Floodings of the Dives Marshes (Normandy - 1944)

Hello there,

I just discovered this forum. I'm a new member and I think it's a good thing to present myself before exploring this place further.

My name is Hugo. I'm a Master's student in Geography at the University of Caen. My research currently focuses on the artificial flooding of the Dives marshes, a project initiated by the German forces as early as 1942 as a key component of the Atlantic Wall.

My approach is to analyze the spatial distribution of these floods and compare them with modern challenges, specifically in the context of climate change and sea-level rise. I'm trying to understand how the Germans manipulated the hydraulic systems to use the marshes as a natural defense. I aim to better understand the vulnerability of this area today and for the coming decades.

I am specifically looking into the destruction of the Periers-en-Auge floodgate (porte-à-flots), dike destructions and the German ban on cleaning drainage ditches as early as 1942. These actions allowed seawater to flood the marshes, causing long-term soil salinization and forcing the displacement of local populations and livestock.

I know that these floods confused the Allies on D-Day; many paratroopers mistakenly landed in the Dives marshes instead of the Orne valley because the flooded fields made the two rivers look similar from the air. The terrain was extremely difficult in areas like Varaville, Robehomme, and Dives-sur-Mer.

I'm working with archives from different sources (French, American, British, German). While I have found some aerial photos of the coast, some maps but they didn't detail this area. I am now searching for more inland imagery, technical documents on hydraulic management, and testimonies describing the water levels and what the marshes looked like at the thime.. Any localized photography that I can use for contemporary comparison would be invaluable.

I would be very grateful to exchange with all of you if you are interested in this subject.

Best regards,
Hugo

 

Welcome, Hugo

 

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Lesley

 

Hello Hugo,

A few views of the Vermughen Farm, originally from brithm I think:



Regards ...

 

Welcome Hugo, and this sounds like a fascinating project. I can't provide much assistance myself I'm afraid, but you may like to know that just in the last week or so NCAP have released their online catalogue after a year offline. They have numerous images from June 1944 of this area, unfortunately with large watermarks on them. Previously a small subscription allowed for online zoom for these images, but that does not seem to have been reinstated just yet.

 

Yo,

If you are after Dives Valley aerials there are sorties available at the Laurier Collection. They are expensive for original large copies. See Box 303 for the Dives Valley, for example.

I have made various stitches with smaller free aerials. For example this one which will be reduced on here.



Regards ...

 

Thanks for the warm welcome and for these valuable documents!

The information about the "Ferme de la Bergerie" is very interesting. I had already seen some oblique pictures from NARA, but I had never heard the specific story of this farm before. This vertical photography is extremely helpful; I will georeference it to compare it with modern GIS data and try to find the original frames from the same campaign.. I have also started reading the testimonies shared in the PDF that are very interesting to understand how they cross the marshes.

Thank you for the help! I looked at NCAP when I started my research; there are indeed many images, but they are quite expensive. I didn't know if the full catalog was back online during my last visit, so I will definitely take another look. I'll see if I can work with the watermarked previews for preliminary mapping... There's a lot of tools to improve quality now.. It's better than nothing.

A second time, many thanks! I had never come across the Laurier Collection before, so I will definitely have a look at Box 303. This is exactly the type of imagery I am looking for. It will be much easier to work with these than with watermarked previews. I will try to create some stitches similar to yours; it’s a great way to get a broader perspective of the flood extent across the valley.

Currently, my work is focused on the Lower Dives Valley (from Cabourg/Dives-sur-Mer to Troarn/St-Samson) because this specific are is where the marine influence and tidal because this is the area were there's a marine/tidal influence. However, if I find imagery of the Southern marshes (Cléville, Le Ham, Hotot-en-Auge) i may expand my research to cover the entire wetland system.
Thank you again for the tip!

 

To clarify Hugo, I doubt the full collection is online, but the map search that you see was removed for about a year and very few of the online images were viewable. The map search is back now but there are almost certainly many more un-digitised images. As far as I can tell it's only happened In the last week as last time I looked it didn't seem to be accessible. I'm hoping they will reinstate the online viewer (for I think £30 a year subscription) which allowed you to zoom in on non-watermarked images.

 

Oh, okay, thank you for clarifying that. When I looked about three months ago, the map search was available
Actually, my supervisor told me that previously, the images were accessible with a subscription, and otherwise they were available but in low quality, like the images in the Laurier collection, but that's no longer the case and these watermarks are really annoying. I'll see if I can do something about it, but more than £30 per photo is a bit excessive...

 

Ah, it must have gone back online just after I went to Antarctica for the winter and my half-arsed check when I got back was a bit too half-arsed!

 

Welcome,

An online search with: "Dives Marshes" site:ww2talk.com id'd a few threads here.

This thread on pg. 2 & 3 refers to the Dives Marshes, especially Post 43 onwards: Glider Pilot POW's D Day

Though not a good result an online search with: "Dives Marsh" + "D-Day" site:ww2talk.com id'd threads that may be of interest. At a glance this might help: Missing gliders of Operation Tonga D-Day

Other members focus on D-Day, whereas I do not.

 

Thanks for these links! I have heard about the Stirling and Gorsa crashes near Grangues/Périers-en-Auge. I will put an eye into those threads to see what I can learn about theses testimonies, and if they mentions the conditions of the marsh.

Regarding my research, do you think it is better to continue the discussion here or should I create a new dedicated topic in a more specific category?

Thanks u all for your help!

 

A preference has developed to keep to one thread, instead of an intro thread and then the main topic.

 

Okay, thanks, that makes sense; I will keep my updates and findings in this thread.

Regarding the focus on D-Day. I agree with you. D-Day is a major milestone, but I am interested in the entire period from 1942 to 1946. It appears the German project to flood the marshes started as early as 1942, and the inundations only truly subsided in 1945–1946, following better meteorological conditions.

I have seen some aerial pictures from June 1945 where the flooding seems to have ended.

Spoiler: Probably near Vermughen Farm - 18 June 1945 - Source : NARA

In general, 1944 remains interesting because the weather conditions were rather poor, which exacerbated the flooding in addition to German efforts. The flooding was probably most severe in the winter of 1944.

 

Hugo,

Just curious. When and where did the Germans (civil or military or both) learn the value of flooding marshes?

I note it started before Rommel's arrival and his emphasis on stopping an invasion the beaches. In WW1 the Belgians flooded a large area near the coast that enabled them to hang onto some national territory.

Who actually did the physical work? Organization Todt, conscripted French labour or the Wehrmacht.

 

Tbh, I can't reply with 100% certitude, but like you said, the Yser battle was probably studied by the Germans and showed them that water is one of the most effective defenses against tanks and paratroopers. There are probably people here who know more than me about that specific part of war history.

Concerning the physical work, I think it was done by French labour, because it was French companies requisitioned by the Reich that made the anti-tank ditches like the ones we can see in different pictures in this topic.

Spoiler: Pictures of anti-tank ditches

It will be a part of my work; I will try to find the orders that were given to produce these types of defenses and see if I can find something like German plans.
If I find anything about this, I can share it here if U want.

 

River Dives Aerial

Nice one, looking right down the valley ...



Regards ...

 

You're right! And if I'm not mistaken, that’s the Vermughen farm over there?


I didn't realize yesterday that you had written the document about Vermughen Farm. Do you remember where you found this vertical aerial photo?"

 

I did not catch the farm at first. The Germans burnt it to the ground, of course. Hard to tell from the 1945 aerial. A terrible price they paid for helping the Airborne men.



Not sure what box the combination aerial came from - probably 303. Finding stuff is getting harder as I have been involved in so many projects over the years.

I did use aerials from other boxes like 0029 and 0089. May have mis-pointed to the farm on 0029 ...? The Laurier collection is huge. I was obsessed with creating stitches for awhile - ha!



Regards ...

 

I don't know if it would be useful, but the pre-D-Day 'Martian' Allied intelligence reports sometimes include details about flooding, although I can't remember the geographical extent of their coverage. (Other bits of intelligence included in the reports are from the full length of the French/Belgian/Dutch coast.) From memory, they were unsure if the flooding was accidental (due to lack of maintenance) or deliberate.

There must be a full collection of these reports available somewhere? I found a fairly extensive collection in the Imperial War Museum archive (Documents.25662a) but they're not complete (nor available online).