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My grandpa served in World War 2 as a technical Sergeant for the Signal corps (414 signal company). He kept a very extensive list of everywhere he traveled and I'm trying to put together a map of all of these places for him. One place he listed was Ecramarville . I've searched everywhere but cannot find a city with a name like this.

I'm hoping somebody out there knowledgeable in European geography, especially as it relates to World War 2, can help me out. The previous entry was boarded boat at Southampton for France. This gives me a reason to believe the city is in France. The entry immediately following this is Rennes , which is also in France.

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    Welcome to History. Perhaps more information would help, such as the unit he was with. If unsuccessful here, you could try Travel.
    – andy256
    Commented Oct 3, 2014 at 1:53

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Could your place be

Equemauville? Its on the coast, but not near Rennes. https://www.google.com/maps/place/%C3%89quemauville,+France/@49.403432,0.2092025,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x47e032e5d20e4639:0x434c62c2074eeb9

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  • But it is close to Rouen...
    – DJohnM
    Commented Oct 3, 2014 at 3:40
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    Équeurdreville This one is on the coast, nearer to Rennes, but doesn't sound as close. google.com/maps/place/%C3%89queurdreville-Hainneville,+France/…
    – Clint Eastwood
    Commented Oct 3, 2014 at 3:49
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    Équemauville (near Honfleur and Le Havre) would have been in the British/Canadian area of operations in August 1944, while Équeurdreville (near Cherbourg) would have been in the US area. It may also depend on timing
    – Henry
    Commented Oct 3, 2014 at 7:33
  • I think this might be the right place. Plus it lies somewhat between Southampton and Renee, which makes more sense. Thanks
    – tempusfugit
    Commented Oct 6, 2014 at 14:21
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In Normandy you'll find Écrammeville, which a young GI who doesn't know French, when reading it from a half destroyed road sign, may well misread as something else.
See https://www.google.nl/maps/place/%C3%89crammeville,+France/@49.5783574,-0.5407385,9z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x480ba721cd54f1fb:0x40c14484fbcf080?hl=en

From there Rennes may well be a next station.

P.S. Écrammeville is pretty close to Omaha Beach, so may well have been a staging area for units to assemble into marching formation after landing there on the Mulberry harbours.

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    That certainly fits the unit. The 414th Signal Company landed at Omaha beach on June 9th, 1944 and was at the time attached to the 70th Fighter Wing of the 404th Air Expeditionary Group. The 404th was stationed at Cricqueville Airfield until July 10th, which was only about 9km from Écrammeville. They arrived in Rennes on August 8th, 1944. See also this document, p. 132-134.
    – Comintern
    Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 5:14
  • Écrammeville is less than 2 miles from the Omaha Beach memorial, well behind the end-of-day objectives for June 6; though of course those objectives were not achieved until some days later.
    – Pieter Geerkens
    Commented Dec 17, 2018 at 0:03

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