Utah Beach: memorial to General Leclerc's division

This location is in fact at Saint-Martin-de-Varreville, just north of Utah Beach, site of the American landings on D-Day. The Second Armoured Division under General Leclerc landed here on 2nd August 1944; within three weeks it had reached Paris. (American units were also involved in this operation, but under instructions to ensure that the glory went to the French.)

Leclerc's burning ambition was to liberate Strasbourg. This he achieved on 23rd November 1944.

In the immediate aftermath of the war, Leclerc was posted to Indo-China. There he negotiated with Ho Chi Minh and endorsed a plan for granting Vietnamese independence, warning in vain that "anti-communism will be a useless tool unless the problem of nationalism is resolved".

He died in a plane crash in 1947, aged 45; a fine soldier, and a great loss to France.