Page 37 - History of War - Issue 05-14

by the Calvados reef lying beyond The American flag flies
defiantly over Utah
the harbour. The remnants of the Beach as eagerly awaited
American Mulberry were towed east to support infantry and
repair the British harbour, and by the equipment come ashore
end of the month it was receiving some
4,000 tons of supplies each day. Far
more materiel, however, continued
to be landed on open beaches. The
problem that logisticians faced after the
storm was not one of getting supplies
ashore, but of finding somewhere to
store them in a beachhead.
The storm had not been fatal to the
logistic effort, but it did re-emphasise
the need to capture a port. This was the
task of Joe Lawton Collins’ VII Corps,
which had come ashore on Utah – but
first, the American beachheads had to
be joined up. The terrain behind both
beaches was difficult and favoured the
defender. Troops trying to move off Xxxxxxxxx
Omaha came over the bluffs and were
confronted by the flooded Aure Valley. It
took elements of the US 26th Regiment
– part of 1st Division – until the morning
of 8 June to take the small village of
Formigny, only about a mile behind a crouch, or even crawling, and it took Friedrich von der Heydte, was urging the
the Vierville beachhead, and it took w WINGS them three hours to advance less than immediate despatch of reinforcements,
the 116th Regiment, reinforced by the OF WAR half a mile across a series of bridges but Allied airpower and the French
THE ROYAL AIR
Rangers, until 9 June to relieve James FORCE PLAYED that spanned the Douve and its several Resistance prevented their arrival. The
Earl Rudder’s men isolated on the tip AN IMPORTANT branches. The advance was brought to only assistance he got came on the
of Pointe du Hoc. To the south-west, ROLE IN THE a complete halt by fire from a large stone night/early morning of 11/12 June, when
units of the 29th Division, the 175th LIBERATION farmhouse to the west of the causeway, transport aircraft managed to drop 18
Infantry and 747th Tank Battalion had OF CAEN, on a hillock that rose sharply from the tons of infantry ammunition and 88mm
advanced slowly behind a barrage of PROVIDING marshes. After artillery fire had failed shells inside the town. German logistic
naval gunfire, and entered the blazing MORE THAN to knock out the position, the 502nd’s troops had barely begun distributing it
ruins of Isigny at about the same time. 1,250 AIRCRAFT. commander, Robert G Cole, ordered his when concentrations of naval gunfire,
THESE OPERATED battalion to charge the farm. Cole and artillery, mortars and tank destroyers
Grenades and bayonets FROM BASES his second-in-command, John P Stopka, smashed into Carentan, setting many
IN BOTH
Across on the Cotentin Peninsula, the NORMANDY splashed off through the swamp towards buildings ablaze. At 2am on 12 June, the
101st Airborne advanced south of its AND BRITAIN. the Germans, followed at first by only 506th Paratrooper Battalion, which had
drop zone towards the town of Carentan, about 60 of the battalion. Inspired by relieved the 502nd, began to attack into
on the Cherbourg-Caen railway line, which the example of their officers, or shamed the north-east of Carentan. At the same
had to be taken so that the American by their own reluctance, more and more time, the 327th Glider Infantry Battalion
beachheads could be linked up. On 9 men joined the charge until the enemy attacked from the north-west, and at
June, Robert Sink, commander of the positions were overrun, and the Germans 7.30am on 12 June, elements of the
506th Paratrooper Battalion of the were killed with grenades and bayonets. two units met in the centre of the town.
101st Airborne, led a patrol through the As the 502nd and other units closed Meanwhile, American attacks to the
swamps that lay behind the beaches, on the town, Carentan’s commander, north of the Utah bridgehead had run
until he reached the causeway rising six- into heavy opposition and ground to a
nine feet above the surrounding country, halt. More serious was the situation to
which led south-west to Carentan across THE RESULT WAS the immediate west, where a bridgehead
the Douve River. Advancing across the established over the Meredet River at
causeway, the paratroopers quickly SPECTACULAR: Le Motey on 8 June was almost lost
came under fire, but Sink’s report of when part of the 507th Battalion
the contact was misinterpreted by his 26,000 LITRES OF panicked and fled during a German
divisional HQ, which concluded that the counter-attack. US VII Corps commander
The 101st’s commander, Maxwell Taylor, FUEL AND 400 TONS Collins pushed 90th Division across
causeway was only lightly defended.
the Merderet, ordering divisional
ordered the 502nd Parachute Battalion OF AMMUNITION commander Jay W MacKelvie to strike
to attack over the causeway, but the for the western coast of the Cotentin
soldiers discovered that they could EXPLODED Peninsula. Early on 10 June, the leading
only advance in single file, moving at unit, the 2nd Battalion of the 357th

18 JUNE 26 JUNE 28 JUNE 30 JUNE 2 JULY 9 JULY 18 JULY
After changing hands British forces launch Friedrich Dollmann, Following a gruelling Von Rundstedt Following a short US troops under
23 times, British Operation Epsom, a commander of the campaign in which is replaced as but devastating Omar Bradley finally
infantry once again campaign to establish German 7th Army, 23,000 Allied Commander-in-Chief bombing campaign secure what’s left of
enter Tilly-sur-Seulles, a bridgehead on the commits suicide after troops are declared of German forces on by the Allies, Caen is the town of Saint-Lô.
this time liberating the River Odon, west of the Allies gain the dead, wounded or the Western Front by liberated, one month They have suffered
town once and for all. Caen. The plan fails. upper hand in the missing, the port Gunther von Kluge. later than planned. some 5,000 casualties
Battle of Cherbourg. city of Cherbourg in getting there.
is officially retaken.

HISTORY WAR 37
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