Réville

The action of 15 November 1810 was a minor naval engagement fought during the British Royal Navy blockade of the French Channel ports in the Napoleonic Wars. British dominance at sea, enforced by a strategy of close blockade, made it difficult for the French Navy to operate even in their own territorial waters. In the autumn of 1810, a British squadron assigned to patrol the Baie de la Seine was effectively isolating two French squadrons in the ports of Le Havre and Cherbourg-en-Cotentin. On 12 November, the squadron in Le Havre, consisting of frigates Elisa and Amazone attempted to reach Cherbourg at night in order to united the squadrons. This squadron was spotted in the early hours of 13 November by the patrolling British frigates HMS Diana and HMS Niobe, which gave chase. The French ships took shelter at the heavily fortified Iles Saint-Marcouf, sailing the following morning for the anchorage at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue. For two days the British frigates kept watch, until two ships of the line from the blockade of Cherbourg, HMS Donegal and HMS Revenge, arrived. On 15 November, the British squadron attacked the anchored French ships, which were defended by shore batteries at La Hougue and Tatihou. After four attempts to close with the French the British squadron, under heavy fire, withdrew. During the night, the British commander, Captain Pulteney Malcolm, sent his ship's boats close inshore to attack the French ships with Congreve rockets, a newly issued weapon. None are recorded as landing on target, but by morning both frigates had been forced to change position, becoming grounded on the shore. The French ships were later refloated, and Malcolm's squadron maintained the blockade until 27 November when Amazone successfully escaped back to Le Havre. The damaged Elisa remained at anchor until 6 December, when an attack by a British bomb vessel forced the frigate to move further inshore, becoming grounded once more. Elisa remained in this position until 23 December, when the boats of Diana entered the anchorage at night and set the beached ship on fire, destroying her.

The action at La Hogue occurred during the pursuit by the English of the French fleet after the Battle of Barfleur on 19 May Old Style (29 May (New Style)), 1692, during the Nine Years' War. The pursuing English fleet, under the command of Admiral of the Fleet Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford, destroyed a number of French ships that had been beached near the port of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue.

Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃ va la uɡ]) is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France. It is particularly known for being a major site of fortifications designed by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban: the watchtowers of Tatihou and La Hougue having been listed in 2008 as part of the Fortifications of Vauban UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue was awarded "2 flowers" by the concours des villes et villages fleuris contest and the town was elected "favourite French village 2019" in a television programme broadcast on France 3 in 2019.

The canton of Val-de-Saire is an administrative division of the Manche department, northwestern France. It was created at the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015. Its seat is in Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue. It consists of the following communes:

Anneville-en-Saire (French pronunciation: [anvil ɑ̃ sɛʁ]) is a commune in the Manche department of the Normandy region in northwestern France.

Tatihou is an islet of Normandy in France with an area of 29 hectares (72 acres). It is located to the east of the Cotentin peninsula just off the coast near Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue. It is almost uninhabited, and is usually reached by amphibious craft although, being a tidal island, it is also possible to walk there over the local oyster beds at low tide. Access to the island is limited to 500 visitors per day.

Montfarville (French pronunciation: [mɔ̃faʁvil]) is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France.

La Pernelle (French pronunciation: [la pɛʁnɛl]) is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France.

The action of 20 October 1793 was a minor naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars fought off Cape Barfleur on the French coast of the English Channel. The early months of the war, which had begun in February, had seen a number of French frigates raiding British merchant shipping in the Channel, and HMS Crescent under Captain James Saumarez was deployed to watch the port of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin with the aim of disrupting the operations of the French frigates Réunion and Sémillante that were based in the harbour. On 20 October, Saumarez was waiting off Cape Barfleur for French movement when his lookout sighted Réunion and the cutter Espérance approaching from open water. Saumarez immediately moved to engage the French ship and managed to isolate the frigate and subject it to a fierce barrage of fire for more than two hours. Captain François A. Dénian on Réunion responded, but aside from inflicting minor damage to Saumarez's rigging achieved little while his own vessel was heavily battered, suffering severe damage to rigging masts and hull and more than 80 and possibly as many as 120 casualties. British losses were confined to a single man wounded by an accident aboard Crescent. Eventually Dénian could not hold out any longer and was forced to surrender on the arrival of the 28-gun British frigate HMS Circe. Réunion was later repaired and commissioned into the Royal Navy, while Saumarez was knighted for his success.

Quettehou ([ketu] or [kɛtu]) is a commune in the Manche department in north-western France. On 1 January 2019, the former commune Morsalines was merged into Quettehou.