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    D-Day: Gold, Juno and Sword
    D-Day: Gold, Juno and Sword
    D-Day: Gold, Juno and Sword
    Ebook108 pages1 hour

    D-Day: Gold, Juno and Sword

    By Will Fowler

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    About this ebook

    In any military operation throughout history, few 24-hour periods have been as crucial as that of 6th June 1944. With the aid of specially commissioned maps, D-Day: The First 24 Hours series gives the dramatic history of the first 24 hours of the Normandy landings, and explains in detail the events that occurred in each landing zone. In this fourth volume of the series, the book describes the British and Canadian landings on Gold, Juno and Sword beaches. The book also includes details of the human cost of the first day, and a full order of battle for both sides.

    With colour and black & white photographs, the book is a guide to key events in the first 24 hours of the D-Day landings that saw the Allies successfully achieve a foothold in Northern Europe.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAmber Books Ltd
    Release dateJun 2, 2014
    ISBN9781909160538
    D-Day: Gold, Juno and Sword

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      Book preview

      D-Day - Will Fowler

      Battle

      The two-storey fire control and observation post at Les Longues battery that is still in excellent condition today. The scars of the Allied bombardment are clearly visible. The battery was not captured until 7 June, but it was put out of action by Allied naval gunfire.

      CHAPTER ONE

      GOLD BEACH

      At the western end of the Anglo–Canadian beaches, Gold was the objective for the XXX Corps. The German planners had dismissed it as a potential site for a major landing because of the steep bluffs and rock strewn shore, which would make any landing difficult. Once ashore, the British forces were to swing right to link up with the American V Corps at Omaha. They would also drive inland, with the liberation of the historical town of Bayeux as an objective to be secured before the end of D-Day.

      IN SEPTEMBER 1943, A FORMIDABLE German coastal battery was commissioned on the cliffs at Les Longues between Omaha and Gold. Manned by the Kriegsmarine, it had four 15cm (5.9in) Torpedobootskanone C/36 guns taken from decommissioned destroyers. The guns had been made at the Czechoslovakian armaments plant at Skoda, Pilsen, and had a range of 19.5km (12 miles) that covered the approaches to the future Omaha, Gold and Juno beaches.

      The guns were in Type M272 casemates that gave them an elevation of minus four degrees to plus 40 degrees and an arc of fire of 130 degrees – which was possible because of cut-outs at the sides of the embrasure. The casemates had been textured and landscaped for camouflage and protection. They were about 330m (1100ft) from the cliff and had not been built in a straight line but in a slight convex arc that enabled the guns to cover a wider area. As with all naval designs, ammunition was kept in magazines within the casemates.

      At the cliff edge, a two-storey semi-underground Type M262 Observation and Fire Control bunker had been constructed. It had optical range and direction finding equipment, map room and accommodation. Telephone cables buried 2m (6.5ft) deep ran from the OP to the guns.

      The battery, manned by 184 sailors, had seven personnel shelters and six bunkers with Tobruks. A mortar pit was located behind the No 2 gun casemate. A 2cm (0.78in) flak gun was sited to cover the cliffs and as anti-aircraft protection. The whole position was protected by barbed wire and minefields. The battery was bombed on 28 May and 3 June when it received 150 tonnes (148 tons) of bombs. They did no damage.

      GERMAN GUNS IN ACTION

      On the morning of 6 June, the guns went into action against the invasion fleet. They engaged the USS Arkansas and then switched to Gold beach where they straddled the XXX Corps HQ ship HMS Bulolo. The cruiser HMS Ajax moved into position and at 12km (7 miles) fired 114 shells from her 152mm (6in) guns. Two direct hits knocked out guns No 3 and No 4 and near misses damaged the other two. Within 20 minutes, the battery was silent.

      During the day, the battery crew worked on No 1 gun and during the afternoon opened fire again. The French cruiser FFS George Leygues began a duel that lasted until 18:00 hours when the battery was finally silenced. The battery had been a D-Day objective of the 231st Brigade of the British 50th (Northumbrian) Division, but it was not captured until the next day.

      The effectiveness of naval counter battery fire here and on the Cotentin Peninsula raises the question of why airborne and amphibious assaults were necessary at Merville and the Point du Hoc.

      Commandos prime No36 grenades before landing at Gold. The grenades, often covered in a coating of sticky grease, needed to be cleaned before springs and mechanisms were checked. Then the detonator assembly was carefully inserted and the grenades were primed.

      The German defences at Gold at Le Hamel and La Rivière were held by two battalions of the 726th Regiment from the 716th Static Infantry Division with its headquarters at Trévières. A third battalion was held in depth to counter-attack or provide reinforcements. Supervised by 270 German officers and NCOs, a unit of 1000 Osttruppen in the 441st Battalion held the coast between Ver and Asnelles. Three companies of the 200th anti-tank battalion in St Croix, Grand-Tonne, Fresne-Camilly and Putot were fully mobile.

      CENTRE OF RESISTANCE

      The main potential areas of German resistance inland were the two batteries around the village of Ver-sur-Mer, immediately inland from La Rivière. The 1260th Artillery Regiment manned the battery of four captured Russian K390(r) 12cm (4.72in) guns close to the mansion at Mont Fleury. Two guns were in casemates and a further two were under construction. At La Mare Fontaine, further inland, the 1716th Artillery Regiment with its headquarters at Crepon had four FH18 10.5cm (4.13in) howitzers in casemates. However, both batteries were subject to heavy air attacks prior to D-Day and were bombarded and neutralized on the day by the cruisers HMS Orion and Belfast.

      At the western end of the area, at St Côme de Fresné, on the cliffs above Arromanches, a 560MHz Würzburg-Riese radar station had been built. With a parabolic 7m (23ft) dish mounted on an octagonal concrete base it had a range of 30km (18.5 miles). It was used for fire control and low altitude coordination of fighter aircraft. Its weakness was that following the airborne raid on the Würzburg radar station at Bruneval in February 1942 British electronic warfare experts had established techniques for jamming its signals. The station at Arromanches, along with others

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