Carentan WIP

[Malamute]

@Matakishi - I've not had any problems glueing, so hopefully that is a good sign.  I'll test the treated cork with a layer of Vallejo paint before going out.  If Vallejo sticks, it should be alright.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for you. Its such a great looking model it would be such a shame if you had problems now. :|

[Lt. Hazel]

   Stunning work Dom! The house is very good so far, can´t wait to the it finished! Thumbs up  :mrgreen:

[dominic]

Happy to report that Vallejo paint stuck well on the waxed surface!!
The paint also did not flake when I flexed the cork until it broke!

Time to start masking the model in preparation for spraying - more tomorrow!

[matakishi]

That's a relief  

[dominic]

Here's the model after applying the granite-texture spray paint:

[cheminsdefeu]

Hello Dom,

Very impressive your project. Your first houses are really first class. It's so motivating to do this kind of project, to see it coming to life... so much so that buying ready made one ;-)
Eager to see the rest of it coming...

[SgtPerry]

After searching for the real name of the building of Mr Ignouf, here's a picture with the road that took Easy Compagny / 506th PIR during the attack of Carentan. The 506th PIR was at the hamlet of La Billonerie on the roads to Periers.



On the google map part you can see nowadays buildings which were on pictures on page 2.

Olivier

[dominic]

Thanks Olivier for all your help!

After some discussion off forum and some Googling, Sgt Perry and I managed to discover what was written on the long sign at the side of the building:

"Hotel du Soleil Levant & Desire Ingouf Restaurateur"

Literally - "Hotel of the Rising Sun and Desire Ingouf Restaurant owner"

I'm sure the GIs had some fun in there after they liberated Carentan!! :wink:
"...There is a house in New Orleans, they call the ..."

[SgtPerry]

Now, the question is :

Where were the Fallschirmjägers and where did they opened fire?


C. Carwood Lipton
E Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment

(...)As we reached the outskirts of Carentan we started getting German rifle and machine gun fire. The houses in this area were somewhat like row houses except that there were enclosed stairways leading up to the second floors from the outside. I thought that we were getting sniper fire from one of the upstairs windows. Buck Taylor and I were working as a team at this point, checking and clearing the buildings and area as went, so I told him that I would go up the stairway to that room and that after he had given me enough time to get to the top he should throw a grenade through the upstairs window. I would then jump into the room and finish off whoever was there.

I ran up the steps and stopped outside the door. I heard the grenade thump into the room through the window and its explosion. I threw open the door and leaped into the room, my rifle thrust forward ready to fire. I couldn't see a thing! The room was filled with dust and smoke from the explosion. If there had been a sniper there and he had been able to shield himself from the grenade he would have had me silhouetted in the door, but the room was empty.

We continued to check buildings and work our way toward the town center. The rifle and machine gun fire against us seemed to decrease somewhat as we moved farther in , but mortar and artillery fire increased. Men were getting hit.

Someone yelled that Tipper was hit across the street from me. I ran over. He was lying there conscious but hurt seriously. A medic was bandaging his face and his eye was obviously gone. He had major wounds in on arm and one leg. I told him he would be well taken care of and moved on.

I came to a major road intersection, nearer the town center. There was small arms and machine gun fire coming down the street from the right, across my front. Across on the other side of that street, on the continuation of the street I was standing on, were several E Company men. There were explosions up on the walls of the buildings on the left side of the street that they were on, and they looked to me like German 5cm mortar shells fired at a low trajectory so that they were coming in somewhat horizontally rather than dropping in vertically. I was on the right side of the street I was on, against a building on my right, and I did not think that the fire could get to me, but I started yelling to the men on the other side to move farther along. I thought that in the noise and confusion they might not realize that mortar fire was being directed at them.(...)

After reading this, I think that the US Paras were attacked when they reached the first crossroad and that there was a house to house fight along the road up to the crossroads with the RN13 and that Lipton was wounded here (near the Desire INGOUF restaurant).

Olivier

[dominic]

Hi Olivier, I must admit I am still quite confused about the exact route taken by Easy company from La Billonerie into Carentan.

If you follow this map, it suggests 2/506 (incl Easy) attacked La Billonerie and then moved up the Periers road into Carentan (passing the rail junction and the restaurant Desire Ingouf).



On the other hand, if you follow this map, then E/2/506 may have attacked La Billonerie from the west, then continued in a NE direction into Carentan, that means passing the train station and the Mairie/Ecole.



I need to do more reading to see if the confusion can be cleared up.

Regarding Lipton's account which you posted above.  That is quite interesting.  Do you have some pictures of these houses that he describes - with the outside staircase leading to the 2nd floor?  (In Band of Brothers, this becomes the big factory which has a sniper on the staircase, and Lipton runs in to clear the factory, after that he is wounded outside the factory.  But in this respect, I think BoB is not accurate.)

[SgtPerry]

(...)

Regarding Lipton's account which you posted above.  That is quite interesting.  Do you have some pictures of these houses that he describes - with the outside staircase leading to the 2nd floor?  (In Band of Brothers, this becomes the big factory which has a sniper on the staircase, and Lipton runs in to clear the factory, after that he is wounded outside the factory.  But in this respect, I think BoB is not accurate.)

It was quite usual in french villages,. Most of the time, it's a metallic staircase. I suppose the wooden ones have been replaced in the late 19th / Early 20th. Nowadays, they often disappeared.

Olivier

[dominic]

Is this staircase in the front or on the side of the houses?
If I can make a row of these houses, it would be more accurate (and easier!) than building a big factory!!

Anyway, the only factory I can find in Carentan at that time was the Gloria milk factory which is in the NE of Carentan, near the river port, which is totally opposite to the direction that Easy Company arrived in Carentan.

[SgtPerry]

It really depends Dominic. Sides, Front, Rear  are valid spots for such staircases.

[dominic]

This is an excerpt on Carentan from the US Army official history "From Utah Beach to Cherbourg"

"The 2d Battalion (506th), meanwhile, had moved out astride the main road leading into Carentan from the southwest. It received harassing machine-gun fire and interdictory artillery fire from the south most of the way into town. As the battalion entered, it met the 1st Battalion, 401st Glider Infantry, which had already come in from the northeast. This unit had pushed a patrol to the edge of the town before dawn, but it still faced the enemy rear guard and was temporarily stopped. At 0600 it attacked out of the wood at Bassin a Flot and drove rapidly into the center of Carentan. The meeting with the 2d Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry, occurred about 0730 after a short fight with enemy stragglers around the railroad station."

Based on this short excerpt, and the recent discovery that this house (located just south of the level crossing opposite the restaurant Desire Ingouf) might be the location of the aid station that treated Blithe and Winters


I think it is correct that Easy Company moved up the Periers road and past the restaurant Desire Ingouf.

[dominic]

It really depends Dominic. Sides, Front, Rear are valid spots for such staircases.

@Sgt Perry - I have spent the last 2 hours looking for appropriate photos, without success.  If you have any pictures of such houses, it would really help me to scratchbuild some.

BTW, I have found a very useful website with many postcard views of old Carentan:

http://cartes-postales.delcampe.fr/page/list/cat,4451,language,F,page,1,rs_count,388.html

Also, if anyone is interested, it is possible to read the whole US Army official history - "From Utah Beach to Cherbourg" - online:

http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/utah/utah.htm