house. He shares his historical research that accurately describes the path the general follows.

For this I searched for years in the archives of all the belligerent countries.

“Eisenhower arrived at Bas-Aubry on August 26 after a combination of circumstances. “The road from Trun to Vimoutiers, then Chambois being blocked, an unforeseen change in route diverts Eisenhower’s convoy via Gacé.

Returning on RD 13 towards Chambois, he passed the forward headquarters of Montgomery, commander of the 21st Group of the British Army, based at Avernes-sous-Exmes.

“One of the biggest killing fields”

“During this courtesy visit, Montgomery advised Eisenhower to visit Aubry-en-Exmes to see for himself the results of the war’s destruction,” adds Jacques Van Dijke. This is how the strong man of the Landings, accompanied by several journalists who made it possible to document his passage, found himself in this remote corner of Orne.

Eisenhower’s time is running out.

He must stay at Bas-Aubry for half an hour at most, because he had already lost time on his detour through Gacé, while he still wanted to go to Chartres that day to see Omar Bradley, head of the Twelfth American Armies.

Orne quoted in his memoirs

After the war, this brief visit was described in his memoirs, Crusades in Europeto express himself in a few lines about the “Battlefield of Falaise”, described as “one of the greatest killing fields in Normandy, a Dantesque spectacle where one could move for hundreds of meters walking only on dead and rotting flesh .

“This description is more literary than factual because the area described seems to be located between the village of Fel and Bas-Aubry,” replaces Jacques Van Dijke. This visit gave the battles in Normandy a special echo in history, which preserves the brutality of the battles.

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