*VIRTUAL TOUR - The Somme Offensive Continued* The Sheffield Pals and the Battle Of Serre, 1st July 1916

Day 1 Of The European Tour

After our first relaxing night in Sainte Mere Eglise campsite, we began to visit the sites from D-Day in WW2.

Overlooking the town square, and facing the famous church where paratrooper John Steele’s parachute caught on the spire during the first attack. Back in the day; as a result, Steele could only observe the fighting going on below. He hung there limply for two hours, pretending to be dead before the Germans took him prisoner. Steele later escaped from the Germans and re-joined his Division when the US Troops of the 3rd Battalion, 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment attacked the village, capturing thirty Germans and killing another eleven.

Site 2 The Airborne Museum

Here's the link for the Airborne Museum site 2

http://www.airborne-museum.org/en/prepare-your-visit/access/

We met a number of WW2 Veterans when we visited the site, they were amazing people to talk to; we learned so much from them.

Sites 3 Utah Beach

Here's the link for Utah Beach:

http://utah-beach.com/information/?lang=en#opening-time

The conditions were not ideal, forecasted strong winds, and rough seas would cause issues for the landing craft with the tide bringing them in too quickly to navigate the beach obstacles. Nevertheless, in the early hours of June 5th 1944, even though the storm was battering Southwick House with driving horizontal rain, General Eisenhower stopped pacing, faced his subordinate British senior officers in his mess room, and quietly said:

"OK let's Go."

The Commanders let out a cheer, and all rushed out to get to their command posts leaving Eisenhower to ponder his action. There was no turning back; the invasion was finally underway. The meticulously planned and well-rehearsed initial beach landings were timed to commence at 06:30 on the morning of the 6th June 1944. Immediately, Admiral Ramsey sent out his order of the day to his Fleet for the Operation Neptune phase of the attack. 

“It is our privilege to take part in the greatest amphibious operation in history… Let no one underestimate the magnitude of the task…” 

and the Naval Force resumed sailing from their respective holding areas along the English coast to the marshalling area in the English Channel. At dawn on June 5th, the vast 6,000 ship armada resumed its course for Normandy, led by two hundred and eighty-seven Minesweepers that were tasked with clearing a path through minefields for the Fleet. They sailed hidden behind a slowly advancing smoke screen dropped by aircraft to mask the fleet from a German U-boat attack, and flanked by twenty-four Destroyers and Anti-Submarine vessels for protection.  

There were several independent, yet intricately laced missions planned for the invasion of Normandy, but the basic overall plan of landing phase of operation overlord was straightforward enough. As Field Marshall Montgomery remarked in his one-page hand drawn ‘Most Secret’ plan for the D-Day assault:

‘The keynote of everything to be SIMPLICITY.'

The massive Fleet arrived in the off-shore holding points just after 01:40 on the 6th June 1944, and commenced manoeuvring into disembarking and bombardment positions opposite their assigned landing beach. The transport ships carrying the 22,350 Troops and 3,500 support vehicles for the Utah beach assault arrived at around 02:00, some ten miles from the beach of Saint-Martin-de-Varreville, the target of Utah invasion force. They floated silently in the dark swell while the Troops helped themselves to a hearty breakfast, as much pork, chicken, steak, eggs, candy, and ice cream as they could eat.

Before the Landing Force arrived at their designated beaches, Airborne Troops were to parachute behind German defences before dawn and land in pre-marked zones behind Utah beach near Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Their task was cut off the west of the invasion zone, and secure the roads from several beaches. Simultaneously, Airborne Troops were to cut off the western edge of the invasion zone to the east near Caen and secure vital bridges before German defenders demolished them. Another essential element was to clear German gun emplacements aimed at Allied Warships at Sword beach. Once these objectives were complete at a stipulated time, the Allied Navy was to commence a devastating bombardment of coastal defences and beach obstacles, half an hour before the Troops landed, and continue this bombardment as the landing craft neared the beaches, before switching to a targeted response.

The Troops landing at Utah beach fared a little better and were the most successful of the entire beach landing in Normandy, partly due to good fortune. However, a landing craft was pulled off course due to the tide and ended up a mile south than initially intended, the Soldiers, therefore, hit a lesser defended section. The naval bombardment had done an outstanding job and smashed up most the minefields and many beach defences, so the Troops were able to storm the beach without much resistance. The Sherman Duplex Drive tanks also had incredible luck, and nearly all of them managed to reach the shore. The beach was cleared of Germans within an hour, and the Engineers were able to clear the whole beach of the mined obstacles soon afterwards. Nevertheless, the light resistance still caused some fatalities; out of the 23,250 Troops, who landed throughout the day, remarkably only 292 Men were reported killed or injured.

Site 4 Maisy Battery

Here's the link for Maisy Battery site 4:

http://www.maisybattery.com/visit-us/how-to-find-us/

At around 09:00 after the initial attack on the beaches, while out on a recognisance patrol, Staff Sergeant Kuhn and Sergeant Lommell stumbled upon a number of guns hidden in an apple orchard a couple of hundred meters inland. The area was quiet, so they secretly approached the guns and rammed thermite grenades into two of the guns recoil mechanisms, and bashing in the sighting apparatus of the third. They encountered no German Soldiers as they fled. Returning later with more thermite grenades, they discovered the other guns had already been put out of action by one of the Battalions Engineers, who had also stumbled upon the site.

There is much controversy surrounding the Rangers assault on Pointe-du-Hoc and the nearby Maisy gun battery, positioned some five miles away to the south west of Pointe-du-Hoc. The ranger battalion’s order No. 6 for 06:30 on D-Day clearly states that Maisy gun battery had to be destroyed, but for some reason, Lieutenant Colonel Rudder disregarded the order and never informed his men. A Rangers Veteran later confirmed that Colonel Rudder and Major Cleveland Lytle, the Ranger A Force commander, were involved in a heated argument before the assault. Lytle insisted the focus of the attack should be on Maisy battery rather than Pointe-du-Hoc. Major Lytle was so outraged that the Rangers were attacking in the wrong place that he had to be subdued by a doctor to calm him down. Colonel Rudder shrugged this off and instructed his Force to continue the attack at Point du Hoc regardless. The guns at Maisy battery shelled Omaha beach relentlessly throughout D-Day, causing hundreds of deaths and destroying tanks, support vehicles and supplies. Due to the embarrassment that neglecting to attack Maisy Battery on the morning of D-Day caused the Allied Commanders, a secret order was apparently issued to physically bury Maisy Gun Battery in its entirety by US engineer bulldozers, intending to erase the costly mistake from history once and for all.

 

Site 5 Grandcamp Maisy Sea Front Defences

To find these bunkers, follow the link to the website:

https://www.bunkerpictures.nl/datasheets/france/normandie/datasheet-grandcamp-maisy.html

The Atlantic Wall is one of the largest building works of the 20th century. Nazi Germany built it during World War II (between 1942 and 1945) to make an Allied invasion of the Western European mainland from the sea impossible. The construction began in response to the threat of a protracted two-front war for Germany, when, after losing the Battle of Britain in late September 1940, the German advanced into the Soviet Union, it also came to a halt a year later. To strengthen the weak defence of the coast in the west, the Germans began to build a coastal defence line in late 1941. It was called New West Wall; to distinguish it from the West Wall, a 630-kilometer-long defence line along the western border of Germany itself. Aimed to strengthen strategic locations such as ports, cities, and industrial areas along the entire coast from Norway to the Franco-Spanish border. The idea was that an enemy invasion could then be stopped with a relatively small Military Force.

The construction of the New West Wall, later to be renamed as the Atlantic Wall for propaganda reasons, barely progressed to start with. However, the fear of an Allied invasion became so great after 1942 that all available manpower was redirected to coastal defence. The Netherlands too experienced the consequences of the construction. The beaches and dunes along the entire coast were declared prohibited areas (Sperrgebiet) in April 1942.  A general building prohibition was in place from the 1st July 1942; due to a large part of the building capacity was needed for the construction of the Atlantic Wall. The original plans provided for the construction of 15,000 bunkers on the Dutch, Belgian, and French coast. However, due to lack of manpower, material, and fuel, only 6,000 bunkers had been completed by the deadline of the 1st May 1943. 

Site 6 Grandcamp Maisy Accommodation

To find this camp site, follow the link to the website:

http://www.france-voyage.com/campings/camping-grandcamp-maisy-46947.htm

We were advised to stay here by Dan Sterne from Maisy Gun Battery, fantastic place; the only thing we found is they didn't speak English at the time. We managed to speak a bit of French and it worked for us both.