12/06/2026
The 39-45 Memorial is housed in a group of German bunkers built in the courtyard of the former fort of the Cité d’Alet. The US Army laid siege to the Fort throughout the first weeks of August 1944. Despite repeated ground assaults and sustained artillery and aerial bombardment – including some of the earliest uses of the new weapon known as ‘napalm’ – the German defenders held out until eventually surrendering on 17 August, likely due more to exhaustion than to casualties or shortages of supplies and ammunition. Around 10,000 German Wehrmacht troops were taken prisoner in the St Malo area alone. The number and fate of the non-German forced labourers trapped inside the Fort during the Allied assault remain unknown. Although the Allies succeeded in liberating St Malo, the cost was high, with significant US casualties and 80% of the medieval town left in ruins. Following the war, St Servan was incorporated into the municipality of St Malo in 1967, and the Fort was converted into a memorial site that includes a museum.
