Monument de la Liberté
Unveiled on the fiftieth anniversary in 1994, this monument on the Lion-sur-Mer seafront remembers 41 Royal Marine Commando, who landed on this stretch of Sword Beach on 6 June 1944. It is built as a sundial: the stone is set so that its shadow marks the hour at which the commandos came ashore.
Sword Beach is the easternmost of the five, and Lion-sur-Mer sits at its western end, where the British landing frontage stopped and a gap of several kilometres of held coastline separated it from the Canadians on Juno Beach. Closing that gap was one of the tasks of 6 June, and it is the reason there is a commando monument on this seafront.
41 Royal Marine Commando
The unit that landed here was 41 Royal Marine Commando. Its job was to take Lion-sur-Mer and the strongpoint above it, then push west along the coast to link up with 48 Royal Marine Commando coming the other way from the Canadian beach.
It did not work out on the day. The commandos came ashore into fire, lost men and their supporting armour quickly, and found the position at Lion-sur-Mer more stubbornly held than expected. The two commandos did not meet on 6 June, and the gap between the British and Canadian landings stayed open into the following day. On a coast where the anniversary story tends to be one of objectives taken, this monument marks a piece of the plan that did not come off on schedule and had to be finished afterwards.
The monument
It was unveiled on 6 June 1994, the fiftieth anniversary, and it is not a conventional plinth. The monument is built as a sundial. The stone is positioned so that its shadow falls across a dial set into the ground to mark the hour at which the commandos landed on this beach, which the inscription spells out.
It is a quiet idea and an effective one. A dated plaque tells you when something happened; this tells you when in the day, and it does it every clear day, on the spot, using the same sun. Come on a bright morning and you can watch the shadow travel towards the mark.
The seafront around it is ordinary and busy, a working resort promenade with beach huts and people walking dogs. That is worth noticing rather than resenting. This end of Sword is one of the places where the invasion coast is most thoroughly back in everyday use.
Practical notes
The monument stands on the seafront at Lion-sur-Mer, on the promenade above the beach. There is parking along the seafront and in the streets behind it, though it fills up on summer weekends. The monument is open ground with no gate, ticket or opening hours.
Allow fifteen minutes. The promenade is flat, paved and fully accessible, and the dial is at ground level where it can be seen from a seated position. There is no shelter and no interpretation beyond the inscription itself, so read it before you come if you want the context.
It fits into a day working east along Sword. Hermanville War Cemetery is a short drive inland and holds many of the men killed on this frontage, Colleville-Montgomery and the bunkers of Hillman Fortress lie behind the beach, and the day ends naturally at Ouistreham, Pegasus Bridge and the Merville Gun Battery beyond the canal.