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            More than 70 years ago, the Second World War ended, an extraordinary conflict that for six long years put Europe and much of the world to fire and the sword. These tragic events have profoundly affected entire generations and today the memory of the war is still in people's minds, as evidenced by the growing popularity of memorial tourism in recent years.

Today the contemporaries of the Second World War are rare and the material remains of the conflict are often the last visible vestiges of this tragic past. Blockhaus and other fortified structures on beaches and inland remind us of this page of history. The recent Normandy history is closely linked to the Second World War. The valleys of Bresle and Yères were not directly impacted by major events like the landing of the Allies on the Calvados and Cotentin beaches on the 6th June 1944 or like the battle of Normandy, which ended on the banks of the Seine. But they have witnessed an episode of this conflict more unknown to the general public : the installation and the use of V1 flying bomb sites.

It is around the remains of these numerous launching sites that the Community of Communes Interregional of Aumale - Blangy-on-Bresle worked to create a hiking circuit intended to emphasize this legacy inherited from the Second World War. Beyond its tourist aspect, the itinerary also aims to maintain and honour the territory inhabitants memory who lost their lives following V1 falls, that of victims of the imprecision of Allied bombing, or prisoners, forced to build the different structures of the launching sites. To achieve this project, the Community of Communes Interregional of Aumale - Blangy-sur-Bresle was helped by the National Office of Forests technicians, by local elected representatives or by volunteers. Among them, note the valuable contribution of Mr. Yannick DELEFOSSE, specialist of the subject and author of the book “V1 – arme du désespoir”.

Photographs (from left to right): view from the embrasure of a firing bunker; the replica of a launching catapult (launching ramp); compressor building. All of these photographs come from sites of the historical and memorial hiking route.