What precious little evidence there is, to reconstruct what happened to Tychsen and where he was ambushed. The original of this photo has 1/4 torn away and is smaller than a baseball card. This was taken by a tank gunner in the 67th Armored Regiment at the main road south of Coutances, known as 'les Haut Vents' the high winds). Like 'la Fourchette' near Carentan, there are numerous places in Normandy called 'Haut Vents'. Tychen's mother was told by the German Red Cross that he disappeared somewhere near 'St Denis'. It was actually n/of St Denis le GAST. Tychen's mother discovered there were over 60 places in France that begin with 'St Denis'. Her attempts to learn anything were in vain. 2nd Armored Div HQ was never notified of Tychsen' death and even Heinrich Himmler made inquiries through the Red Cross and could discover nothing. Tychsen was killed, stripped of all identification and buried in the shoulder of the road so quickly, that only a few witnesses ever knew what happened to him. GRS moved his body to a French cemetery at la Chene Guerin in late 1944, then he was re-buried at Marigny, as an 'Unbekannt Deutsche Officier' until a team of SS veterans identified him via the dental work in 1967.
Anyhow, back to the photo. It is possible that the kubelwagen visible at left was the one Tychsen was riding in when ambushed. The French author of 'Panzers in Normandy Then & Now', believes the ambush happened here. Other historians in France theorize that Tychsen was KIA at 'la Noraisserie', a farm about 2 miles NE of here, on the road to Guehebert. Another Kubelwagen was ambushed there. The German prisoner seated in the vehicle with hands clasped behind his head is wearing a breast eagle of some type, so is obviosuly not SS. Much of the German 7th Army was retreating along this road and there were troops of all types killed and captured by Major 'Smokey' Ring's roadblock/Task Force near Cambry.
Tychsen's C.P. in Trelly was straight ahead, 1 mile down the road to the west from this junction. Too bad the vet I got this photo from didn't take more photos here-he also unfortunately didn't recall any details about the kubelwagen or its occupants.
If you visit the Haut Vents road junction today, the house shown on the corner in this photo is still there. Little has changed in this part of Normandy. This vintage photo surfaced five years after I published my 3rd book 'Breakout at Normandy', which contains some details about Tychsen's death and disappearance.
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