10 minute read
80 years ago
The Battle Of Normandy raged for ten weeks after D-Day causing an horrendous loss of civilian and military life, with the bloodstock ranks also decimated, writes John Gilmore
EIGHTY YEARS AGO the price of freedom was put to the test – on June 6, brave young military men from the UK, the US, Canada, Poland and France attacked German forces on the Normandy beaches and through the subsequent Battle of Normandy.
Gaining an initial foothold in France came at a high price, an estimated 4,537 soliders lost their lives on that first day on the Normandy beaches, with the heaviest casualties of around 2,000, sustained by the American troops landing at Omaha.
Ahead of D-Day a key success was deemed to be the capture of the strategic Pegasus and Horsa bridges by men of the Oxford Light infantry, led by Major John Howard.
On the night of June 5, 181 young men took off in six Airspeed Horsa gliders from RAF Tarrant Rushton in Dorset, for Benouville in Normandy.
Five of the gliders landed successfully just after midnight, surprising the German forces guarding the two bridges, taking control in just over ten minutes and losing only two men. The other glider landed 7m off-course; after a brief battle with the enemy, the crew sadly lost their wireless operator.
The taking of Pegasus and Horsa Bridges across the Caen Canal in the early hours of June 6 was seen as key in the success of British, French and Canadian troops landing at nearby Gold, Juno and Sword beaches and was required to disrupt the German ability to bring in troops and counter attack.
It als allowed access to the 6th Airborne Division, dropped off to the east of Caen, to receive necessary equipment.
Caen, situated about 9m inland from the Calvados coast, was at the junction of several roads and railways, which made it an important operational objective for both sides.
With the area to the south of Caen much flatter, the Allied Commanders also wanted the area as a base for aircraft.
It had been predicted that the ancient Norman city of Caen would be taken on D-Day, but things didn’t go according to plan.
On June 6, Caen was supposedly the main objective of the British 3rd Infantry Division that had landed on Sword Beach.
The initial attempt from June 7-15 to liberate Caen, by surrounding the city from the west, failed due to strong resistance from the German armoured Panzer division.
A second attempt was made on June 18, but as a storm had damaged the temporary Mulberry Harbour at Gold Beach putting it out of action causing serious supply problems, the assault had to be abandoned.
A third attempt known as Operation Epsom and made from the south, also met with strong resistance from the German military and General Montgomery’s soldiers were repelled once again.
Eventually on July 7 the allies launched a massive air assault against Caen in the hope of clearing the way for a ground attack.
Four hundred and fifty Lancaster and Halifax aircraft, the RAF bomber command, dropped 2,500 tons of bombs, totally destroying the city and killing 300 civilians.
Many local families lost multiple generations and today the action still divides opinion, some believe that the bombing akin to a war crime, while others take the view that it was the only way to find the path to freedom.
The following morning Chief Marshall Montgomery led a frontal attack on the town, with over 100,000 men and tanks of the British First Corps and Canadian troops.
The assault proved successful and both the British and Canadian troops reached the bridges of the Orne on July 9, liberating the left bank of the city.
An emergency hospital and refuge was set up, which provided a place to stay for up to the 20,000 civilians who had been left homeless after the intense bombing.
In the early hours of July 18, Montgomery launched Operation Goodwood to capture the right bank of the town, the RAF dropping 6,000 bombs targeting the area across Eastern Caen.
The infantry followed up with a joint British and Canadian ground offensive and Caen was finally liberated on July 19.
Following the capture of Caen, the British war correspondent for the Daily Mail reported on 28 July, 1944.
“One must drive through Caen every time one goes to and fro from the Orne front, and it’s still a horrible and rather shaming thing. The people of Caen will never quite understand why we had to do anything so awful to them. Still, day by day, the bodies of their fellow citizens are being dug out of the ruins
“Obviously it was a crime to cause such destruction and kill so many people, but probably it was the only thing to stop the Germans long enough from rushing towards the sea.”
Such destruction was a reason why Canadian and English troops found it difficult to face the local people who were then homeless and without resources. The troops made it a priority to get the clean water and sanitation system repaired, which had been badly damaged.
The allies had planned to capture Caen in a day, it took six weeks.
The price was high with 30,000 English and Canadian troops killed, the town in ruins, 1000s of people homeless and 3,000 of its inhabitants dead.
The US 1st Army under the command of General Bradley was also expected to liberate Saint Lo in the east of Normandy on June 7, but strong German resistance prevented this until after Caen had been liberated.
Similar tactics used for Caen were employed at Saint Lo with American Air Force B-17s using intense carpet bombing tactics, starting on the night of July 6 and by targeting the strategically important railway station and power plant.
After a week of bombing the town was in ruins. The Americans had dropped warning leaflets the day ahead of bombing, but high winds blew them to other areas, giving the local people no opportunity to leave. More than 300 civilians living in St Lo died during the bombing and subsequent ground battle.
On July 25, under the code name Operation Cobra, American forces entered Saint Lo and defeated the remaining German forces.
On August 1, George Patten took over as Commanding Officer of the US third Army, which coordinated different divisions who had broken through enemy lines, proceeding further south and east without meeting any German resistance.
At the same time the British/Canadian forces continued south, driving the depleted Panzer division into a pocket, and towards the American troops.
The trap was set and on August 8 ground forces under Commander General Montgomery ordered the allied armies to converge on the Falaise-Chambois area, to surround the German forces trapped inside, with the British to the north, the US forces to the south and the Canadians in the Northern area of the circle.
Fierce fighting took place between August 12-21 at what became known as the Falaise Gap.
ACCEPTED Bradley’s decision and ordered the Canadians to capture Falaise, before turning east to close the gap at Trun and Chambois.
But the Germans began to withdraw by August 17, and two days later the Allies regrouped in Chambois.
German counter-attacks forced gaps in the Allied lines – the most significant of which was a corridor forced past the 1st Polish Armoured Division commanding position at the pocket mouth. ByAugust 21, the pocket had been sealed, with an estimated 50,000 Germans trapped inside, although a number managed to escape the pocket before it was closed.
An entry on August 21 in a diary written by Major Whittaker; a member of the British Armed Forces at the Falaise Gap battle, provided by the archives Memorial Caen, is poignant: “My word the Boche are taking a hammering in the Falaise Gap. There are reports of slaughter everywhere. Oh what a smell, I am sure I shall have that taste in my mouth for all time – dead horses, dead cattle, dead boche buried tanks and vehicles everywhere”.
The confrontation ended the Battle of Normandy. Over the two months, more than 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing. This figure includes 209,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 dead among the ground forces and 16,714 losses in the Allied air forces.
The exact German casualties are not known, but it is estimated that around 200,000 German troops were injured or killed, with between 4,000 and 9,000 men killed, wounded or missing during the D-Day invasion alone.
About 22,000 German soldiers are among the many buried around Normandy.
Liberation came at a high price also for the local population of Normandy, with strategic cities such as Caen, Lisieux, Pontl’Evêque, Vire, Falaise, Avranches, Valognes, Alençon, Argentan and Flers left in ruins, with towns and roads as far east as Lisieux, deliberately targeted to make it difficult for the Germans to send troop reinforcements.
Civilian losses in Normandy through allied bombings of French villages and cities — killed around 20,000 French civilians, left 300,000 homeless, while 100,000 cattle and 8,000 horses also perished.
A letter between friends and from a resident of Fiers, 39 km south of Falaise, dated July 6, 1944 and provided by the Archives de Patrimoine Cultural Caen, highlights the deadly danger and ruination civilians faced from allied carpet bombing.
“I only received your letter today. We are like the people of Caen that you talk about. We were just having dinner when bombs fell on and around our house. All the family immediately took refuge in the cave below the house.
“We now only have what we have on our backs, having seen our house burning; with the town on fire and in ruins. There is no sign of our Army yet.
“There are 29 dead in our close neighbourhood, five in one family alone. We are staying at an old student house, with a man who rescued us from the rubble. We just have our papers, our small savings and that’s all. It’s sad to be in such a state, but must put our pride aside and gratefully accept our pittance.”
What remained of the town was finally liberated on August 16, by the British 11th Armoured Division.
