Centaur IV Tank, Sword Beach, Hermansville-Sur-Mer, France - Military Ground Equipment Displays on Waymarking.com

The memorial display on the Avenue Madame Coty in Hermansville-Sur-Mer in Basse-Normandy, France, lists this tank as a Centaur IV, but also calls it a "Churchill Avre MK III" tank.

This tank has the label "Seawolf" and "T.185075" painted on it.

Tanks of this type were used on 6 June 1944 during the Normandy invasion, under the mission name Operation Overlord.

The plaque here reads:
"At 07.30 on 6th June 1944, 70 specially designed Churchill tanks equipped with faschines, flails, bangalore torpedoes and bridges landed form IO landing craft and cleard the beach obstacles into 200 m wide safe lane in orde that the advancing troops could land safely on the beach.

This Churchill Avre MK III now stands as a memorial to all those who served and died on these shores.

Hermanville: The British on Sword beach

Operation Overlord unfolded in the heart of “Sword” as elsewhere. In the course of the night, the coastal defences were bombed by the air force, and the naval artillery took over at daybreak. Then, under German fire, the landing craft came aground. The special tanks opened the way, followed by assault waves of 3rd Infantry Division under Major-General Rennie.

The tanks attacked the concrete strong points then penetrated inland: the first battalion of the South Lancashires liberated the village of Hermanville at 10 a.m., whilst the Suffolk Regiment was freeing Colleville. The British advance was unable to reach Caen on the 6th as planned. The long ordeal of that city began the same day, at 11.30 a.m..

The Allies needed calm water to land men and equipment: the “Gooseberries” (codename) were old vessels that had been ballasted to a form a breakwater. Among 6 merchant ships and 3 warships sacrificed off Hermanville, the veteran battleship “Courbet” would not enjoy the glory of the “Georges-Leygues” and the “Montcalm”, which fought conspicuously before the Longues battery, but scuttled itself, with its flag flying, on the morning of 7 June, in three fathoms of water about 1.5 miles offshore."


Source:
en.tracesofwar.com/article/1265/Centaur-IV-Sword-Beach.htm
(visit link)

Location restrictions: This tank is on public display in a residential neighborhood. Please be respectful to the residents when visiting the display.

Visit Instructions:

1.) Only log the places you physically visit.
2.) Please submit a photo(s) taken by you of your visit to the location (non-copyrighted photos only). GPS photos are also accepted with the location in the background, and old vacation photos are accepted. If you are not able to provide a photo, then please describe your visit or give a story about the visit
3.) Please provide any additional information about the equipment you may have that is not listed in the waymark's description.

 

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   02/07/2020 DANPEPS visited it 08/10/2017 Andre 61 visited it 11/16/2014 7seven visited it 11/11/2011 Cecticide visited it

View all visits/logs