Normandy Tour - Day 4 - British & Canadian Beaches plus other sites

[Gunner]

I thought I would revive these for the 75th anniversary of D-Day
These are from 2014 when my brothers and nephews took a grand six day tour of Normandy.
I see some of the pictures have issues.
I'll fix those at a later date...
I hope you enjoy the tour





Day 4 - British & Canadian Beaches plus other sites

Creully - Chateau de Creullet - Montgomery's 21st Army Group Headquarters
Creully - 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards Memorial - DD Tanks & Chateau de Creully BBC HQ
Reviers - Neolithic Barrow Fort
Beny-sur-Mer - Canadian Military Cemetery Periers Ridge - Overlooking Sword Beach - route of 21st Panzer Division counter-attack on D-Day
Periers Ridge - Royal Norfolk Regiment Monument - Belvoir Farm
'Hillman' Strongpoint - Colonel Ludwig Krug's HQ taken by 1 Suffolks

Lunch - Hermanville-sur-Mer

Sword Beach - Queen White - Hermanville - Assault area of British 3rd Infantry Division & Memorials
Sword Beach - Lion-sur-Mer - AVRE Tank (Petard Mortar) & Memorials for 41 Commando and Roosevelt
Juno Beach - Courselles - Nan Green sector - Regina Rifles assault & DD Tank Memorial
Juno Beach - Mike Red & Green Sectors - Royal Winnipeg Rifles/Canadian Scottish & AVRE Tank Memorial &
Cross of Lorraine & Polish Memorial
Gold Beach - King Green/Red - Sector La Paisty Vert - Mont Fleury Battery Stanley Hollis VC action
Gold Beach - Asnelles/Le Hamel - British 50th Infantry Division/231 Brigade assault - view of Mulberry Harbour
Gold Beach - Arromanches Mulberry Artificial Harbour - view from cliff top - Radar Station position


We had beautiful weather for Day Four.
It was sunny and cool, just perfect for touring.

Gary didn’t want to start with the British and Canadian Beaches in the morning, the tides were not right.
We would, instead head over to the beaches after lunch when the tides were low. He especially wanted to get to Gold Beach at the lowest tide for the best view of the Mulberry Harbor (which was incedible).

So we started off at other points of interest.

The first site was the Chateau where Montgomery made the 21st Army Group HQ.

British forces landing at Sword Beach in Normandy made rapid progress and within days General Montgomery established his HQ in this exquisite châteaux at Creully.

Commanded by General (later Field Marshal) Sir Bernard Montgomery, 21st Army Group initially controlled all ground forces in Operation Overlord (the United States First Army and British Second Army). When sufficient American forces had landed, their own 12th Army Group was activated, under General Omar Bradley, and the 21st Army Group was left with the British Second Army and the newly activated First Canadian Army.

Headquarters 21st Army Group was a very large and complex organisation. In common with most headquarters it consisted of a small Tactical Headquarters, a larger Main Headquarters and a larger still Rear Headquarters.

Tactical Headquarters contained only those personnel which were needed for the command of the organisation. Here were General (later Field Marshall) Montgomery and his personal staff. Gathered around the headquarters were defence troops, Phantom (GHQ Liaison Regiment), Signals and other essentials, but none of the Staff and Headquarters personnel who remained many miles to the rear. Tactical Headquarters was as far forward as was practical and was usually under canvas and thus ready to move at short notice.

Main Headquarters was the home of the General Staff where detailed planning and staff work concerned with operations was carried out. The Chief of Staff commanded Main Headquarters and was a frequent visitor at Tactical Headquarters. Usually this large concentration of key staff officers was located well to the rear and whenever possible it was housed in permanent buildings.

Rear Headquarters contained the staff of the ‘A’ and ‘Q’ branches as well as the staff of the various services and departments. The detailed work of supplying and maintaining the Army Group was done here. Much of the work was routine and went on regardless of operations but clearly operations depended to some extent on the work done at Rear Headquarters. Usually this headquarters was located far to the rear and in permanent accommodation.
(Thanks to Trux at 2talk.com)

HQ Location in Normandy (about dead center of Sword, Juno and Gold beaches:


The fighting around the chateaus was tremendous.
Many tanks were knocked out trying to cross the small bridge:


The HQ:







Montgomery did not actually stay in the house he stayed in a caravan on the grounds.
(It drove his commando protection group crazy)
Many heads of state and high ranked generals met here with Montgomery.


Field-Marshal-Sir-Alan-Brooke-Chief-of-the-Imperial-General-Staff-Mr.-Winston-Churchill-and-General-Sir-Bernard-Montgomery-at-21-Army-Group-Headquarters-in-Normandy


Churchill petting Montgomery's dog (Named Rommel)



General_Montgomery_with_Generals_Patton_(left)_and_Bradley_(centre)_at_21st_Army_Group_HQ,_Normandy,_7_July_1944._B6551


The far older original châteaux in the town was used by the BBC for its Normandy broadcasts and has one of the world's most important collection of old radio sets.
(From Wikipedia)
The Château de Creully is an 11th- and 12th-century castle located in the town of Creully in the Calvados département of France.
The castle has been modified throughout its history. Around 1050, it did not resemble a defensive fortress but a large agricultural domain. In about 1360, with the Hundred Years War, it was modified into a fortress. During this period, its architecture was demolished and reconstructed with each occupation by the English and the French:
The square tower was built in the 14th century
A watchtower was added in the 15th century
Drawbridge in front of the keep (removed later in 16th century)
Fortification of the walls and demolition of other buildings likely to pose a danger to besieged inhabitants (stables, depots, outside kitchens).
With the end of the war (1450), ownership of the castle returned to baron de Creully. It was demolished on the orders of Louis XI in 1461 through plain jealousy. According to legend, When Louis XI passed through Creully in 1471 he authorised its rebuilding to thank the local people for their warm welcome.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the barons made modifications:
Filling of the interior ditch and destruction of the drawbridge
Construction of a Renaissance style turret and large windows
Outbuildings, originally stables, added in 17th
Twenty two barons of the same family had succeeded to the castle between 1035 and 1682. In 1682, the last baron of Creully, Antoine V de Sillans, heavily indebted, sold the castle to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister of Louis XIV, who died the following year without living there. Descendants of Colbert occupied Creully until the French Revolution in 1789, when it was confiscated and sold to various rich landowners.
In 1946, the commune of Creully became the owner of part of the site. The castle's large halls are used today for various events, including weddings, concerts, exhibitions and conferences. The site is classified as a monument historique.

Second World War[edit]
From 7 June 1944, the day after D-Day, until 21 July, the square tower housed the BBC war correspondents and their radio studio, whence the first news of the Battle of Normandy was transmitted. From 8 June[1] to 2 August 1944,[2] Field Marshal Montgomery had his tactical headquarters at the château. Prime Minister Churchill visited him there.

Gary said that the chateau would have been bristling with antenna during the Battle of Normandy.
He also knows the owner and has been to see the large amount of rare radio equipment housed in the tower.

This is the view from the gate area of the HQ. You can see the Chateau in the background center.
The small bridge fought for is on the left and the row of trees in front where the German positions were.
(Gary, in front, is decscribing the action)


A view of the chateau from the hedge:


A view from the street below.
The tower on the right held the radio equipment.


A view from the opposite side and from the court yard:
(I left out the moat and draw bridge which were quite nice really)




Creully - 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards Memorial - DD Tanks

Just below the chateua is a memorial for the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards

On 6th June, 1944 - D-Day - the Regiment, now part of the 8th Armoured Brigade, landed on GOLD BEACH in Normandy, ‘B’ and ‘C’ Squadron landing 5 minutes before H (attack) Hour at 0720 Hrs in amphibious D D Sherman tanks. On the first day ‘A’ Squadron with the 7th Battalion Green Howards following a route through CREPON liberated CREULLY. This small town is where the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards Memorial is situated. The Regiment took part in the bitter fighting at CRISTOT against elements of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend.






Canadian Cemetery

The Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery is a cemetery containing predominantly Canadian soldiers killed during the early stages of the Battle of Normandy in the Second World War. It is located in and named after Bény-sur-Mer in the Calvados department, near Caen in lower Normandy. As is typical of war cemeteries in France, the grounds are beautifully landscaped and immaculately kept. Contained within the cemetery is a Cross of Sacrifice, a piece of architecture typical of memorials designed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Canadian soldiers killed later in the Battle of Normandy are buried south east of Caen in the Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery located in Cintheaux.
Bény-sur-Mer was created as a permanent resting place for Canadian soldiers who had been temporarily interred in smaller plots close to where they fell. As is usual for war cemeteries or monuments, France granted Canada a perpetual concession to the land occupied by the cemetery. The graves contain soldiers from the 3rd Canadian Division and 15 airmen killed during the Battle of Normandy.
The cemetery also includes four British graves and one French grave, for a total of 2048 markers. The French grave belongs to a French resistance soldier named R. Guenard who fought and died alongside the Canadians and who had no known relatives. His marker is the grey cross visible in the lower left of the panoramic view below and is inscribed "Mort pour la France- 19-7-1944".

Because of confusion during the movement of remains from temporary cemeteries, the remains of one Canadian soldier were misplaced; his tombstone is set apart from the others, and bears an inscription stating that it is known that his remains are in the Bény-sur-Mer cemetery. Bény-sur-Mer contains the remains of nine sets of brothers, a record for a Second World War cemetery.

A large number of dead in the cemetery were killed in early July 1944 in the Battle for Caen. The cemetery also contains soldiers who fell during the initial D-Day assault of Juno Beach. The Canadian Prisoners of War illegally executed at the Ardenne Abbey are interred here. It also contains the grave of Rev. (H/Capt) Walter Brown, chaplain to the 27th Armoured Regiment (Sherbrooke Fusiliers) and the only chaplain killed in cold blood during the Second World War. Rev Brown was murdered on the night of June 6/7 by members of III/25th SS Panzer Grenedier Regt near Galmanche, but his body was not found until July 1944. Canadians killed later in the campaign were interred in the Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery. (Wikipedia)

Gary pointed out that unlike other cemeteries the Canadians keep something growing that is colorful all year round.
Of course we stopped at a few grave sites and spoke of who was buried there and what they did in Normandy.
All very moving.

The entrance:




When the plants stop blooming they are removed and replaced with flowering ones.


There is only one cross in the cemetery.
That of Mr. R. Guenard. He was in the resistance and was helping the Canadians when he was killed.
Gary says it probably wasn't his real name. The resistance fighters never used their real name for rear of retribution on their families.

Grave of Mr. R. Guenard
(May he rest in peace)

 

[Gunner]

Cont.....

Periers Ridge - Overlooking Sword Beach - route of 21st Panzer Division counter-attack on D-Day

Lieutenant Harry Jones

Unfortunately, the tanks had great difficulty getting off the very congested beaches, and some were knocked out by German anti-tank guns firing from the Périers ridge about 800 yards to the south of us. After what seemed an eternity, I received orders for my platoon to move forward on foot without the Staffordshire Yeomanry. I must admit the adrenalin was flowing, and I was keen to get in amongst the enemy on the ridge.

As we made our way up the road, I heard a sound coming from the tall, standing corn on my left. Rather stupidly I stood up on the top of the bank, with bullets flying all around, and saw a German soldier advancing towards me with his pistol aimed in my direction. I fired a couple of shots at him with my revolver—they all missed. Fortunately, he threw down his weapon, raised his hands above his head and walked towards me. We lay in a ditch together to escape the bullets passing overhead. I then pointed to the town behind him and ordered him to "Marsch Schnell." As he left, he seemed quite happy to be my first prisoner of war.

W Company, 2nd KSLI

As the soldiers neared Périers, enemy artillery shells blasted the earth. Shells burst in tree branches; deadly metal fragments whizzed through the air as men ran for cover. A platoon's stretcher-bearer, Private Hind, blew up, apparently on a landmine.
One of the officers of W Company was terrified and hugged the earth. He looked up and saw Lieutenant-Colonel Maurice calmly walking up the middle of the road, playing with the chin-strap of his helmet as he often did. The officer got up, and others followed.

Major A.F. Slatter ordered his men to deploy through a cornfield. Platoons spread out and moved along the road, and past a church, winkling out the Germans.

Meanwhile, down below on the beach, tanks of the Staffordshire Yeomanry were moving inland.

The Staffordshire Yeomanry

Baker Squadron of the Staffs chugged toward Périers to rendezvous with the KSLI. The enemy was waiting. German anti-tank guns opened fire.
Five British tanks went up in flames. An armored half track, carrying Captain Lang and stretcher bearers, blew up as well. Lieutenant Alexander was killed pulling a man out of a burning tank.
The remaining British armor blasted the enemy anti-tank guns until they were destroyed.

Z Company, 2nd KSLI

On Périers ridge, Major Wheelock and Z Company went toward the sound of the enemy fire. The soldiers hit a barrier of barbed wire. From a distance, German machine guns swept the wire with a steady hail of bullets.
Lieutenant Percival led a flanking attack and was killed along with Private Burns. Lieutenant Scarlett's platoon went to the left, and were hit with mortar. Three more men were dead.
While the company continued the fight, the other KSLI companies advanced up the road to Caen.

H Jones KSLI from his memoirs, regarding once ashore on d-day and the push for Caen

We reached the southern perimeter of Hermanville, and I turned into an orchard, with my Platoon, on the left-hand side of the road, where we hurriedly dug shallow slit trenches with our entrenching-tools, folding lightweight spades, to prevent casualties from enemy shell-fire. On previous briefings, we had been informed that Sherman tanks of the Staffordshire Yeomanry would join us in this Assembly Area, and the plan was that we should ride on these tanks and attempt to capture CAEN on D-Day. Unfortunately, the tanks had great difficulty getting off the very congested beaches, and some were knocked out by German 88mm anti-tank guns firing from a ridge about 800 yards to the south of us. This ridge became well known as PERIERS RIDGE. Enemy small arms and machine-gun fire was also coming at us from the direction of the ridge, but we still waited impatiently for the arrival of the Staffords' tanks. After what seemed an eternity, I received orders for my Platoon to move forward on foot without the Staffords. I must admit that the adrenalin was flowing, and I was keen to get in amongst the enemy on the ridge. The time was approximately 1230 hours. As we made our way up the road leading to the ridge, I heard a rustling sound coming from the tall, standing corn on my left, on the other side of a bank. Rather stupidly I stood up on top of the bank, with bullets flying all around, and was a little shocked to see a German soldier advancing towards me with his automatic pistol aimed in my direction. I fired a couple of shots at him with my revolver—they all missed! So much for the intensive weapon training I had undertaken in England!—it still does not cater for nervousness and tension in battle conditions. Fortunately, he threw down his weapon, raised his hands above his head and walked towards me. We lay in a ditch together to escape the bullets passing overhead, and I relieved him of his Record of Service booklet. I then pointed to the town behind me and ordered him to "Marsch Schnell", "Go quickly", and as he left he appeared to be quite happy to be my first prisoner-of-war. We continued our advance up the road when I was sickened to see one of my corporals lying still on the side of the road, shot through the head. He died instantly. He and I had served together for nearly two years and as a young, inexperienced officer I valued him as someone I could lean upon for advice, loyalty and friendship. (I was then 21 years of age). As we got near the top of the ridge, the Germans unexpectedly withdrew. I could see them, about 500 yards away, rapidly flinging themselves into the backs of lorries which had been parked on the other side of the ridge. I grabbed a Bren machine-gun, and liberally sprayed the vehicles as they rapidly drove off southwards. I rushed into a bunker which had just been vacated by the German soldiers, and was relieved to find that it was no longer occupied. The first thing I noticed was the very strong, acrid smell of German tobacco. The time was 1430 hours.



This is a view looking towards the British and Canadian beaches.
It is a bit overcast but just at the horizon line is the Channel.
As you can see this is a perfect place for artillery and AT guns.
The 21st panzer, tanks and infantry attacked across these fields and between the gaps in the trees in the center and left of the picture.



When the British and Canadians reached this point, forcing the Germans off the ridge, they saw Caen in the distance.
The large building in the center/right is the main hospital in downtown Caen.
You can just make out the tree line on the other side of the valley. The Germans were there in force with Panthers, 88's and other equipment.
Allied tanks would crest this ridge and get blown to pieces by the AT weapons in that tree line.
It took almost two months for the Allies to cross that valley and enter Caen.




Periers Ridge - Royal Norfolk Regiment Monument

The 1st Battalion was a regular army unit that was stationed in India at the outbreak of war and was recalled to Britain, arriving in July 1940 during the Battle of Britain. They were part of the 185th Infantry Brigade originally assigned to the 79th Armoured Division but the brigade (including the 2nd Royal Warwickshire Regiment and 2nd King's Shropshire Light Infantry) transferred to the 3rd Infantry Division, with which it would remain with for the rest of the war.
The battalion landed on Red Queen Beach, the left flank of Sword Beach, at 07:25 on 6 June 1944, D-Day, and fought with distinction through the Normandy Campaign and throughout the North West Europe Campaign. On 6 August 1944 at Sourdeval, Sidney Bates of B Company was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his great courage in the Battle of Sourdevallee against the crack 10th SS Panzer Division. Miles Dempsey, British Second Army Commander, stated that by holding their ground in the battle the battalion made the subsequent breakthrough in August possible. By the end of the war in Europe, the 1st Battalion had gained a remarkable reputation and was claimed by Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, known as Monty, as 'second to none' of all the battalions in the 21st Army Group. The 1st Royal Norfolks had suffered 20 officers and 260 other ranks killed with well over 1,000 wounded or missing in 11 months of almost continuous combat. Further information on this unit can be found in Thank God and the Infantry - From D-Day to VE-Day with the 1st Battalion The Royal Norfolk Regiment, by John Lincoln who himself served as a young 20-year-old Officer Commanding 17 Platoon, D Company, in the 1st Battalion in 1944 and was awarded the Military Cross.


The 7th Battalion of the Royal Norfolks was a 2nd Line Territorial Army unit formed, along with the 6th Battalion, at the outbreak of war and originally a part of the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division, serving with them as part of the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940. The 51st (Highland) Division was stationed on the Maginot Line and therefore escaped encirclement with the rest of the BEF during the Battle of France where they spent some time attached to the FrenchTenth Army. The 7th Royal Norfolks suffered heavy casualties when the 51st Division was surrounded and had no choice but to surrender, on 12 June 1940, with only 31 members of the battalion managing to return to Britain. Re-formed in 1941, the battalion was transferred to the 176th Infantry Brigade of the 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division, one of the follow-up units after D-Day and considered by Montgomery as one of his best divisions. On the night of 7/8 August 1944, Captain David Auldjo Jamieson of D Company was awarded the Victoria Cross for his heroic leadership which greatly helped to fend off several enemy counter-attacks in a 36-hour period. Due to an acute shortage of infantrymen in the British Army at the time, the battalion and division were disbanded in late August 1944 and its men used as replacements for other British divisions in the 21st Army Group who had also suffered heavy casualties in Normandy. Many men of the 7th Royal Norfolks would go on to serve with the 1st Battalion for the rest of the war.





'Hillman' Strongpoint - Colonel Ludwig Krug's HQ taken by 1 Suffolks

The Day Beaches were thick with defences and were all covered by batteries of guns and strongpoints. Hillman was one of these strongpoints. As well as being a large fortified position it was the Regimental Headquarters of 726th Grenadier Regt, commanded by Oberst Ludwig Krug. Before the 1 Suffolks could attain their D Day objectives they had to take this position.

.....his strong defensive position covering 2,500 square yards protected by mines and wire and containing a concrete bunker and underground works was the HQ of the German 736th Regiment with an area strength of more than 150 men. It was taken by the Suffolk Regiment, aided by two troops of Shermans of the 13th/18th Hussars after a six hour battle in which the Suffolks lost 20 men killed. The way in which the position had to be approached was remembered by Lieutenant Colonel R.M.S. Maude commanding 246th Field Company Royal Engineers, one of whose detachments was involved:

"The position was approached from the north were the grass was sufficiently long to allow covered approach to the outer minefield area. It was decided to attack from this point and a mine clearance team was detailed to breach the minefield. Lt A. Heal led a party of four sappers. Working in two parties, each of two men with a mine detector, tracing tape and wire cutters, these parties working on their stomachs in the long grass, and covered by fire from the infantry, cleared and marked two paths through the minefield. The inner wire was breached by Bangalore torpedoes placed by the Infantry and the Infantry of 1st Battalion Suffolks assaulted through these gaps with A Company. The Company, under Major G. Ryley, captured the first concrete post but then found themselves under such intense fire that they were unable to maintain the position, and after the Company Commander had been killed they were forced to withdraw. It was then decided that the position could not be captured with the assistance of armour."


The plaque on the bunker commemorates all those of the Regiment who fell in the liberation of Colleville, the capture of HILLMAN and later fighting in Normandy. It pays tribute to the Colleville family who in February 1989 made this site available so that future generations could recognize the bravery and sacrifice of the soldiers.



More….
The Germans concentrated quite a number of bunkers and casemates in the area.
The village was later to become known as Colleville Montgomery after the famous British General.
To the west of the village the Germans installed four Czech, 100mm guns still mounted on their gun carriages. This made them difficult to aim accurately, even though they sat on concrete platforms.
By the time of the landings they had constructed casemates of the H669 type.
The site today is occupied by a market garden and one of the casemates has been converted into a house. British intelligence code named this site "Morris"
To the south is the strong point called "Hillman" by the British, the Germans knew it as Wn17.
The main bunker at this point being two type H608. These were used as a battalion headquarters, and there were around twelve bunkers on this site, which included type H605 bunkers, which were garages for two cannons. Oddly though on of the PaK garages has solid rock in front of its entrance so could never be used for its planned purpose, but this was not unusual. Many bunkers built along the Atlantic Wall were never used for their intended use, but were possibly built because the standard design could be adapted for some other use.
The site was ringed with Tobruks as an inner defence ring and then mine fields and barbed wire placed around the perimeter. For the 1st Suffolk Regiment D-day had started quite well, they had landed on Sword beach at around 08:25 and had maid their way to a pre arranged assembly point about 1 km from the beach. By 09:30 the battalion was at strength in the woods near Hermanville, clearing the village as the went. The area had also been cleared earlier by the 6th Airborne.

They attacked the German Gun position "Morris" at around 13:00 and moved onto attack "Hillman".

This attack was repelled by the Germans and a second attack, using tanks from the Hussars was successful. By nightfall the command post surrendered with forty Germans being taken prisoner.

This delay in taking "Hillman" allowed the Germans time to reinforce their positions further inland and some historians claim that if "Hillman" could have been taken earlier in the day, Caen itself might have fallen in days rather than weeks.

On a light note Coleville has grown up and around the German gun bunkers:



The Hillman command bunker and viewing turret.


As you can see here, the view from the command turret you can easily see all the way to the beaches:




Entrance to main bunker:


From the other end to the main bunker. You can see one of the tobruks top left.


Most of the damage to the cement was done during the attack.
(blasting the door open)


From inside one of the tobruks the Germans had pre-registered targets drawn on the walls:


As you can see here everything was well entrenched and below ground:


Finally the entrance to the last bunker and the battle damage around the door.


After the Hillman Battery we headed down to the coast to Hermanville-sur-Mer for some lunch, ham and Camembert on a baguette and pint to wash it down with (great stuff) and then a short ride of a block or two and we were standing at the entrance to Queen White, Sword Beach. The assault area of British 3rd Infantry Division.

How cool is that.

 

[Facman]

Excellent report Gunner, Thanks!

 

[Ithikial]

Great stories as usual. Thread stickied so other members can easily find it.

 

[Gunner]

Thanks guys.
I'm glad somebody is reading and enjoying the stories.

 

[Gunner]

After lunch we went over to Sword Beach , Queen White and the assault area of British 3rd Infantry Division.
We spent more time here than Juno or Gold so I would like to go a little further in detail with this post.

Sword Beach was the furthest east of the five beaches targeted for D-Day. Sword Beach was based about nine miles to the north-east of the vital city of Caen and was less than ten miles from Gold Beach and four miles from the start of Juno Beach.

Sword Beach itself was about five miles across and the town of Ouistreham was all but in the middle of the target beach. The main prize of Caen was important because all the main roads in the region ran through the city and control of these was vital if the Allies were to successfully advance inland and to the east and west. Such was the importance of Caen, that the Germans were also prepared to fight for it – ultimately to the city’s detriment.

The area around Sword Beach was lightly defended when compared to beaches such as Omaha. The Germans had oriented their main defence around artillery emplacements away from Sword. Five miles to the east of Sword was the Merville Battery where the Germans had placed 75-mm guns. Twenty miles further to the east at Le Harve were 155-mm guns. Eight miles inland of Sword were 88-mm guns. In terms of artillery, Sword could have taken a pounding and casualties could have been high. This, however, never happened.

Units of the British 2nd Army led by Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey were assigned the beach. The time for the first landings at Sword was 07.25 when British and French commandos attacked the beach. Troops from the British 1st Corps led by Crocker continued the attack. The soldiers attacking via the beach were joined by paratroopers from 3rd and 5th Parachute Brigades who landed at places inland from the beach. Paratroopers who landed at Ranville, to the south-east of Ouistreham, were less than five miles from Caen.

It was at Sword Beach that Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, of the British Commandos found fame. His men were given the task of moving swiftly off the beach and joining up with the paratroopers who had landed inland.

The British met little resistance at Sword. By 08.00 most of the fighting around the beach was over. By 13.00, commandos had linked up with paratroopers by the Orne waterways, inland from Ouistreham.

However, Sword Beach experienced the only real counter-attack by the Germans on June 6th. British troops had been unable to link up with Canadian troops from Juno – as had been planned – and they were attacked by men from the German 21st Panzer Division. The 192nd Panzer Grenadier Regiment actually reached Sword Beach by 20.00 but it was only a temporary victory as their vehicles were very open to aerial attack and many were destroyed by Allied fighter planes and tanks already landed at Sword. The counter-attack fizzled out.

By the end of the day, 29,000 men had been landed at Sword with 630 casualties. Allied forces had advanced about four miles inland and stabilised the beach. A corridor had been created between Sword Beach and Juno but this was not to prove a long-term problem. However, their major targets of Caen and the aerodrome at Carpiquet were still a long way off.


--------------
A little more, in detail:

0720 hours: The flails of the 22nd Dragoons (79th Armoured Division) are the first ashore, accompanied by teams of sappers. The DD (Duplex Drive) tanks of Squadrons A and B of the 13/18 Hussars are delayed and even in some cases overtaken by the LCTs (Landing Craft, Tank) bringing the AVRE (Armoured Vehicles, Royal Engineers) tanks of the 5th Assault Regiment (RE) whose first units arrive at 0725 hours. The German defences are immediately engaged while the sappers start to clear the beach. There is still no breach inland and the infantry cross the beach then shelter behind the dunes or the wall running parallel to Sword Beach in places. 0730 hours: twenty LCAs (Landing Craft, Assault) bring the assault companies; to the west, on Queen White, companies A and C of the 1st South Lancashire; to the east, on Queen Red, companies A and C of the 2nd East Yorkshire, but all are tied down at the top of the beach behind the anti-tank wall. A flail tank knocks out a 75 mm gun which has just caused the loss of 200 men from the East Yorkshire Regiment. The other companies of the two assault battalions and the two LCIs (Landing Craft, Infantry) transporting the French troops of No. 4 Commando land at 0731 hours. No.4 Commando breaks through the barbed wire defences after running across the beach. At around 0930 hours in Ouistreham the French take the Casino, converted into a bunker. At 1000 hours, the men of No. 4 Commando reach the locks. Most of the 1st Special Service Brigade continue towards the south along the canal from Caen to the sea. At about 1300 hours, Lord Lovat, accompanied by the piper Bill Millin and French commandos followed by other commandos of the Brigade, reach Bénouville Bridge, later renamed Pegasus Bridge, and Major Howard's forces. They had managed to join up with the airborne bridgehead. Mission accomplished.

-------------
This is an excellent account that I found of the fight for Sword Beach.

(Above are pictures of the Periers Ridge (or Periers Rise) mentioned in this narrative.)


Sword Beach
by John Barratt


As well as being the furthest east of the landing beaches, "Sword" was also the smallest, only wide enough for a brigade-sized landing force. The 3rd British Division was tasked with getting enough troops ashore to push inland quickly and seize Caen, and link up with 6th Airborne Division. It would prove to be a seriously over-ambitious aim.

Early on June 6th Naval Force"S", carrying the assault force and support units, moved into position off the mouth of the River Orne. It was here that the only notable German naval activity of the day occurred, when three E-boats emerged through the Allied smoke screen, fired a salvo of torpedoes, which sank the Norwegian destroyer Svenner, and made off unscathed. It proved to be the only appearance of the Kriegsmarine that day, and the Allied bombardment force, including the battleships Warspite and Ramillies, proceeded to lay down the heaviest barrage of the day on the three-mile wide stretch of beach where the 8th British Brigade was to land.

The assault force was made up of the 1st South Lancashire Battalion on the right, heading for Queen White Beach, and the 2nd East Yorks on the left, its target Queen Red Beach. The assault force was preceded by DD tanks of the 13th/18th Hussars, and demolition teams.

Disaster was narrowly avoided when the DD tanks ran into the path of some of the LCTs carrying the demolition teams. In the event, quick thinking and fast maneuvering enabled 21 out of 25 DD tanks to reach shore safely, just ahead of the infantry, who began to disembark at about 7-30 am. On the right, the 1st South Lancs made rapid initial progress Within two hours they had cleared three exits from Queen White, and pushed a mile and a half inland to take the village of Hermanville. Just beyond this lay the important landmark of Periers Rise, but this was strongly held by troops of 21st Panzer Division, with support from 88mm guns, and the British advance stalled on the outskirts of Hermanville, where the South Lancs dug in.

Meanwhile, on Queen Red, the East Yorks met determined resistance in clearing enemy strongpoints, and before this was eventually completed further problems had begun to present themselves.

Owing to the prevailing wind, the tide came in both much faster and further than had been expected. As a result the engineers were unable to clear all of the beach obstacles, and follow-up waves of landing craft became severely congested as they tried to find a safe path to shore. To add to British problems, German artillery fire, zeroing in on the barrage balloons flying above the landing zone, was proving unpleasantly accurate.

If 3rd Division was to reach its planned objectives for the day, both speed and a willingness to take risks were essential. Unfortunately neither were apparent. The congestion was probably inevitable, but both commanders and troops displayed a lack of urgency which still further reduced chances of success. The 3rd Division had seen no action since Dunkirk, and their training had emphasised the initial landing at the expense of follow-up operations.

As a result, the troops, and their senior commanders, were so relieved at the relatively light casualties suffered in the first stages of the landing, that their reaction was to halt and consolidate what they had gained against probable counterattack rather than press quickly onwards to exploit it.

The problem was demonstrated not only by the South Lancs at Hermanville and Periers Rise, but also by the Brigade reserve, the 1st Suffolk, which , despite light resistance, made heavy weather of capturing the village of Colleville and clearing the two nearby German strongpoints codenamed "Morris" and Hillman". It would be late in the day before any real progress was made here; not only had 3rd Brigade failed to link up with the Canadians to the west, they had also not made contact with 6th Airborne, under increasingly heavy pressure east of the Orne.

It was not until about 1pm that the advance on Caen, the main objective of the day, began. The mission was assigned to 185 Brigade, consisting of three battalions - 2nd King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI), which was to thrust down the main road from Hermanville to Caen, supported on the flanks by the 2nd Warwicks and 1st Norfolks.

Unfortunately vital time had been lost, and ominous reports were coming in that air reconnaissance had sighted increasing numbers of German tanks north of Caen. If, as seemed probable, they belonged to the powerful 21st Panzer Division, the next few hours might well be critical for the success of the British and Canadian landings.

As Rommel had recognised, Germany's main chance of defeating the invasion lay in prompt counterattacks, particularly by her panzer forces. However, for a variety of reasons, the powerful striking force within easy reach of the invasion beaches which he had called for was not immediately available. A major problem resulted from a lack of clarity in the panzer command structure. The newly formed 47th Panzer Corps was still in process of taking over command of 21st, 116th and 2nd Panzer Divisions, whilst administrative and supply matters remained under Panzer Group West, with both responsible to Rommel's Army Group B. To complicate matters further, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, Commander in Chief West, was powerless to commit the strategic reserve without the authority of OKW, meaning in effect Hitler.

The differences between Rommel and von Rundstedt over the best deployment of the panzer reserves meant that on June 6th, only one unit, 21st Panzer Division, stationed outside Caen, was in a position to counterattack that day.

21st Panzer had gained its reputation as part of Rommel's famous Afrika Korps. However it had been virtually completely destroyed in the spring of 1943 in Tunisia. It had been reformed later that year in Brittany, with a cadre of veterans drawn from the Eastern Front, its ranks filled out with new recruits from Germany. Shortage of equipment had been a major problem, with much use being made of obsolete material captured from the French in 1940. By the beginning of June 1944, the situation was improving, and 21st Panzer had received in the region of 90 Panzer Mark IVs, which with a number of variants, made up over 70% of its armoured strength. However the position of other units in the Division was less satisfactory. Assault Gun Battalion 200, for example, was equipped with modified French tracked chassis carrying 75mm anti-tank guns and 105 mm field howitzers. The motorised infantry battalions were also far from satisfactory; though some troops had armored half-tracks, others had to make do with lorries.

There is also evidence of some lack of unity among the Division's officers. Its commander, Generalleutnant Edgar Feuchtinger was not regarded with great respect. He was by training an artillery officer, not a tank man, and was thought by some to have too great a fondness for the bright lights of Paris. He would later be accused, by officers of 12th SS Panzer Division, of displaying indecision.

The Division began the day in dispersed positions around Caen, intended to operate against airborne or commando landings. Feuchtinger was under strict orders not to commit any forces against a major sea borne invasion without orders from Army Group B.

It may have been around 1 am on June 6th that Feuchtinger first received word of British paratroop landings east of the Orne. His two motorised infantry battalions were committed to support units of 716th Division in dealing with these, whilst his reconnaissance battalion was tasked with searching for further paratroop landings south of Caen. At 4-30 am, Army Group B released the entire Division for operations against the British paratroops east of the Orne, a decision which drew a considerable part of its strength further away from the coast. By 9 am, the bulk of 21st Panzer's armor was moving steadily north-eastwards away from Caen.

Then at 10-30 am, General Marcks, commanding 84th Corps, changed Feuchtinger's orders. He was to direct his main effort against the British and Canadian sea borne landings.

This belated change of objective resulted in what was to prove to be fatal confusion. Many of 21st Panzer's men were inextricably committed against the paratroops, and in an order issued at 1pm, Feuchtinger attempted to make the best of a bad situation. His armored units were to divide their efforts, three of his panzer battalions were to move against the sea borne landings, whilst the fourth, with Panzergrenadier regiment 125, and attached elements, was to continue operations against the paratroops. Three "kampe gruppes" (battlegroups) , named after their commanders, were improvised, two of them to take charge of operations against the sea borne invaders. Panzerkampegruppe "Oppeln " consisted of two panzer battalions, one panzergrenadier, one engineer and one armored artillery battalion; Panzerkampgruppe "Rauch" was formed from two panzergrenadier battalions, supported by armored engineers and artillery.

The result of this probably inevitable compromise was that only two-thirds of 21st Panzer Division was available for the vital counter attack towards the coast. Chances of success were further reduced by the time lost in re-grouping the Division. It took precious hours to bring men and vehicles over the limited number of crossings of the River Orne, whilst the streets of Caen were blocked with rubble as a result of continuous Allied air and naval bombardment, as well as by crowds of fleeing civilian refugees. As the first tanks eventually emerged from the western suburbs of the town, they were themselves subjected to air attack by rocket-firing Typhoons, and six were knocked out.

It was not until about 4pm that Oppeln's group began deploying near the village of Lebussey, north of Caen. At the same time, General Marcks, commanding 84th Corps took personal charge of the deployment of Group Rauch, which would face the dominating high ground of Periers Rise, still thought to be German-held. Underlining how vital the attack was, Marcks told Oberst von Oppeln-Bronikowski: "If you don't succeed in throwing the British into the sea, we will have lost the war."

At about 4-20 pm, the German assault began. By now, as we have seen, unbeknown to 21st Panzer, Perriers Rise had been occupied by troops of the British Shropshire Light Infantry, equipped with 6 pounder anti-tank guns, and supported by 17 pounder SP guns of the 20th Anti-Tank Regiment. With some trepidation, the British saw a formation of some 40 Panzer IV's rapidly approaching their position. They held their fire until the German tanks began to climb the slope of the Rise, and then opened a devastating fire from their concealed positions. In quick succession, six of the 25 Mark IV's attacking on the right were knocked out. The German advance ground to a halt as surviving tanks sought shelter in patches of woodland. Further to the west, around the village of Mathieu, the 1st Panzer Regiment suffered a similar fate, with around nine tanks knocked out. As a German account admitted: " The fire of the English, from their outstandingly well-sited defence positions, was murderous… within a brief space of time the armoured regiment of 21st Panzer Division had lost a total of 16 tanks, a decisive defeat, from which, especially in morale, it never recovered."

Further to the left, however, PanzerKampfegruppe "Rauch" had found the gap between the British and Canadian forces, and drove unchecked right through to the coast. Here they linked up with the 111th Battalion of Infantry Regiment 736, which was still holding coastal positions to the west of the village of Lion sur Mer. It was a seemingly dramatic breakthrough, which would however require substantial reinforcement if it were to exploit its initial success.

The psychological effects on British troops of the counter-attack were greater than its material results. It did, however, effectively halt for the day the already faltering Allied advance towards Caen, and caused Montgomery to abandon his planned direct assault on the city in favour of a much more time-consuming enveloping movement.

For the Germans, the day ended in frustration. There were no reserves available to exploit the breakthrough at Lion. At about 9 pm, as dusk fell, the men of Group "Rauch" heard the roar of approaching aero engines, as wave after wave of transport aircraft, some towing gliders, came into view, carrying the remainder of the British 6th Airborne Division. These were on their way to reinforce the earlier landings east of the Orne, but the German troops at Lion believed that they were about to be cut off. Apart from a few men of Panzergrenadier Regiment 192, who reinforced the defenders of the isolated Douvres strongpoint, both battlegroups of 21st Panzer were ordered to pull back to positions north of Caen.

German reaction to the Allied landings had been fatally slow. The other nearest mobile reserves, 12th SS Panzer and Panzer Lehr Divisions, were not released by OKW to 7th Army until 7 pm, too late for either, harassed as they were by air attacks, to intervene that day. Germany's last chance to split the British and Canadian landings had been lost.

By nightfall on June 6th 1944-D-Day, Hitler's Atlantic Wall on the coast of Normandy had been breached. The Allies, at a cost of 9,500 casualties compared with 4-10,000 Germans, were ashore in Fortress Europe. But their position remained precarious; the beachheads had less depth than had been hoped for, and British and US forces had not yet linked up. Supplies and reinforcements were not coming ashore as rapidly as had been planned, and the initially slow and piecemeal enemy reaction could not be expected to remain so favorable.

The Allies had to link up and expand their currently insecure toeholds into something more substantial as rapidly as possible.

For Germany, the result of the first day of fighting had been disappointing, but was not viewed as disastrous. Partly as a result of Hitler's hesitancy, and also as a consequence of virtually complete Allied air supremacy over the approaches to the battle area, 21st and 12th SS Panzer Divisions, forming the immediate mobile reserve, had not intervened effectively on June 6th. Indeed losses from enemy air attack were so substantial that it is unlikely that their earlier release would have made any significant difference.

Rommel, absent in Bavaria during the opening hours of the battle, arrived back at Army Group B Headquarters late in the evening, and began re-organising the currently fragmented command structure. Panzer Group West of General Geyr von Schweppenberg, took over from 7th Army command of the front between the Rivers Vire and Orne, and was tasked with organising a powerful armoured counterstroke. Meanwhile Rommel, in an order endorsed by Hitler on June 11th, ordered his troops to maintain a static defence and hold their ground. This would, it was hoped, reduce the effects of Allied air power and keep open the possibility of a panzer counteroffensive. Rommel was faced with a situation in which the uncompleted Atlantic Wall had failed to repulse the invasion, and he now had to devise a new defensive strategy which would also allow for major armoured counterstrokes. But Allied air power and naval gun support, and the virtual non-existence of the Luftwaffe in the theater, meant that Rommel could hardly hope to win a full scale mobile battle . Instead he would have to use all the advantages of terrain to fight a defensive action. (Ted/Gunner here, I need to know if anybody is really reading these posts. If you read this would you please reply with "These pretzels are making me thirsty" or just a "Read it all". I do take some time to do the research before posting. This post took more than two hours to put together. Thanks and I hope you are reading and enjoying this. I know I did.)

Most of the terrain over which the battle of the coming weeks would be fought was well-suited to such a strategy. In particular, Normandy was noted for the bocage, a dense chequerboard of small fields, surrounded by thick hedges and earth banks, with narrow sunken lanes running between them. German defensive skills soon proved to have the ability to turn every field into a potential death trap for Allied armor and infantry. The bocage extended for up to 50 miles inland, excellent country for anti-tank warfare which would also use up attacking infantry at a very high rate. Clever use of concealment in the woods and hedgerows also reduced the effects of Allied air attack by up to 75%. In these conditions determined infantrymen armed with rockets or the deadly panzerfaust , supported by the redoubtable dual-purpose 88mm AA/AT gun , could wait in concealment until an enemy tank was at very close range before opening fire.

About 20 miles south of Bayeux, the bocage turned into an area of thickly wooded ridges with the key feature of Mont Pincon, a 1200 foot hill 20 miles south-west of Caen. Another important observation post was Hill 112, 5 miles to the south-west of Caen. Also significant in this area were another series of ridges, extending to the south and south-east as far as Falaise, of which the most important, providing an excellent defensive position against attack by armor, and blocking the road to Paris, was Bourgebus Ridge, 3 miles to the south of Caen and dominating the town.

On the American front, the main objectives were the port of Cherbourg on the tip of the Cotentin Peninsula, and the important road junction town of St Lo, whose capture would open up the possibility of a drive deep into the French interior.

Despite the defensive advantages of the bocage, and his success on June 6th in preventing Montgomery from taking Caen, Rommel had no illusions concerning the probable long term outcome of the struggle. At best he could buy time, either for Hitler to produce powerful reserves from elsewhere, such as the powerful units of 15th Army still deployed in the Pas de Calais awaiting another invasion, or until another defensive position was prepared further into the interior, along the Seine, or even on the line of the much-vaunted West Wall along the German frontier. Just how much time Rommel had would depend as much upon Allied actions as his own.


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Before we went on to the beach we walked through the small square surrounded by a few "After Pictures".
I can't tell you, after over a half century of reading, studying, watching video and playing scenarios to be actually standing on location and seeing these before and after pictures.
A moment of a life time.

I did after and then before so you can first see what I saw and then hold up a picture of what was.

After:



Before:


After:


Before:



After:


Before:


We then walked through the beach "Exit" and out on to the sand where Gary started the sand map.

You can see on the map the air drops on the left flank and the bridges over the Orne and Caen Canal.
In the middle is the Exit that we are standing in front of and the bunker that fires down the length of the beach.
(described in the narrative above.)



Here is a picture of Gary drawing the map with the Exit right behind him:



Looking down the length of Sword and Gary showing on the sand map and describing the counter-attack of the 21st Panzer.
(note the tides and the distance to the sea wall)



Panorama of Sword with the Exit in the center:



An aerial Sword Beach:



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In the little town square there are many memorials.
Here is one to the Royal Artillery:
(notice the poppy wreaths and the flowers, all memorials were beautifully kept)



To the French Commandos and notice the British 3rd Infantry Division symbol in the brick work:



Here is one to the Lincolnshire Regiment.
Our guide, Gary, being from Lincoln was instrumental in getting the memorial placed.
You could see he was quite proud of the really.



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Before I continue with the memorials I have to put here an account of the Svenner by David Howarth in his book "D-Day the 6th of June".
It's just one of the amazing and tragic stories that took place D-Day.
Please read and enjoy this chapter:

SVENNER

The bombardment fleet for the eastern beaches had been led, in the latter part of the crossing, by two Norwegian destroyers, Stord and Svenner. This position had been meant as a compliment by the British naval authorities, and the Norwegian crews appreciated the honor, uncomfortable though the position might have been.

'Hie captain of Soenner had particular reason to be proud of the place which his ship had been given, for she was brand-new. He was a thirty-year-old lieutenant commander from Trondheim called Tore Holthe; and lie had been in the Norwegian navy before the war and had seen it grow, from the humiliatingly feeble state in which the country's neutrality had kept it, to a force whose destroyers had sailed and fought in British flotillas all over the north Atlantic. His own story had run parallel to his navy's development.

When the Germans invaded Norway in 1940, Holthe was captain of a torpedo boat. At that tune, the Norwegian merchant fleet was one of the largest and most modern in the world; but Holthe's torpedo boat, a vessel of about one hundred tons, was coal-fired and had been built before the first world war. It was a museum piece among warships. The German invasion caught him, as completely surprised as all Norwegians, in Arendal on the south coast of the country. Before anyone knew what had happened, the Germans were in all the south and west coast ports, and as the torpedo boat could only steam a negligible distance before it needed more coal, there was absolutely nowhere that Holthe could take it to keep it out of the hands of the Germans. So he sent his crew home, and scuttled his pathetic ship, and set off to look for some more efficient means of fighting against the Germans. He made his way to the west coast, and requisitioned a fishing boat and set sail for Britain, with three even younger naval officers, to an exile which was to last for exactly five years.

His first command in Britain was better, but not by much: a Norwegian destroyer, so called, of the vintage of 1909. But that was just after Dunkirk, when the British were glad of the help of anything that would float, to help to repel the invasion which they in their turn expected every night; and for eighteen months, Holthe coaxed his ancient vessel up and down the east coast of England.

But his next appointment was a big step forward: first lieutenant of a new Hunt Class destroyer, tie first modern ship of its size which the Norwegian navy had ever owned. After that he became first lieutenant of S* ord, when she was also new; and he sailed with her as far south as Gibraltar and as far north as Murmansk, and was serving aboard her when she played her distinguished part in the sinking of the German cruiser Schainhorst.

And finally, after nearly four years in Britain, he got a new ship of his own: Svenner, straight out of the builder's yard, a fleet destroyer of eighteen hundred tons, four 4.7-inch guns, eight torpedo tubes and a complement of over two hundred men. No captain can ever have had more pride in a new command; Holthes pride in Svenner was national as well as personal.

By then, it was already the spring of 1944, and even while Svenner was working up, it was clear she was destined for a part in the invasion. Most of her practice shoots, up in Scapa Flow, were at targets ashore, and most of her fleet exercises were rehearsals of landings. In May, she sailed to the Clyde; and there Holthe received the orders for her first action, and his own first action in command of a modern ship, Svenner and the flotilla to which she was joined were to escort the capital ships to the area off Ouistreham where they would anchor to start the bombardment; and then she was to go farther inshore, to three thousand yards if necessary, to engage the coastal defenses at short range.

The fleet sailed on June 2nd: the battleships Warspite and Ramillies, the old monitor Roberts, the cruisers Mauritius, Arethusa, Danae, Dragon and Frobisher. Holthe was free then to tell his crew what they were going to do. Most of them, like himself, had been completely cut off for years from their own country and their homes and families. The only thing they really wanted in life was to help to win the war and get home again; and the scope of the plan he described ekted them because, indirect though it was as a route to Norway, it was so clearly a positive step in that direction. The sight of the fleet of which they were part had inspired them too, and their excitement increased as they steamed down the Irish Sea, and were joined by American, British, French, Dutch and Polish warships, and by the scores of old merchant ships whose fate was to be scuttled to form the first breakwaters of the artificial harbors off Arromanches and Omaha.

This was the force which turned round, on Eisenhower's postponement, and steamed north for twelve hours to waste the extra day; and so it was on their third day at sea that they rounded Lands End, and steamed up Channel, and reached the area south of the Isle of Wight which the navy called Piccadilly Circus, where all the convoy routes converged to turn south through the ten channels which minesweepers had already cleared ahead.

At 11 P.M. they entered the easternmost channel, between the lines of lighted buoys which the minesweeper flotillas had laid like street-lamps across to France. Mauritius, the flagship of the eastern bombardment fleet, was in the van, with Svenner 30 degrees on her port bow at a range of a thousand yards. At midnight, Holthe ordered his crew to action stations, and felt for the first time in Svenner the intense aliveness which pervades a ship before an important action. A little after midnight, the force moved into line ahead, with Stord leading and Svenner second. A stream of reports was reaching Holthe from the radar and hydrophone watches; the sea was full of the sound of propellers, and the ether full of echoes; so full that Holthe could only assume that all the ships were friendly and that the worst risk he was running was the risk of collision. The air also was full of sound—the sound which had already wakened England— of the endless fleets of aircraft overhead. Towards dawn, from Svenner's bridge, Holthe and his lookouts saw the flashes of bombs on die coast ahead, and the flicker of fires reflected by the clouds.

At 5:30, in the gray of dawn, the battleships and cruisers anchored. By then, the shore could be seen, and certainly the fleet could be seen from the shore but the Germans were silent The fleet was not only in range of the shore ahead, but also of heavy batteries at Le Havre, which was seven or eight miles away to the east; and to protect the ships from that direction, aircraft began to lay a smoke screen. Svenner and the other destroyers stopped to the west of the capital ships, to wait for the minesweepers to open a channel even closer towards the shore. This moment was a climax of the first ten years of Holthe's career: the fleet poised for action, the scene set for a battle of supreme importance to his country, and he with the most perfect of modern ships and a well-trained crew at his command. It was in that moment that he saw, three hundred yards away, the unmistakable track of a torpedo.

Three German torpedo boats had emerged from the smoke screen, on the far side of the fleet from the spot where Svenner lay.

At that stage of the war, the German navy had only three ships larger than destroyers that were fit to go to sea; its U boats were fighting a losing battle, and its coastal forces that night had failed even to detect the invasion fleet until it was within gunshot of the shore. The navy, in fact, was a spent and ruined force; but its regular officers would not have admitted that, even to themselves, and when the commander of the torpedo boats was ordered to sea that morning, he acted as any good officer of any navy would have acted. His name was Heinrich Hoffmann; his ship was of fourteen hundred tons, the size of a small destroyer; and perhaps no other officer of any navy has ever found himself facing such odds or offered such a target.


(The narrative goes on to talk about Hoffmann's journey to get here)……


(The Allied navy had laid a smoke screen to protect the fleet form German observation)


When he first saw the smoke screen, he thought it was a natural bank of fog; but then he saw an aircraft dropping smoke floats, and he suddenly recognized that the whole mass of it across his course was artificial That finally confirmed his belief that a major operation was under way. His ships had no radar, and so he had no means of knowing what he might find beyond the wall of smoke; but he went into it, at 28 knots in line ahead.

The sight which he saw when he came through the smoke amazed him, prepared though he was for something extraordinary. Straight ahead of him, in the early light of dawn, he saw six battleships or heavy cruisers, and so many minor warships that he had no time to count them; and yet, to his further surprise, not one of them opened fire. He signaled his base that he was going to attack, set course to present the smallest silhouette, and had time to maneuver his ships into a textbook approach. Between them, they fired seventeen torpedoes into the mass of ships ahead.

When Holthe saw the torpedo, he instantly gave the order for full ahead and full port rudder, and the telegraph rang and the engine room acknowledged the order; then time seemed to stop. He stood on the bridge and watched the wake of the torpedo tearing through the choppy sea towards him, and he knew it was going to hit his ship, because she was lying stopped and there was never a chance to get steerage way on hen And he had a moment's astonishment because the torpedo was coming from the port side, right out of the middle of the fleet of friendly ships. And then for a fraction of a second his heart lifted because the wake always follows behind a torpedo, and the wake came so near that he thought the torpedo had gone under her. Then it hit. It hit her amidships, and oil went up in a great fountain and covered the whole ship from bow to stern.

For Holthe himself on the bridge the physical shock of the explosion was small. His emotions were numb. Immediately, Svermer was visibly buckling amidships. He knew she was doomed. Probably less than two minutes passed before he gave the order to abandon ship. The boats were wrecked; the crew got some rafts overboard, and began to jump. She broke in two and sank, and as she went down Holthe jumped from the bridge itself.

When he came up and began to swim, men of his crew were scattered all round him in the water as far as he could see, and he was confident most of them had got clear except for the engine room watch who must have been instantly killed. He saw the canopy of his motor boat floating, and he swam to it and held on, and then looked back at the beautiful ship which had been his pride. To seamen, the sinking of a ship is like a death, and the death-throes of Svenner were grotesque. Her bow and stern rose high out of the water, and her broken midships section stuck on the bottom of the shallow sea; and there she stood, a gigantic ironic V for victory. Holthe watched her with the most intensely bitter disappointment. She had not lived to fire a single shot.

At the moment when Hoffmann fired his torpedoes, the first British salvo of shells fell in front of his bows, so close that his ship, still moving at 28 knots, steamed into the spouts of water before they fell and a flood came down on the foredeck and the bridge. The concussion put out all the lights on board, and cut off the radio. He altered course abruptly to avoid the fire, and returned it impudently with his four-inch guns. By vigorous evasive tactics, all three of his ships got back into the smoke screen, and not one of them was hit.

Emerging again on the homeward side of the smoke, Hoffmann met a forlorn and almost pathetic sight. Three armed fishing boats, the only other German naval units which had reacted to the report of enemy ships, were steaming purposefully at 8 knots towards the sounds of battle. He could not tell them what they were up against, because his radio was gone; but his sudden appearance was sufficient warning. The British gunfire, controlled by radar, followed him through the smoke, and then transferred to the leading fishing boat. All three turned back, and he crossed their bows to try to draw the fire back on himself; but one fishing boat was hit and sank. British fighter bombers appeared then, and escorted Hoffmann's flotilla back to port.

From Hoffmann's point of view, it was the most extraordinarily bad luck that Svenner was the only ship he hit. His seventeen torpedoes went right through the close-packed British fleet. Two of them passed between the battleships Warspite and RamMies. A third headed straight for Largs, the headquarters ship of the area, which only avoided it by going full speed astern. The destroyer Virago reported a near miss. The torpedo which hit Svenner had already gone through the fleet from one side to the other; Svenner was on the west of it, and Hoffmann on the east, and they were never in sight of each other.

Nobody would deny that the spirit and execution of Hoffmann's attack would have been a credit to any navy. He succeeded because the British smoke screen protected him, and because the British radar was confused by the enormous number of echoes from British ships. But his was the only action of any kind whatever that the German navy took on D Day, and Svenner and the American destroyer Corn/, which was hit by a shore battery north of Utah, were the only warships of their size which were lost that day.

Thirty-two of Holthe's crew were killed, and two of the British liaison men who had been on board with him. After half an hour, the stern of Svenner rolled over and disappeared, but die bow stood there for a long time, and thousands of troops on their way to the beach saw it projecting above the surface, like a tombstone. Holthe was picked up, while the bombardment in which he had hoped to take his part roared overhead towards the beach and the town of Ouistreham.

The memorial to the Norwegian Sailors:
(God rest their souls)



This is the actual anchor from the Svenner.
It's memorials like these, when standing close or touching them that can bring events to life in ways that reading about or seeing pictures can't.





We then left the beach to check out a AVRE (Petard Mortar) and the memorial for 41 Commando and FDR.

 

[Gunner]

To finish Sword, the AVRE and 41 Commando Memorial:

The boys:


It's pretty cool to be able to walk up and touch these things.
Mostly I've seen tanks in museums and you are not allowed to touch.



Since they needed to load the mortar from the outside, Gary told us they would swivel the gun to the side and point it downward and the loader would pop out of the hatch in the side and lean up and load it. All while under fire. Crazy eh?



The 41 Commando:

No 41 RM Commando was the senior unit in the Brigade, it landed at Hermanville-sur-Mer and then moved west to Lion-sur-Mer. The unit's first task was to link up with their fellow commandos at Luc-sur-Mer.

As the Commando came ashore under moderate fire, it lost several men including their Regimental Sergeant Major, the Naval Forward Observation Officer and the second-in-command. Once clear of the beach defences it found itself in a relatively quiet sector. From its assembly area, it marched down the coastal road toward Lion-sur-Mer joined by three Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE)s. As P and Y troops approached the town, a well-concealed German PaK 38 gun ambushed the tanks, knocking all three out and stalling the assault.

A and B troops had been moving ahead on to their second objective at the Chateau, but were attacked on their approach and forced back. Facing overwhelming defences and artillery, the commandos dug in and awaited reinforcements.

At 1330 Hours battalions of the Lincolnshire Regiment and the Royal Ulster Rifles moved up to the commandos' position, bringing with them a replacement Naval Observation Officer. As soon as he arrived, the destroyers offshore began a one hour-long naval bombardment, battering the strong point and chateau. It was now too late for the commandos to launch an effective assault, so they dug-in for the night.

When dawn broke the German artillery fire began once again, pinning the commandos and supporting infantry down for another two hours. They were then subject to a bombing attack by German Heinkel bombers which dropped anti-personnel bombs onto their position, killing several men, including their royal artillery observer and severely wounding the commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Gray. Having already lost the second-in-command, Major Barclay, command fell to the Adjutant John Taplin. Under his leadership the Commando joined the Lincolnshire Regiment in the final assault on the strongpoint and chateau. Once the two units had seized the position, 41 Commando moved on alone to Luc-sur-mer. They found the town undefended and dug-in to wait for their colleagues to join them from the Canadian beach.

No 41 RM Commando Sundial Memorial, Lion-sur-Mer, France:

 

[Louis]

Good work sir. Thanks for posting.

 

[fabishd]

Again, thank you so much for sharing your unique experience.

 

[Gunner]

OK, so, maybe these posts are a little too wordy.
(I waited but it seems nobody found that the pretzels were too salty. )

Anyway, on to Juno.....

Juno Beach area is really built up today.
It is a true seaside resort but there are still memorials scattered about so as to always remember what happened here.

Juno

Juno or Juno Beach was one of five beaches of the Allied invasion of German occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during the Second World War. The beach spanned from Courseulles-sur-Mer, a village just east of the British beach Gold, to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, just west of the British beach Sword. The objectives of the 3rd Division on D-Day were to cut the Caen-Bayeux road, seize the Carpiquet airport west of Caen, and form a link between the two British beaches of Gold and Sword on either side of Juno Beach. Taking Juno was the responsibility of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and commandos of the Royal Marines, all under the command of British I Corps, with support from Naval Force J, the Juno contingent of the invasion fleet, including the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). The beach was defended by two battalions of the German 716th Infantry Division, with elements of the 21st Panzer Division held in reserve near Caen.

Though the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade was scheduled to land on Mike Sector at 07:35, rough seas and poor craft coordination pushed this time back by ten minutes. Two assault companies of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, one assault company of the Canadian Scottish Regiment, and one squadron of the 1st Hussars were to land on "Mike Red" and also on "Mike Green", while the Regina Rifle Regiment, supported by a second squadron of the 1st Hussars, landed on "Nan Green" sector. The first Winnipegs touched down at 07:49, with the remaining assault companies deploying within seven minutes. The LCAs carrying "B" Company craft were engaged while about 700 yards from shore. Disembarkation had to be done under direct fire and, in consequence, heavy casualties were sustained by this company while landing. The strongpoint in this area consisted of three casemates and twelve machine-gun emplacements. This left the infantry the grim prospect of clearing it by direct assault."B" company was unable to advance further without armoured support. The Hussars' "A" Squadron launched 1,500 yards (1,400 m) from the beach, but would not be fully deployed until a full six minutes after the Winnipegs were ashore. To their west, "D" Company faced less defensive fire, as it was clear of the strongpoint. The company easily cleared the beach, and went through the barbed wire with light casualties. "A" platoon of the 6th Field Company Royal Canadian Engineers was redirected to clear the minefields facing "D" Company, given that the flail tanks had yet to land. On the far right, "C" Company of the Canadian Scottish Regiment landed with little opposition, and discovered that their objective—a 75 mm gun emplacement—had been destroyed by naval gunfire.

To the east of Mike Sector, the Regina Rifles came ashore on "Nan Green" with the objective of subduing German forces in Courseulles. "A" Company reported touchdown at 08:09, and met heavy resistance almost immediately; "B" Company reported touchdown at 08:15. The Hussars' tanks first reported deploying twenty minutes before the infantry, with "B" Squadron HQ reporting their landing at 07:58. They faced the task of destroying a heavy gun emplacement equipped with 88 mm and 75 mm guns, and 4-foot (1.2 m) thick concrete walls. The pre-landing bombardment had failed to destroy the emplacement, and heavy machine guns subsequently inflicted high casualty rates on the company; one LCA reported six men killed within seconds of lowering the ramps. One platoon was able to breach the barbed wire lining the beach and take cover in Courseulles, and then eliminated the machine-gun positions engaging "A" Company of the Regina Rifles. The DD tanks arrived in the Regina Rifles sector with both greater numbers and punctuality than in the Winnipegs' sector. The 75 mm gun emplacement in the Courseulles strongpoint was destroyed by fire from "B" Squadron of the 1st Hussars; the 88 mm was similarly silenced. To their east, "B" Company encountered limited resistance, and succeeded in pushing into Courseulles, and soon "had cleared a succession of the assigned blocks in the village", according to Stacey.

With the initial assault companies ashore and fighting for their objectives, the reserve companies and battalion (Canadian Scottish Regiment) began their deployment on Juno. "A" and "C" Companies of the Winnipeg Rifles landed at 08:05, and began to push towards the villages of Banville and Sainte-Croix-sur-Mer. "A" Company encountered heavy machine-gun resistance, and had to request support from the 1st Hussars to clear the position. On Nan Green, "C" and "D" Companies of the Regina Rifles prepared to storm Courseulles. "C" Company touched down at 08:35, and moved into the village without difficulty. "D" Company was further delayed, meaning that several LCAs struck antitank mines attached to beach obstacles; only 49 "D" Company soldiers reached the beach. The Canadian Scottish Regiment arrived on the beach at 08:30, with the leading companies coming under heavy mortar fire; it took the regiment a full hour to get off the beaches and push further inland.

Casualties
Initial predictions for the likely casualties on Juno had been very high, approaching 2,000,[160] including 600 drowned.[161] In the end, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division suffered the following casualties: 340 killed, 574 wounded and 47 taken prisoner. The Queen's Own Rifles suffered the heaviest, with 143 casualties, the Royal Winnipegs 128, the North Shore 125 and the Regina Rifles 108.[163] Of the varied landing craft used on the run-in to Juno, 90 of 306 were lost or damaged.[164] Due to the breakdown of logistics on D-Day the exact numbers of casualties for the German 716th Infantry Division is unknown. However, of the division's four German battalions numbering 7,771 men before the invasion, Richter reported that the equivalent of only one battalion—at 80 per cent strength—remained. At least one of the two conscript battalions of the 716th was reported to have fled.[165] Richter also reported that 80 per cent of the division's artillery had been destroyed or captured on D-Day, while only two gun batteries were intact west of the River Orne.[166] By 9 June, the division had been reduced to a battlegroup of 292 officers and men.


Here you can see the depth of the beach at low tide and the dunes:


Facing the other direction.
Again notice the distance from low tide to the dunes.



Gary explaining the assault on the beach.
The Cross of Lorraine monument in the background



The Cross of Lorraine marking the spot on Juno Beach where Churchill, George VI and De gaulle visited within two weeks of D Day.


Near here is a monument to the Polish division that landed here.
There's is an incredible story and will be talked about more in detail later.


Hotel du Paris, the German HQ where General Marcks and Gerhardt spent a lot of their time.


One of the highlights was on the main road across from the beach is a DD tank that stands as a monument.
Fort Garry Horse and the 1st Hussars were equipped with DDs, but only those of the 1st Hussars could be launched. They were assigned to the 7th Canadian Brigade, at the western end of the beach. Some of the tanks were launched at 4,000 yd (3,658 m) and some at 800 yards (700 m); twenty-one out of twenty-nine tanks reached the beach. The 8th Canadian Brigade, at the eastern end of the beach, was forced to land without DD tanks because of rougher seas. They suffered heavy initial casualties, but were still able to make good progress.





To the Canadians!


The tank has the badges of the units that faught here attached all around.
Notice the gears for the propellers underneath.



Churchill AVRE tank nestled in the dunes at Brèche de Graye. This tank served with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, and was given a new coat of paint for the 70th anniversary.
This one has quite a story. This one was found and dug up back in, I think, 1970.


One of the best parts of touring is when there is a before and now moment.




There was so much more to see and do but we were burning daylight and had to move on to Gold Beach.
Perhaps when I go back with fellow FGM members we could go in to more detail

 

[Ithikial]

There was so much more to see and do but we were burning daylight and had to move on to Gold Beach.
Perhaps when I go back with fellow FGM members we could go in to more detail

One day. One day.

 

[Gunner]

On to Gold Beach and the Mulberry at sunset.......


Gold Beach - Asnelles/Le Hamel - British 50th Infantry Division/231 Brigade assault - view of Mulberry Harbour
Gold Beach - Arromanches Mulberry Artificial Harbour - view from cliff top - Radar Station position

Gold Beach - King Green/Red - Sector La Paisty Vert - Mont Fleury Battery Stanley Hollis VC action....



Gold Beach
Gold, commonly known as Gold Beach, was the code name for one of the five areas of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during the Second World War. Gold, the central of the five areas, was located between Port-en-Bessin on the west and La Rivière on the east. High cliffs at the western end of the zone meant that the landings took place on the flat section between Le Hamel and La Rivière, in the sectors code-named Jig and King. Amphibious landings at Gold were undertaken by the British 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, commanded by Major-General D.A.H. Graham, with sea transport and naval artillery support provided by the Royal Navy. The 8th Armoured Brigade provided armour support.

The objectives at Gold were to secure a beachhead, move west to capture Arromanches and establish contact with the American forces at Omaha, capture Bayeux and the small port at Port-en-Bessin, and to link up with the Canadian forces at Juno to the east. Forces attacking Gold faced elements of the German 352nd Infantry Division and 716th Infantry Division. About 2,000 men were stationed in the immediate area. Improvements to fortifications along the Normandy coast had been undertaken under the leadership of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel beginning in October 1943.

On D-Day at Gold, naval bombardment got underway at 05:30, and amphibious landings commenced at 07:25. High winds made conditions difficult for the landing craft, and the amphibious DD tanks were released close to shore or directly on the beach instead of further out as planned. Three of the four guns in a large emplacement at the Longues-sur-Mer battery were disabled by direct hits from the cruisers Ajax and Argonaut at 06:20. The fourth gun resumed firing intermittently in the afternoon, and its garrison surrendered on 7 June. Aerial attacks had failed to hit the Le Hamel strongpoint, which had its embrasure facing east to provide enfilade fire along the beach and had a thick concrete wall on the seaward side. Its 75 mm gun continued to do damage until 16:00, when a modified Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE) tank fired a large petard charge into its rear entrance. A second casemated emplacement at La Rivière containing an 88 mm gun was neutralized by a tank at 07:30.

Meanwhile, infantry began clearing the heavily fortified houses along the shore and advanced on targets further inland. The No. 47 (Royal Marine) Commando advanced on Port-en-Bessin and captured it on 7 June in the Battle of Port-en-Bessin. On the western flank, the 1st Battalion, Hampshire Regiment captured Arromanches (future site of one of the artificial Mulberry harbours), and 69th Infantry Brigade on the eastern flank made contact with the Canadian forces at Juno. Company Sergeant Major Stanley Hollis received the only Victoria Cross awarded on D-Day for his actions while attacking two pillboxes at the Mont Fleury battery. Due to stiff resistance from the 352nd Infantry Division, Bayeux was not captured until the next day. British casualties at Gold are estimated at 1,000–1,100. German casualties are unknown.

Gold Beach looking west, you can just make out the Mulberry Harbor in the distance.


Closer to what it may have looked like on D-Day:


Looking east towards La Riviere, you can see a bunker with a blue door in the center that covers the length of the beach:

A zoomed in picture:


Here still looking east but gives you a better feel for the depth of the beach at low tide.


A disabled flail tank on Gold Beach:


King Beach


Here we are standing at the exit of the beach and the road that leads to the Mont Fluery Battery:


At up the road past the tram stop (being looked at)




This is the road (center) on D-Day


Looking back down the road towards the beach.
We were standing at the foot of the road leading up form the beach.
(I still can't believe I was there)


It was up this road that Warrant Officer Class II (Company Sergeant-Major) Stanley Hollis attacked the Mony Fleury Battery and won the Victoria Cross.

Oh yes and lastly this just so happens to be the place that the first trans-atlantic air mail arrived in France.
But that's another story

 

[Gunner]

D-Day, June 6, 1944 and the men of the 6th Battalion, Green Howards (Alexandra, Princess of Wales’ Own Yorkshire Regiment) struggled ashore on a heavily defended section of Gold Beach. D Company landed near the Mont-Fleury battery on the King sector of Gold Beach as part of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division at 07:45. As D Company attacked the battery, the commanding officer, Major Ronnie Lofthouse, realised that the attacking platoon were coming under fire from the rear.

Major Lofthouse noticed where the source of the flanking fire was and said to Company Sergeant Major (CSM) Stan Hollis, “There’s a pillbox in there, sergeant major.” He pointed to an area of bushes fifty yards to the right. Hollis immediately charged the pillbox alone with out waiting for further instructions.

Hollis and Lofthouse were about half way up the road to Mont-Fleury, by the wall of “the house with the circular drive”, a clear feature on the aerial photographs that they had used to familiarise themselves with their mission, when they spotted the pillbox. Hollis immediately set off, firing his Sten submachine-gun as he ran. The Germans in the bunker turned their machine-gun on him, but in their panic, they totally missed. When he reached the pillbox, he shoved his Sten gun through the slit and fired it into the interior. Hollis climbed on top of the pillbox, reloaded his Sten, and then dropped a grenade through the firing slit. Jumping down to investigate his handiwork, and finding the occupants either dead or stunned, Hollis then moved down a trench towards another pillbox that he had seen. On seeing this superman approaching their position, the Germans in the second pillbox surrendered. Hollis took over 25 prisoners and saved D Company from dangerous flanking fire. For this action and others at Crépon later in the day, Stan Hollis was awarded the Victoria Cross, the only one awarded on D-Day.




Crépon

By about midday CSM Hollis and D Company had reached Crépon and encountered some resistance on its outskirts. Most of the 6th Battalion Green Howards by-passed the village, maintaining their momentum. However the battalion commander, Lt-Col Robin Hastings, assigned the task of probing the village to Major Lofthouse’s D Company. By this time CSM Hollis had taken command of 16 Platoon when its commander had been killed near Mont Feury Battery (after the platoon sergeant had already been lost in the initial landings).

Hollis took a small group of his men into the le Pavillon farm to search the buildings. After checking the farmhouse he and his mean move down the narrow passage between the house and a stonewall which led to an outbuilding and a small opening into an orchard. As Hollis was peering around the wall into the orchard a bullet struck the wall near his head.

He quickly ducked down and noticed two dogs and gun at the south end of the orchard, about 150 meters away. The dogs were wagging their tails, indication the possibility of people present.

He returned to his other mean on the road and collected a PIAT with the intent of destroying the gun. Lofthouse gave him the go ahead and he returned to the passage and collected some men to give him covering fire. The riflemen rushed into the orchard and began firing while Hollis and two Bren gunners crawled through a rhubarb patch running down the side of the orchard.

Unfortunately the covering riflemen had been killed or wounded, in spite of this Hollis continued forward until he was in a position where he thought he’d get a shot at the gun.

He fired his PIAT and watched in disappointment as his round fell short. Unable to reload quickly he watched in horror as the gun barrel was lowered so it seemed it was pointing directly at him. The gun fired and the shot whizzed over Hollis’s head and into the building behind him. The German crew were unable to depress the gun barrel enough to get an accurate shot off at him. After his close encounter he ordered his Bren gunners to withdraw and crawled out of the orchard.

On exiting firing continued to sound from the orchard, his Bren gunners were pinned down. He exchanged the PIAT for a Bren gun and returned to the orchard to extract his men.

Firing the Bren from his hip, ignoring the German bullets flying past him, he was able to cover the Bren gunners’ retreat. All three made it back to the farmhouse safely. Major Lofthouse decided the position was best left to the following troops and D Company rejoined the advance of the rest of the battalion.

CSM Stan Hollis

Stanley Elton Hollis was the Sergeant Major of D Company of the 6th Battalion, Green Howards. From Middlesborough in England, he joined the army in 1940 and served in the Dunkirk campaign, in North Africa, as well as in the invasion of Sicily. After busting the bunkers on Gold Beach, he went on to further distinguish himself at Crépon.

Hollis was given command of 16 Platoon of D Company after it had lost its officers and senior NCOs during the initial fighting.

The road up from the beach to the Mont Fluery Battery (center).


A small memorial to Hollis at the little tram station (the tram and it's tracks are no longer there)




(As you can see there are wreaths and flowers and poppies at every memorial. Bless them all.)

Again, the location of the tram stop:


Finally an aerial photo of Gold Beach, King sector, with the road leading in land:

 

[Gunner]

Gold Beach - Asnelles/Le Hamel - British 50th Infantry Division/231 Brigade assault - view of Mulberry Harbour


In the two hours before the Gold beach Landings started landings started, the offshore fleet of Force G came under fire from the 152mm German Gun Battery at Longues sur Mer, although the fire was ineffective and no Allied ships were hit. Fire was returned by HMS Ajax and other ships and the gun battery fell silent at 0730am. It was then that the 1st Battalion, Hampshire Regiment and the 1st Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment, both of the 231st Brigade, stormed ashore onto the beaches of the seaside town of Asnelles at 07:30am. Asnelles, the western most village on Gold beach is situated in Jig Sector of the D-Day Landing sectors. Carried by the strong winds and currents, all of the assault units landed about a quarter of a mile (400 meters) too far to the east of their intended landing sectors. When the reserve battalion arrived on the beach, they too found themselves off course to the east. Following a fierce firefight in which confusion seemed to be the order of the day, the 231st Brigade managed to make their way off the beaches to reorganize themselves for the push inland. Even as they did this they left strong German positions on the beach still fighting, intact and in enemy hands. These strong-points would be dealt with later by the mobile field artillery of the Essex Yeomanry. The 47th Royal Marine Commandos also had a difficult landing. Scheduled to land at 0930am, 2 hours after the first wave, when they arrived instead of finding the beach secure and the first wave advancing inland, they found the German beach defenses still largely intact and occupied. Suffering the loss of several craft and the equipment they carried, it was not until noon that the Commandos set off to their objective, the village of Port en Bessin where they were to link up with the US 26th Regiment coming from Omaha Beach.

The assault on Gold Beach starts at 0725 hrs on the King sector. Men of the 6th Green Howards land, supported by the DDs of the 4th/7th Dragoons and the special tanks of the Westminster Dragoons. In this sector the defence is weak and the coastal strongpoints are easily reduced before the troops push inlands to silence the german batteries.

On the Jig sector, the assault companies of the 1st Hampshire land at 0735 hrs without the supporting tanks which have been delayed.

Gold Beach : Hour H+60 minutes (55Ko) landing of the147th Field Rgt RA
The attack of Le Hamel is stopped cold, progress are very slow and the losses heavy. It will take the support of the 147th Field Rgt, Royal Artillery to reduce the strongpoint which falls at 1600 hrs.
The 69th brigade can then continue it's advance south though Creully and Crépon. At 1600 hrs a german counter-attack is launched that shakes the british lines but fails to break though.

Jig Sector looking east from Le Hamel.
(Notice the difference in the beach from King Sector)


Looking west:
(You can get a better view of the Mulberry)


A good feel for the depth of the beach at low tide:


Time was getting critical at this point as you can see by the setting sun.
Last stop a German radar station and a great view of the Mulberry.

 

[Gunner]

Gold Beach - Arromanches Mulberry Artificial Harbour - view from cliff top - Radar Station position

A Mulberry harbour was a portable temporary harbour developed by the British in World War II to facilitate rapid offloading of cargo onto the beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy.
Two prefabricated or artificial military harbours were taken in sections across the English Channel from Britain with the invading army and assembled off the coast of Normandy as part of the D-Day invasion of France in 1944.

The Dieppe Raid of 1942 had shown that the Allies could not rely on being able to penetrate the Atlantic Wall to capture a port on the north French coast. The problem was that large ocean-going ships of the type needed to transport heavy and bulky cargoes and stores needed sufficient depth of water under their keels, together with dockside cranes, to off-load their cargo and this was not available except at the already heavily-defended French harbours. Thus, the Mulberries were created to provide the port facilities necessary to offload the thousands of men and vehicles, and tons of supplies necessary to sustain Operation Overlord and the Battle of Normandy. The harbours were made up of all the elements one would expect of any harbour: breakwater, piers, roadways etc.

Development

The actual proposer of the idea of the Mulberry harbour is disputed, but among those who are known to have proposed something along these lines is Hugh Iorys Hughes, a Welsh civil engineer who submitted initial plans on the idea to the War Office, Professor J. D. Bernal, Vice-Admiral John Hughes-Hallett, and Sir Henry Olivier, a hydro engineer who was recognized for his contributions by Queen Elizabeth.

At a meeting following the Dieppe Raid, Hughes-Hallett declared that if a port could not be captured, then one should be taken across the Channel. This was met with derision at the time, but in a subsequent meeting with Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister declared that in 1917[2] he had surmised a similar scenario using some German islands and sinking old ships for a bridgehead for an invasion in World War I. The concept of Mulberry harbours began to take shape when Hughes-Hallett moved to be Naval Chief of Staff to the Overlord planners.

A trial of the three eventual competing designs for the cargo-handling jetties was set up, with tests of deployment at Garlieston, Wigtownshire. The designs were by Hugh Iorys Hughes who developed his "Hippo" piers and "Crocodile" bridge units on the Conwy Morfa, using 1,000 men to build the trial version; the Hamilton "Swiss Roll" which consisted of a floating roadway made of waterproofed canvas stiffened with slats and tensioned by cables; and a system of flexible bridging units supported on floating pontoons designed by Major Allan Beckett, Royal Engineers. The tests revealed various problems (the "Swiss Roll" would only take a maximum of a 7-ton truck in the Atlantic swell). However the final choice of design was determined by a storm during which the "Hippos" were undermined causing the "Crocodile" bridge spans to fail and the Swiss Roll was washed away; Beckett's floating roadway (subsequently codenamed 'Whale') survived undamaged. Beckett's design was adopted and 10 miles of Whale roadway were manufactured under the management of J. D. Bernal and Brigadier Bruce White, under the orders of Churchill.

The proposed harbours called for many huge caissons of various sorts to build breakwaters and piers and connecting structures to provide the roadways. The caissons were built at a number of locations, mainly existing ship building facilities or large beaches like Conwy Morfa around the British coast. The works were let out to commercial construction firms including Balfour Beatty, Costain, Nuttall, Henry Boot, Sir Robert McAlpine and Peter Lind & Company, who all still operate today, and Cubitts, Holloway Brothers, Mowlem, Taylor Woodrow and Pauling and Company of Westminster,[3] who all have since been absorbed into other businesses that are still operating.[4] On completion they were towed across the English Channel by tugs[5] to the Normandy coast at only 4.3 Knots (8 km/h or 5 mph), built, operated and maintained by the Corps of Royal Engineers, under the guidance of Reginald D. Gwyther, who was appointed CBE for his efforts.

Deployment

By 9 June, just 3 days after D-Day, two harbours codenamed Mulberry "A" and "B" were constructed at Omaha Beach and Arromanches, respectively. However, a large storm on 19 June destroyed the American harbour at Omaha, leaving only the British harbour still intact but damaged, which included damage to the 'Swiss Roll' which had been deployed as the most western floating roadway had to be taken out of service. The surviving Mulberry "B" came to be known as Port Winston at Arromanches. While the harbour at Omaha was destroyed sooner than expected, Port Winston saw heavy use for 8 months—despite being designed to last only 3 months. In the 10 months after D-Day, it was used to land over 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tonnes of supplies providing much needed reinforcements in France.[6][7] In response to this longer than planned use the Phoenix breakwater was reinforced with the addition of specially strengthened caisson.

The Royal Engineers built a complete Mulberry harbour out of 600,000 tons of concrete between 33 jetties, and had 10 miles (15 km) of floating roadways to land men and vehicles on the beach. Port Winston is commonly upheld as one of the best examples of military engineering. Its remains are still visible today from the beaches at Arromanches, and a section of it remains embedded in the sand in the Thames Estuary, accessible at low tide, about 1 km off the coast of the military base at Shoeburyness. A Phoenix unit known as The Far Mulberry sank off Pagham and lying at about 10 metres is an easily accessible scuba diving site. Another unit is aground with a broken back just inside Langstone Harbour. Another is off the beach at Littlestone-on-Sea Kent, after running aground while under tow on its way round the coast prior to D-Day.

From a great vantage point Gary, as always, is pointing out places and things of interest to me that I believed I would never see.
What a fantastic trip.
Notice the French had built a tower to stand in and view the harbor and beach with a wrap around table that shows what is where in all directions. Also there is an inlaid compass on the floor to get your bearings on.


Aromanches and Gold Beach, Jig sector from the Radar station


Here you can see some of the Mulberry and the pad for the radar dish:


More Mulberry


Give you an idea what you are looking at (from wikipedia)
A pair of Phoenixes at Arromanches



And what it looked like then:


Give you an idea of the actual size:




A perfect sunset


A vista I hope can give you a feel of the scale....


This ended Day 4.
We now had seen the American and British para drops and all 5 landing beaches.
Also included were a places like Montgomery's HQ and a few other sites that just filled things out.
Have I all ready said that this was a fantastic vacation so far.
Unbelievable.

Anyway, from here we went back to the hotel and then to the pub next door for a omelette and a pint.
It's hard to believe it can get any better.

Tomorrow, Day 5, we move inland to various sites.
D-Day has ended and the battle for the beaches is over and now the battle for Normandy begins.

 

[Gunner]

Bump