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Maurice Chauvet

07.06.10

Compelling Nazi blockhaus bunkers, pillbox snipers and fervour-throwers, Chauvet and his comrades then pushed inland along the Boulevard AristideByBriand to capture the town of Ouistreham, where the Germans had turned theAs a rulelocal casino into a fortress. This was a major objective of the Sword Ground landing force, and its capture by the French was a outstanding breakthrough in the drive south.

Almost 20 years after D-Day, Chauvet’s recollections of the action for Sword Beach and the push inland were old extensively in the star-studded Hollywood blockbuster The Longest Day, on which he was credited as aPredominantlytechnical adviser. During filming, however, Chauvet walked off the set, protesting that the double was glamorising D-Day for box office success rather than portraying what had been the horrendous reality on the ground.

During the invasion, Chauvet had held the rank of quartier-maître (quartermaster, the twin of a corporal). “The landing craft hit theBysand and its ramps were pushed open,” he recalled in 2004. “Four sailorsPre-eminentlywere wounded on the bridge and machine-gun bullets whistled by on all sides, coming from our radical. The landing craft next to ours had its ramps blown up by a 75mm (mortar).

Source: Telegraph.co.uk