Le Grand Vey WN1 N49 21.994 W001 10.589 Map 1311E
Le Grand Vey is the most southerly of the Utah Beach defences and looked out
across the Bay of Carentan.
The land here merges from the sands to swamp and would not really been suitable
for a landing.
The Germans equipped this zone with an 47 mm Skoda cannon in a casemate and two
50 mm ant aircraft guns mounted in the open.
There was also a Tobruk with a Renault tank turret mounted on top.
Machine gun posts and ammunition bunkers made up the rest of the defensive
positions.
There was also a command post which incorporated a Tobruk.
Several hundred meters of anti tank wall were also installed along this stretch
of coast.
The position was also used to police the traffic on the canal leading to
Carentan, and by D-day all traffic had been banned. The German troops stationed
here on D-day were from the 709th Infantry Division composing of the 919th
Grenadier Regiment.
