3rd Company 919 Grenadier Regiment – Utah Beach 1944

During the occupation of France leading up to the allied invasion in 1944, the Cotentin Peninsula, up to and including Cherbourg, was heavily defended by German soldiers of the 709th Infantry Division. At the time of the Normandy invasion, the 709th Infantry Division was commanded by Generalleutnant Karl-Wilhelm Von Schlieben.

The 709th Infantry Division was formed in 1941; however, the division was made up with men from many nations, including Russians and Georgians. Many of the soldiers within the various units of the 709th Infantry Division had not experienced combat despite their age. Their average age was approximately thirty; this was in stark contrast to the young Americans who landed on Utah Beach on June 6th 1944.

In the small village of La Madeleine, just a few minutes walk from what is now known as Utah Beach, there was a small regiment of German Soldiers from the 3rd Company 919 Grenadier-Regiment. These soldiers were manning the Atlantic Wall coastal defences in this area and were commanded by Oberleutnant Matz.

Many of the houses located in La Madeleine were commandeered by the Germans to use as accommodation for the troops manning the bunkers.

Each strong point of the Atlantic Wall was given a codename by the German High Command and the most notable bunker complex was that of WN5. The location of WN5 is where the American forces would land on June 6th 1944.

Before the allied beach landings on June 6th 1944, American Airborne troops were dropped in to secure strategic locations and also to disrupt German communications. The villages of Sainte Mere Eglise and Sainte Marie Du Mont would see fierce fighting in the early hours of June 6th.

Arthur Janhke, the commander of the WN5 bunker position, ordered many of his troops to go to the nearby village of Sainte Marie Du Mont to deal with the American threat. This decision would leave the bunker stronghold of WN5 in a considerable weaker position. As a result, once the beach invasion started, WN5 was taken with very few American casualties.

Many years after the end of World War 2, part of the bunker stronghold of WN5 would become the home to the Utah Beach D-Day Museum and the Roosevelt Cafe.

WN10 which is also a few minutes walk from La Madeleine; the location where General Leclerc and his men of the Free French Forces would step foot on French soil for this first time in many years.