hi there, i'm new to the forum and this is in fact my first use of any forum anywhere, ever. so i'm new at it.

i was recently in normand visiting d-day battle monuments, batteries, and museums. and i met a dutch man who told me about the old 6th engineers special brigade monument in vierville sur mer, he showed me a photo of it in 1944 and one today, it's in a terrible state! he is trying to get some interest up in restoring the original monument and perhaps replacing it in a location where it can bee found or opening the road where it is.

i will try to insert some photos:

the first photo is the monument as it looked in 1944 and the second is one i shot last week in vierville when i was there.

oroginally the monument was placed on the beach, but at some time a dyke needed to be built to protect the cliffs and road and , as the monument was right in the path of the proposed dyke then it was moved with a cerimony. sadly it was moved to the end of a small road off of the round-about (rotary) in front of now prominent omaha beach monument. the road begins in st laurent and dead-ends about 200 yards later in vierville. at some point the town of vierville decided to cease maintainence on this road and placed a chain accross the road with a sign implying roadworks where in progress.

since then the monument has had all of its plaques, insriptions and lettering removed and the road has become overgrown to the point where no one would give it a passing glance had they not it was there or what was at the end of it.

i don't know if anyone is interested in this cause or not or if the new monument is good enough, or whatever but there is someone, in france, that would like to see it restored and advertised. if you would like to have this man's email address or know more then reply, maybe you'll know what has to be done--

thanks-- dave

Hi Dave:

It was nice chatting with you via email the other day. Thanks for joining and thanks for becoming a member of our forum.

What a shame to see this monument just wither away. I hope you can drum up some interest and get it restored back to its original condition. That would be wonderful.

Hi Marion and Dave

The monument of 6th Engineer Special Brigade around 1950 in Saint laurent .

The monument of 6th Engineer Special Brigade, dedicated in 1998. Pictures that I made in 2006 .

It was moved to Vierville -sur-Mer and modernized.

I find this link on the 6th engineer special brigade

But, I am sorry I did not find in English

http://omahabeach.vierville.free.fr/83-BrigSpecGenie.htm (This link is no longer viable - sorry)

Vee

Merci mon cher.

Actually if you or anyone else uses the Google Toolbar, you can automatically translate foreign language sites. When I click on the link, Google asks if I want to translate to English and viola! Great feature!

Ah, I thought I remembered something about this, and sure enough, you had posted photos of it. I remember now.

thanks marion and verow for replying.

the NEW monument is nice and appears more formal in its appearence, but the issue i'm trying to raise is the OLD monument is still standing but badly vandalised and hidden from the public's view and yes, i may have claimed the wrong photo was from 1944 but from what i hear it was put up in 1944 or 1945 and it's been moved to a bad place and allowed to fall into ruin.

if that situation is fine with you i can understand, after all there is a new monument and it appears fitting and well placed, but the old monument was supposedly put up by the very people who were on the ground at the time and i feel personally that that is important to remember.

after all, our fathers and grandfathers put up a monument to remind us forever of their fallen comrades and it has been misplaced and has fallen into ruin, and before it becomes part of someone's garden wall we should decide if the replacement is good enough or should we voice our opinion and lend our support to restore the original to its original condition and advocate for better placement or more communication as to where it is now.

by the way, i have tagged myself as "dave in england" but i am an american citizen who now lives in england and even though i am both an american citizen and a british citizen i feel very much american and my viewpoint is always influenced by this.

if you want to see where the old monument is then go to google maps and put "rue du 116eme regiment usa, vierville" in the search bar. when it comes up switch over to satalite view and look at the left end of the road, there you will see at the dead-end of the road a small structure. this is the monument that i photographed last week and posted that photo on my first posting. -i'd put it in as a link or image but i don't know how-

thanks for listening and replying-- dave

Hello Dave, 

I was not able to pull up the location in Google Maps as you described.   Is it possible for you to provide an alternative way for you to do this?    Do you have any more pictures or info on this?   You mentioned that you had an email address for someone that had a lot interest in the old monument.    I ask because my grandfather was the stonemason that built this monument and I'd love to get as much info on the current state of this monument and its whereabouts.   Thanks so much.  

Kevin