Graignes
Nehou
General Patton arriving
On July 6.1944 Shortly after the morning briefing at Braemar House, Salisbury, Patton's final headquarters in England, a drive with Col Codman to the nearest airstrip. General Patton looked at his watch. «Ten-twenty-five», he said. «Exactly a year ago to the minute we cast off from Algiers on the Monrovia for Sicily». They pass the scattered clouds, over the channel at 10.000 feet. Flight over Cherbourg. He said «Not too badly bashed up, I should say».
Soon the landing beaches appeared and showed an appalling spectacle of chaos and destruction. They landed on the narrow airstrip behind Omaha, once more the General looked at his watch. «Eleven-twenty-five», he said. «From Norfolk to Casablanca it took us eighteen days. From Algiers to Gela, Sicily, five days. And now France in one hour». He sighed. General Bradley's headquarters in a partially wooded field south of Isigny was only few miles away, but what with the endless two-way stream of trucks, weapon carriers, half-tracks, and peeps, they arrived an hour later for lunch. The General spent the afternoon conferring with General Bradley and General Hodges and later with Lightning Joe Collins.
On July 7.1944 Morning session with General Bradley and his staff, for which Monty and his Chief of Staff, General de Guingand, drove over from Bayeux.
«Do not take counsel of your fears»
Nehou, Gen. Patton's Camp
After lunch the General bade them farewell and they drove off in the direction of Carentan to find their first C.P. in France. It took some finding, as General Gay and an advance party had taken pains to locate it in a thoroughly secluded apple orchard whose only approach was a narrow grass-covered lane in the bocage country southeast of the small town of Bricquebec near the village of Nehou, less that 10 miles behind First Army's front line. The ground was hard and dry, the tents nestling beneath the conveniently spaced apple trees invisible from the air. The General was pleased with the setup. But he was not going to be happy until Third Army became operational.