La Meauffe

La Meauffe
Coat of arms of La Meauffe Coat of arms
La Meauffe
Location within Lower Normandy region La Meauffe
Coordinates:
Country	France
Region	Normandy
Department	Manche
Arrondissement	Saint-Lô
Canton	Saint-Clair-sur-l'Elle
Intercommunality	Communauté de communes de l'agglomération saint-loise
Government
• Mayor (2008–2014)	Alain Mahieu
Area1	10.22 km2 (3.95 sq mi)
Population (2006)2	1,064
• Density	100/km2 (270/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	50297 / 50880
Elevation	4–87 m (13–285 ft)
Website	pagesperso-orange.fr/mairie.la-meauffe
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

La Meauffe is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France.

History

File:La Meauffe avant 1944.jpg

Church and manor prior the fighting in 1944.

The 11 and 12 July 1944, the village was attacked by the American 35th ID, while defended by the German 352 ID and units of the 266 ID. The fighting, violent, started the 11 and ended the 12th, cost the lives of 19 US soldiers, wounding 170, with 25 missing. The road D54, leading to La Meauffe was renamed the Death Valley Road by the US soldiers.

• La Meauffe-Cimetière 6.JPG

  Church, destroyed in July 1944 and rebuilt after the war.

• La Meauffe-Cimetière 3.JPG

  Funeral chapel, with bullet and shrapnel holes.

• La Meauffe-Cimetière 2.JPG

  Stone memorial for the 35th ID.

• La Meauffe-Cimetière 8.JPG

  Shrapnel holes on a headstone.

• La Meauffe-Cimetière 10.JPG

  Stone of the Calvary cross, marked by the fighting.

Heraldry

Arms of La Meauffe

The arms of La Meauffe are blazoned : Vert, a fess wavy argent between 2 fleurs de lys Or, and a salmon argent.

See also

• Communes of the Manche department