If Bridges could talk . . .

Sitting on my back deck looking at the view.  There's serious history here.  No, not the chateau in the background although it's very nice indeed.

The weight of history in this nice little village of Long on the Somme rests in the unremarkable bridge.  Built with concrete casting and a brick parapet, the town have brightened it up with flowers.  But traffic rolls between the 2 sides of the village all day and I doubt many stop to consider what might have happened here.

The history I'm thinking of started on 20th May 1940 when the German army occupied the upper village and made ready to cross the Somme on their march west along the channel coast.  The French army set up on the long road approaching the bridge from the west in order to prevent the crossing.  Fighting reached a peak on 2 June when Captain Martel and his squadron of anti tank troops held their place as they were destroyed to the last man by the German artillery set up in front of the chateau.  

The 4 years of German occupation began but the bridge continued as a barrier.  Villagers needing to cross the bridge for work in the peat marshes needed a permit.  Villagers who had fled during the fighting returned to find many houses taken as billets for the German garrison.

In May 1944, the USAF started bombing raids aimed at destroying the bridge.  This strategy may have been aimed as part of the deception of the Germans about locations for Operation Overlord the following month.  And destroying the bridge would also prevent German forces moving to reinforce Normandy when that happened.  There were no 'smart bombs' then and many houses were destroyed and villagers killed.  On 10 May, the bridge was destroyed.  The Germans moved quickly to build a temporary wooden structure.

On 1st September 1944,  Sherman tanks of the Royal Scots Greys came rolling up the long road from the west to cross the bridge and take the village.  German forces once again used artillery located in front of the chateau to resist that.  The British tanks had brought a sort of temporary steel suspension bridge to reinforce the wooden one so it could take the weight of their tanks.  Some got across but one tank was disabled on the bridge.  From the following tank, out hopped Trooper Fred Haywood and ran to attach a towline to the stricken tank.  He succeeded but lost his life to a German sniper's bullet.

The village was liberated and the villagers recovered Fred Haywood's body for a funeral in the local church that was attended by everyone.  In his letter to Fred's widow, his Colonel commented that the villagers brought so many flowers that a 3 ton truck was needed to carry them.  In 1946, the French government awarded Fred the 'Croix du Guerre', the French equivalent of the Victoria Cross.  I'm not clear why his own country didn't reward what the Colonel described as one of the bravest actions of his regiment.  Fred is now remembered with a plaque on the north side of the bridge that he made possible to cross freely once again.  And you still can 76 years later.