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Last modified: 2021-07-03 by ivan sache
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Flag of Bourguébus - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 21 March 2021
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The municipality of Bourguébus (2,081 inhabitants in 2018; 552 ha) is located 10 km south-east of Caen.
Bourguébus Ridge was a Battle Honour granted to Canadian units participating in the initial battles to take the heights south of Caen during the Battle of Normandy, the first phase of the North-West Europe campaign of the Second World War.
[Canadian Soldiers]
Forty-two days after June 6th, east and south of Caen, the largest tank battle of the British army took place 40 km from the D-Day landing beaches.
The front, on the British side, has changed very little. The Goodwood Operation ran from July 18 to 20, 1944. Its objective: a limited attack south of Caen, to capture the rest of the city the Bourguébus Ridge beyond. It was the largest tank battle the British army has ever fought. 75,000 men, 1,300 tanks, 760 cannons that fired 1,250,000 shells, 4,500 aircraft including 2,600 bombers, who dropped 3,400 tons of bombs were all involved in the battle. Damage wa
s extensive, the Germans' morale was tested, but it did not weaken their fighting spirit.
The plain where the British tanks entered allowed them to advance rapidly. Boxed-in by two railroad tracks, and surprised by a German counterattack at Cagny with 88 mm guns, the armored units eventually clashed with the formidable German defence, arranged on the Bourguébus Ridge.
The evening of July 20, torrential and rain put an end to the fighting.
If, from a tactical point of view, the Goodwood operation was a relative failure, from a strategical point of view, given the tremendous deployment of equipment and men, the German reaction made it a success.
At the end of the battle, most of the German forces were moved to the eastern flank of the Battle of Normandy, considerably easing the pressure on the west flank and facilitating the advance of the Americans to the south. This was the prelude to the encirclement of the German troops, a month later, at the Falaise Pocket.
[Ouest France, 17 June 2019]
Bourguébus became in late December 2020 "France's most famous village", after the election of the local hero, Amandine Petit, Miss Normandy 2020, as Miss France 2021.
[France Bleu, 19 December 2020]
Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 21 March 2021
The flag of Bourguébus (photo,
photo) is white with the municipal logo.
On the logo, the writing "Bourguébus - La Hogue" refers to the structure of the municipality, which is composed of the main village, Bourguébus, and of the hamlet of La Hogue, located some 1 km in the south-east.
Hogue is a quite common toponym in Normandy, formed on a Norse root, "haugr" meaning "a height", "a mount". In most cases, it refers to a funerary tumulus. Two Neolithic tumuli have been excavated in the neighboring municipality of Fontenay-le-Marmion, called Hogue and Hoguette, respectively.
The left part of the logo might represent the steep spire of the St. Vigor church, which was built from scratch from 1957 to 1959 to replace the old church (13th century) that had been totally destroyed in June 1944.
[Observatoire du patrimoine religieux]
Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 21 March 2021
