8th June 1944 - with the landing of a second wave of troops on the Normandy beaches the troops break out from the bridgehead. The US V Corps, heading west from Omaha beach, reach Isigny (east of Carentan at the SE corner of the Cotentin Peninsula) but are still separated from the forces landed at Utah beach. Some of the forces from Utah are heading for Cherbourg and begin to attack Montebourg, east of Valognes. 47 Commando finally take control of Port-en-Bassin and link up with the US 1st Infantry from Omaha beach.
50th (Northumbrian) Division are now based in and holding Bayeux (from Frontline map in Library of Congress).
East of the River Orne the Battle of Bréville begins. (By 13th June the Allies have managed to secure this critical village, just beyond the Orne bridge, but are not able to take the invasion further along the coast, across the River Dives until 17th August.)
Montgomery wrote to the war office “I have ordered Second Army to keep up good pressure and to make its main effort towards Villers-Bocage and Évrecy and thence south-east towards Falaise.” (from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition)
*south-west of Caen
61st Reconnaissance Regiment were some of the first to break out of the ‘Gold’ beach bridgehead heading south from the Brécy/Ruqueville area (east of Bayeux) via Coulombs to Loucelles. They appear to have been based at Saint-Gabriel-Brécy on the night of 7th/8th June and afterwards at Saint-Léger on the main route between Bayeux and Caen (Regimental HQ location list on re-union dinner menu 1946).
Brigadier Bernard Cracroft, commander of the 8th Armoured Brigade continues his account of the assault on Villers-Bocage:
"The advance started at midday on the 8th of June. On the right axis 61st Recce Regt supported by 4/7th Dragoon Guards. On left axis 24th Lancers.
On the right we soon ran into opposition in Loucelles but after some fighting captured the village but were held up just south of it. There was strong 88mm opposition in the area where the road crossed the railway.
On the left 24 Lancers ran into very strong opposition in the area Putot en Bessin. The country here was very thick and the enemy appeared to have a number of anti tank guns. We lost tanks and in spite of every effort to outflank the village it became apparent that further advance without infantry support would not be possible. Unfortunately I had no infantry for this task and accordingly I decided to abandon the attempt to break out on this axis and to concentrate all my efforts on the axis Loucelles – Pt. 103, and ordered 24 Lancers to switch their attack to Loucelles. The country on this line was very thick and very built-up, and it was apparent that we should need considerable infantry support to get the tanks through it.
As my Motor Battalion…, 1 Dorsets*, allotted to me … and quite magnificiently did they carry it out, although they had never worked with armour before and the nearest they came to a Motor Battalion in the matter of equipment was to have one company equipped with cycles. …the Battalion moved into the assembly area at Rucqueville, where they came under my command.
I thought at this time that there was probably only a thin crust of German defence and that if I could break through there would be no further organised resistance.
At about 1600 hrs I therefore moved 1 Dorsets into Loucelles to replace 61 Recce Regt who were unsuitable for the dismounted fighting which was now necessary.” (From ‘The 8th Armoured Brigade Break-Out from the Normandy Bridgehead June 7th – 12th 1944’ by Brigadier HJB Cracroft , Commander.)
*Point 103 at les Hauts Vents between Audrieu and Tilly-sur-Seules is also known as La Belle Épine.
**The Dorsets were Dick’s first regiment when he joined up in June 1940.
Major Brownrigg, tells the story of 61st Recce on that day (from ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.'):
“After an uneasy night in a regimental harbour, the next morning, D plus 2, we began a much less ambitious form of the original Villers Bocage stakes*. ‘A’ Squadron and a squadron of tanks were ordered to capture a piece of high ground about two miles outside the bridgehead perimeter. One imagined the enemy tightly penning in the bulge, so that any move forward of the F.D.L’s** would draw a rain of fire. In fact the move out was completely peaceful but after about half a mile ‘A’ Squadron was held up by isolated parties of the enemy and lots of snipers. We were being pressed by Brigade to get on; “Use your big friends and push on” kept coming over the air to me in the rear link. So the Commanding Officer went forward in his carrier to promote progress. This he was doing when the ominous words came over the air from his operator: “My Sunray has been hit.”*** He had been standing up his full six feet plus in his carrier giving orders to the tanks, when he was shot at very short range through the thigh. This was a tremendous loss to the Regiment.
Meanwhile the rest of the Armoured Brigade had had no more luck on a parallel road. The Brigadier therefore decided to concentrate on our route, and to relieve us with an armoured regiment. There was one awful moment; two sections of carriers had been sent to clear the village ahead from the rear. This meant a wide detour, but we got through on the air to recall them. To our horror we found that the message had reached only one section. As the armoured regiment entered the village shooting all their weapons right, left and centre, the other section of carriers motored straight through the fire, from the reverse direction, with the officer standing up in the leading carrier and looking distinctly surprised. No one was hurt.”
*Villers Bocage was originally meant to be taken on D Day.
** ‘forward defended localities’
***’Sunray’ was code for the commanding officer of any unit so this was Colonel Sir William Mount. See Roy Howard’s account of the shooting of Sir William Mount in his book ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’, Brewin Books 2004.
Eric Postles continues his account of 61st Recce ‘B’ squadron:
“During the night there was some German Air activity which was met by heavy Ak-ak (Anti-Aircraft) fire from ships and shore guns. Early in the morning one of the Assault Troop corporals when out on patrol was the first casualty when a bullet took off the heel of his boot. The only other enemy airstrike was when two fighters streaked very low over us and they were met by a hail of Bren gun bullets. German spotter planes kept their distance and some were shot down.”
50 Division entered Bayeux which the Germans evacuated leaving it undamaged and pushed forward to the Tilly-sur-Seulles area where they encountered fierce resistance from the elite German Panzer Lehr Division. We carried out patrols and supporting infantry attacks against increasingly strong German opposition. We passed through Bayeux early in the morning of 8 June and joined up with tanks and infantry with the aim of pushing on and capturing Villers-Bocage.
Near Bucéels*, while trying to get the tanks to move quicker, our Commanding officer, Lt Col Sir William Mount was badly wounded by a sniper and the Second in Command, Major Philip Brownrigg, took over from him.” (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)
*North-west of Tilly-sur-Seulles
Don Aiken also includes the incident in his narrative: “We got news that our Colonel, a typical Cavalry Officer, had been riding in a Bren-carrier (a small tracked vehicle with no turret). He had been standing up, in a 'tally-ho!' type of manner, when a German sniper, who was concealed in the ditch alongside the road, shot him up the bum. We never saw or heard of him again.” (Republished from 'My Bit in WW2' by kind permission of Don Aiken.)
According to Anthony Rampling, Colonel Mount was ‘a bit blood and guts’ and might have got them into a lot more trouble, while Colonel Brownrigg was a steady nice chap – although Tony says he never set eyes on him during the war! After the war they met up at 61st Recce reunions.
Eric Brewer had at last rejoined the squadron:
June 8th: “Moved off at 4 o clock to find squadron, made contact with them near 103, took up positions and came across little activity.” (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family)
Sandy Handley continues his story of those early days in Normandy:
“We hadn’t had the chance to do any reconnaissance work, so as I recall we got attached to a tank brigade and helped out with our machine guns. We were given a target and ordered to keep firing.
After all the machine gunning, we had to move into a village which was a bit eerie; strewn across the road were 10 dead Germans and it was difficult for the driver not to go over them. Some of our troops who had landed earlier (Royal Marine Commandos) obviously hadn’t stopped for anything, such was the urgency to get on.
My Corporal ordered me to shoot at a Church Tower, he said there might be snipers up there. I fired my Bren, but I didn’t seem to do any damage to the tower of this church - loosened a few bricks maybe and disturbed some pigeons.
(I can’t remember the name of this village but in 1989 I went back with our Normandy Veterans Group, Folkestone Branch and during out tour visiting the Landing Beaches I’m sure we went into this same village - it was the same one with the church tower and in my mind I was thinking of those dead German soldiers laying across the road 45 years previous. Human life is so precious. What was also terrible was the cattle, sheep and horses which had been blown up or shot.)
Soon the enemy were surrendering and on our way forward we picked up a prisoner or two. As we had no spare room on our cars we had to pass them back - at least their war was over.”
(From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)
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