Le musée de la Libération s’est installé au fort du Roule construit au sommet de la montagne du même nom qui domine la ville. Le fort, culminant à 117 mètres, a été reconstruit sous Napoléon III entre 1853 et 1857. Sa position stratégique, dominant la rade et formant un éperon central entre les deux seules voies de pénétration de l’intérieur des terres vers la ville (les vallées de la Divette et du Trottebecq), en faisait la clé de la défense de Cherbourg, d’où l’expression «qui tient le Roule, tient Cherbourg».

En juin 1940, il fut l’un des lieux phares de la Résistance française devant l’invasion allemande. Pris par les Allemands, le fort est transformé en véritable camp retranché et des souterrains sont creusés dans le roc. Cherbourg devient une forteresse. Le 26 juin 1944, après d’âpres combats, le fort est repris par les Américains, faisant de Cherbourg le premier port libéré de France. Pendant quelques mois, Cherbourg sera le plus important port du monde, avec 25 000 tonnes de matériel débarquées chaque jour !

En 1949, un historien local, M. Lemaresquier, lance l’idée de perpétuer sur ce  lieu les souvenirs du Débarquement et de la Libération de l’Europe. En 1954, avec l’appui de l’Ambassade des Etats-Unis, le musée de la Libération voit le jour avec un parcours retraçant l’histoire du port de Cherbourg depuis le Moyen-Âge et comprenant les salles militaires, plus spécifiquement dédiées à la commémoration de la Seconde Guerre mondiale.

En 1994, à l’occasion du 50e anniversaire du Débarquement, le musée est entièrement rénové et sa muséographie revue. Aujourd’hui, les collections, riches d’environ 500 objets et documents, s’étendent sur 780 m² répartis sur deux niveaux.
Baigné dans la pénombre, le sous-sol évoque l’Occupation, entre 1940 et 1944. Six salles racontent l’exode et la Résistance, la propagande, le quotidien des civils et les préparatifs du Débarquement. L’étage retrace, en pleine lumière, le Débarquement et la Libération. Il permet de découvrir le rôle joué par Cherbourg, premier port libéré, dans l’avancée des troupes alliées. En effet, la prise de Cherbourg, seul port en eau profonde de la région, constitue un objectif stratégique vital pour les troupes américaines débarquées à Utah Beach. La ville est libérée le 26 juin 1944. Elle devient alors le centre d’un impressionnant effort logistique : le port permet le ravitaillement du front par la route, le rail et le Pipe Line Under the Ocean (PLUTO) qui alimente les troupes en pétrole. Cartes, photographies, enregistrements sonores, maquettes, objets et multimédia évoquent l’histoire de la ville.

• Service éducatif : Visites en classe

Vous êtes enseignant et souhaitez venir visiter les musées avec votre classe ? Le service éducatif se tient à votre disposition pour préparer votre visite (maternelle, primaire, collège, lycée). Un nouveau parcours pédagogique pour le musée de la Libération est disponible en couleur.

Contact : Yann Lautridou

02 33 23 39 54

yann.lautridou@ville-cherbourg.fr

Sources : ©Musée de la Libération de Cherbourg - Fort du Roule

This 28-acre cemetery was established on a temporary cemetery set up just after the region was liberated by the 8^th Infantry Division (US) on 2 August 1944.

After the war, when the temporary cemeteries were closed down by the American identification and interment services, the remains of American soldiers killed at war and whose families had request a burial abroad, were transferred from the temporary cemeteries to 14 permanent cemeteries.

The French government granted perpetual use of the land free of charges and taxes to the American government, in recognition of the sacrifices made to liberate Europe. The majority of the soldiers buried here were killed during the liberation of Brittany, the fall of A ranches and the violent battles around Saint Lô and Mortain.

The cemetery holds the remains of 4,410 soldiers. They account for 43% of burials made in the region.

The graves are divided into 16 plots, set out in concentric rows spreading out from the central lawn. These dead soldiers, who laid down their lives for their homeland, came from every State of the Union, the District of Colombia, Hawaii, Alaska and also Canada. Some 95 steles bear the inscription “Unknown Soldier” and shelter the remains of soldiers who could not be identified. Two of these graves contain the bodies of two soldiers who could not be separately identified. In 20 cases, two brothers lie side by side, and two others are buried in neighbouring plots.

The chapel, made from La Pirye granite from the Hanglé region in Brittany, comprises a vestibule, tower, memorial room and chapel. At its east end stands a sculpture representing “Youth Triumphing over Evil” made in Chauvigny limestone.

The Wall of the Missing, slightly curved, supports the terrace and bears the names, grades, units and home states of 498 unknown soldiers. They gave their life for their homeland yet there bodies were never found or formally identified. A bronze rosette marks those whose bodies were found.

The architect of the cemetery and memorial was William T. Aldrich from Boston, Massachusetts. Shurcliff & Shurcliff, also from Boston, landscaped the grounds. Lee Lawrie, from Easton, Maryland, designed the sculpture group “Youth Triumphing Over Evil” and the sculpture above the chapel’s entrance.

The cemetery’s inauguration ceremony took place after its completion on 20 July 1956.

American Battle Monuments Commission

The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), founded by United States Congress in 1923, is an agency of the executive branch of the federal government. Its mission is to preserve the memory of the sacrifices and deeds of the American military forces wherever they have served since 6 April 1917, the date the United States entered the First World War.

Brittany American Cemetery

50240 Saint-James - France

Tel: +33 (0)2 33 89 24 90

Fax: +33 (0)2 33 89 24 91

E-mail: brittany@abmc.gov

Tours

Open from 9 am to 5 pm. Admission and guided tours are free of charge. Information is available from the visitor information centre.

Closed on 25 December and 1 January.

Getting there

South of Avranches via the A84, one mile from the village of Saint James.

American Battle Monuments Commission

68 rue du 19 janvier BP 50 92380 Garches

Tel: +33 (0)1 47 01 37

American Battle Monuments Commission

L’Airborne Museum est situé au cœur de Sainte-Mère-Eglise, face au clocher sur lequel le parachutiste John Steele est resté suspendu. A travers une muséographie spectaculaire et réaliste, l’Airborne Museum vous fera vivre le Débarquement aux côtés des parachutistes Américains des 82ème et 101ème Airborne. De la préparation du Jour-J en Angleterre, jusqu’aux combats qui menèrent à la Liberté, vous accompagnerez les troupes aéroportées dans leur chemin vers la Victoire. Découvrez une exceptionnelle collection d’objets historiques, un authentique planeur et un avion C-47 ayant participé aux opérations du Jour-J.

Une extension majeure : Opération Neptune et le Centre de conférence Ronald Reagan.

Dans le bâtiment "Opération Neptune" préparez-vous à vivre les parachutages du 6 juin 1944 ! Embarquez de nuit dans un véritable avion C-47 en Angleterre, puis atterrissez sur la place de Sainte-Mère-Eglise au milieu des combats et prenez part aux opérations qui suivirent !

A  partir de Mai, au sein du centre de conférence Ronald Reagan, découvrez une exposition inédite : « La bataille des Ardennes, Bastogne, hiver 1944 » ainsi que dans le cinéma un film de 20 minutes qui retrace avec émotion la vie sous l’occupation allemande puis la libération de Sainte-Mère-Église et du Cotentin.

►Exposition : 01>09 Juin 2019

Les + :

• Airborne Reality (depuis avril 2016): Munis de votre Smartphone ou votre tablette, téléchargez gratuitement l’application du musée et créez votre propre visite guidée en fonction de vos centres d’intérêt et de votre temps de visite !

Grâce à la réalité augmentée, soyez les témoins privilégiés du Débarquement et des parachutages sur Sainte-Mère-Eglise!

Téléchargement gratuit au musée, depuis le site web www.airborne-museum.org ou via Google Play et l’App Store. Application en français et anglais, puis, dans les mois à venir, en néerlandais.

• Exposition (à partir de juillet 2016): La bataille des Ardennes, Bastogne, hiver 1944. A travers cette exposition, revivez les évènements de cette bataille.

Le 16 Décembre 1944, Hitler lance une offensive de grande envergure à travers les Ardennes belges pour reconquérir le port d’Anvers et repousser les forces alliées.  Ces dernières sont prises par surprise du fait de la soudaineté et de la rapidité de l’attaque. En urgence, le Général Eisenhower décide d’envoyer en renfort des unités qu’il tient en réserve en France. La bataille des Ardennes a été plus qu’éprouvante et meurtrière pour les forces alliées qui devaient faire face à un hiver très rigoureux et un manque criant de ravitaillement en nourriture et en armes. L’armée allemande ne sera mise en échec qu’après l’apparition d’une accalmie salutaire permettant le ravitaillement des troupes au sol et facilitant l’arrivée de l’armée du Général Patton. La bataille des Ardennes ne prendra fin que fin janvier 1945.

Cette exposition inédite mettra également en lumière la voie de la liberté partant de Sainte-Mère-Eglise et arrivant à Bastogne ainsi que le rôle de l’armée Patton au sein de la bataille des Ardennes.

Guides de visite sous forme de livrets-jeux disponibles de 6 à 15 ans, téléchargement gratuit sur www.airborne-museum.org ou achat sur place +1€/enfant

Sources : ©Airborne Museum

At the centre of the one thousand five hundred hectares of the largest artificial roadstead in France, the defensive system of the Port of Cherbourg is arranged around several fortified edifices, warships forever petrified present exceptional historical point of interest. The inspection of the Cherbourg bay defences by Louis XIV in 1786 marked the beginning of the reinforcement of the coastal defences. During the course of the XIXth century, the forts constructed were adapted to changing artillery methods, which were becoming ever more powerful. During the second world war, a part of the fort was operational and served to cordon off a strategic point of passage and for bringing allied provisions into Great Britain . When Cherbourg fell to the enemy on the 30th June 1944, the port installations sustained considerable damage, as evidenced by numerous bullet and shell holes indelibly marking the granite stones.

In 1787, the foundations of the Querqueville fort were laid on the site of the a modest semi-circular fort dating from the Seven years war. The construction of the fort was interrupted before its completion, when the passage for vessels was moved one kilometre to the west.
The Querqueville fort, from which troops had to shoot from long distances and was therefore inaccurate, saw its vocation considerably reduced. The work undertaken was nevertheless completed in 1795, resulting in a construction in the shape of a semicircular casemate, opening up into a central courtyard, and protected by a two-tiered barracks. On the land side, the semi-circular gun battery with fifty three casemates was protected by a bastion separate from the rest of the edifice. In the mid XIXth century, an artillery firing range was added to the area surrounding the fort. This served as a firing range for the Marine gunners, before being used as the site for a barracks for accommodating colonial troops in 1895. Large-bore coastal batteries were added to both ends of the fort around 1879. An aeronaval base was constructed in 1925 near the fort, used during the 1940 campaign by allied aircraft who attempted in vain to drive back the advancing enemy troops in the Cotentin. The fort was later used as a training ground for the School of National Marine Safety. The terrace of the fort, the cavities on the first floor, the bastioned façade with its protrusions, its recesses and its moats, all suffered damage during the bombardments of the second world war. However, the Querqueville fort is without doubt the best preserved fort in the Cherbourg roadstead, and is regularly opened to visitors during heritage days.
Around 1784, the Count of Chavagnac undertook soundings of the deep waters of the Cherbourg roadstead in order to study the future implantation of the grand harbour wall, and discovered several rocky islets. Later on during the mid XIXth century, military engineers used one of these rocky ridges to anchor a defensive fort near to the western pass of the roadstead. Built in 1854, the Chavagnac fort is a triangular edifice with rounded edges, designed to cross fire with the western battery on the end of the harbour wall. Swivelling armoured dugouts were added to the fort, and it was also strengthened by a stone parapet and a breakwater wall. Like all the main forts which make up the roadstead, it was concreted at the end of the XIXth century and electricity was installed. The fort is now in ruins, and can only be admired from the sea.
The stones used to build a first battery at the end of the XVIIIth century crumbled during a violent storm in 1808. Almost entirely rebuilt from 1811, the central fort is arranged around a lighthouse surrounded by barracks and logistic buildings. Built in an elliptical shape, it has a flat roof overlooking two rows of casemates, concealing a vast interior courtyard. Originally, the upper firing level, an open-air battery, made gunwale fire possible (above the parapet due to the elevated platform). However, the height of the structure was reduced at the end of the XIXth century, to keep pace with progress in artillery technology. The lighthouse was destroyed, the central courtyard was covered in concrete, and two exterior barracks were added. Under German occupation, the enemy troops modified the fort, installing a powerful garrison to provide guns for defending the western and eastern passes. Since the last period during which it came under fire, the central fort has retained a fortified dugout with armoured doors, an elevator to bring the munitions to the dugout, and a 37 mm cannon in its casing. Now seriously damaged and unstable, the fort is no longer accessible to the public.
Built in the mid XIXth century, the forts, known as the western and eastern forts rose above the waves at either end of the harbour walls surrounding the Cherbourg roadstead. They originally took the form of triple-tiered forts, of which two were casemates. These two forts were built around a circular courtyard, and they had two casemate levels with an open-air battery on top of them, with a parapet made from clay, covered with brick. The two ground levels were given over to the garrison's quarters, and also housed the armouries. They were concreted at the end of the XIXth century and they served as coastal defences during the 1940 campaign. Threatened by the rapidly advancing enemy, the French army blew up the marine battery inside the eastern fort on the 18th June 1940, which then led to the destruction of the whole fort, of which only a few blocks of concrete now remain.
Built in 1779 on a rocky mass on the site of a smaller fort, the fort of the island of Pelée was designed to strengthen the defences of the eastern pass of the Cherbourg roadstead. The engineer Pierre-Jean de Caux, director of the Lower Normandy fortifications, supervised the construction work, and created a work concentrating numerous pieces of ordnance within a restricted area, taking inspiration from the military architecture of the marquis of Montalembert. The fort, in the shape of an irregular semicircle with rounded walls to dissuade enemy fire, the fort is built around a central courtyard, and originally had two floors. On the ground floor are buildings designed to house supplies and munitions, protected by a monumental gate accessed by a ramp. On the upper level, casemate batteries are positioned ready to open fire on attackers. The whole edifice is topped with a flat roof positioned behind a parapet. Progress made in artillery technology towards the end of the XIXth century led to the redevelopment of the fort. It was concreted and its now useless parapets were removed. A smaller port protected by two stone groynes and an inclined plane in granite was added to the front of the edifice. Used for many years as a prison for political prisoners, the fort of the Island of Pelée was modernised by occupying German troops, who installed an electric power station inside its walls. Originally linked to dry land by a rocky outcrop, the island of Pelée and its fort are not open to visitors, only the ramparts of the fort are visible from the sea.
Cité de la mer and Le Redoutable The former transatlantic harbour station of Cherbourg is the jewel in the crown of 1930's architecture. Built in reinforced concrete in 1928 by the architect René Levavasseur, in collaboration with the engineers Chalos and Fleury, it retains its unique Art Deco style interior decoration designed by the Marc Simon workshop. Inaugurated in 1933 by the French President Albert Lebrun, the harbour station was partly destroyed by the Germans in 1944. It is now home to the Cité de la mer, a vast space dedicated to the discovery of human underwater exploits. Offering permanent exhibition galleries dedicated to ocean exploration, the Cité de la mer is now also home to the very first French nuclear submarine, Le Redoutable. Launched in 1967 from Cherbourg arsenal, the SNLE (nuclear submarine missile launcher) returned there in 1990 to be dismantled, and the section containing the nuclear steam supply system removed. Now on display on one side of the permanent exhibition gallery building, visitors can walk around it from the stern to the bow, guided by a recorded commentary through headphones (in French or English) and listen to sound effects of the submariners' daily lives. Visitors with reduced mobility can also visit the former war machine, where an interactive terminal enables them to go on a guided tour of the submersible.
Cherbourg and Haut-Cotentin Tourist Office 2, Quai Alexandre III 50100 Cherbourg-Octeville tel. 02.33.93.52.02 fax. 02.33.53.66.97 e-mail : tourisme@ot-cherbourg-cotentin.fr Cité de la mer Transatlantic harbour station 50100 Cherbourg-Octeville tel. 02.33.20.26.26 fax. 02.33.20.26.27