La Fiere

We went walking with the dogs yesterday alongside the Merderet River by the La Fiere bridge. Two bus loads of American servicemen were walking around the bridge talking about the fierce fighting that took place there. It's such a small bridge, that it's difficult to imagine it being the site of what is called "the bloodiest small arms conflict in US military history."

When you look at it now, you have to wonder why the Allies didn't just put some planks across the river and not worry about taking the bridge. Turns out that this area was one of many that was flooded before D-Day, so the field you see on the left side of the river (German side) was submerged.

Here's a tiny clip from our Americans on D-Day film that shows what it looked like then.