Dick was at a camp in the Aldershot area while half his Regiment, including half his troop, were waiting for D-Day on ships in the Solent.
On Monday 5th June he wrote “We’re still having quite a good time here, all things considered, though there’s very little to do and time is apt to hang rather heavily”. He was reading books, walking in the woods and taking ‘the boys’ to an open-air swimming pool nearby. Writing again the next day he was “up to my neck in this wretched audit board at the moment adding up masses and masses of figures” and had to “bust a couple of sergeants…for absence”. This was how he spent D-Day.
Dick and the rest of his troop, including Anthony Rampling, were due to cross to France on D+3 (ie the 9th June) but the sea was too rough and they were delayed. On 10th June Dick wrote to Chotie of drunken parties – he’d been “out every night since D Day”. The Hollywood star, Gertrude Lawrence, had given “quite a good show” at his camp.
Dick’s next letter is from France. He and Tony went over on Tuesday 13th June (D+7) - although Churchill had made it across on a day trip the previous day. Dick was very re-assuring “everything is fine – I’m in the pink and very happy here” although he was desperately tired, not having slept since Sunday. At some time Dick would have heard that one of his troop on sentry duty in France had shot and killed Corporal Robert Black, confusing the passwords and mistaking Black’s Londonderry accent for German.
Tony and Dick rejoined their troop on 14th June. The troop members who went over on D-day had “gained a little battle experience (!) and seen some nasty things”. They “felt like veterans compared with the new arrivals.” (From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished.)
Since D-Day (or D + 1 for Sandy) the skeleton crew of 61st Recce had been engaged with 50th Division and 8the Armoured in an attempt to advance between Bayeux and Caen and take the critical town of Villers-Bocage. Despite some success, in particular taking and holding the high ground of Point 103 (la Belle Épine) near Tilly-sur-Seules, they had been held off by the legendary Panzer Lehr Division, the cream of the German Army in Normandy, and also the fanatical 12th SS Hitler Jugend nearer to Caen.
The 7th Armoured Division (Monty’s Desert Rats) had then been tasked with taking Villers-Bocage but were badly beaten by 2nd Division Panzer and the personal triumphs of the Panzer ace Michael Wittman, who destroyed 25 tanks in one day.
They had also discovered the perils of the bocage countryside – small fields with thick high hedges and narrow lanes, which perfectly camouflaged defenders for an ambush. “Recce in Normandy meant driving down a road until something fired at you” (from WW2 Talk Forum)
The stench of death was everywhere – dead cattle and horses in the fields, casualties of war or shot by the Germans in retreat, and dead men who couldn’t be retrieved by their comrades.
On 15th June 'B' Squadron were somewhere in the Crauville area (between Tilly-sur-Seules and Caumont-L’Éventé) when the carrier in front of Eric Postles exploded killing four of the troop – two had been called up with Eric at Carlisle. On the same day Don Aiken was involved in saving the life of his wounded corporal, Sammy Benson, giving covering fire while the heroic Sergeant 'Chalky' Wells went in to bring him to safety.
“We continued to live up to our name of reconnaissance, but every day our patrols found progress harder” (from ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lt-Col P.H.A. Brownrigg D.S.O.). Eric Brewer was back at Point 103 again from 15th to 18th June withstanding ‘Gerry’ counter-attacks.
Dick wrote to Chotie :
Chotie Darling,
Well, Sunday’s come around again, though it makes no difference at all as every day is exactly the same here. I’ve put the 18th above but it’s only a guess.
I hope to be able to write you more fully here, as I expect to have the rest of the morning free, though we never know when we’ll be called.
Had quite a good night – four or five hours solid sleep – the first since I’ve been here. It takes time to get acclimatised to sleeping in the midst of the terrific artillery racket that goes on nightly. As Dostoevsky says ‘Man is a pliable animal – he gets used to anything in time’*.
Weather isn’t up to much at the moment – cloudy, though quite warm.
I manage to get quite a bit of conversation with the local peasantry. They speak a very pure tongue – slowly and with much careful thought. The equivalent of the West Country in England. So far I have had no difficulty in understanding them, or they me.
My friend Jimmy Waddell is just walking over here. He’s been out all night and looks a little tired. Appears he’s been sniped at once or twice but got back OK. It’s an endless source of amazement to us to see the people going about their lawful business with a total disregard to what’s going on around them. I even saw an old farmer milking his only cow while a local battle was being waged for his farm!
My relieving people have just arrived so will continue this later.
Just had a go at an ME 109** with the old Bren. No luck. First I’ve seen for days.
Must close here as I have to move. Give my best wishes to your people won’t you? And tell them I’m having the time of my little life.
All my love, Chotie Darling
Dicker
*From the Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky’s novel ‘The House of the Dead’.
** a Messerschmitt Bf 109, a German fighter plane.
© Chotie Darling
Eric Brewer records that 61st Recce advanced towards Grainville-sur-Odon on 18th June but losing an Ark (armoured car?) and a carrier to an 88 gun (an anti-aircraft gun used against ground targets by the Germans) they were forced to withdraw. Eric Postles remembers 18th June as the day they moved back a few miles and got their first mail since Nightingale Wood – he had a letter from Gladys (the girl he’d met on leave before D-Day, his future wife).
On 19th June Tilly-sur-Seules at last fell to the 50th Division, although intense fighting continued in the vicinity. Eric Brewer lost five comrades on another recce in the Grainville area – one taken prisoner.
On 20th June Don Aiken found himself in the besieged town of Caen when the driver got lost returning from the beaches with a truckload of ammunition. Don was riding ‘shotgun’ in the rear of the truck. Finding their way back to the Regiment the driver was killed when a German fighter plane blew up the truck in front.
Forced to withdraw from Grainville to “a rear position to be reinforced” Eric Brewer at last had a bath in a stream. Anthony Rampling recalls that conditions in Normandy were so bad that, being on constant alert, they didn’t take their boots off for 40 days and “stunk like foxes”.
Letters home painted a different picture – Dick’s letter of 21st June is about the local people “shy but very friendly – and only too willing to converse with you, especially if you speak any French at all” - and the food; he managed to buy Camembert cheese and cider. Eric Brewer had “at last found a farm to obtain milk” and chatted to a Frenchman of the “underground movement”.
By 21st June 61st Recce’s 50th Division had suffered 4,000 casualties, the highest of any Division in Normandy. The Battle for Normandy became something akin to the trench warfare of World War 1, with Recce units going into action alongside the heavy armour, fighting bitterly for every advance and 'digging in'. Eric Brewer complained that he’d be a gravedigger after the war since it was all he seemed to be doing. He was stuck at some cross roads near Grainville from 22nd to 26th June. Dick was also back in action. He sent a Field Service Postcard to Chotie on 23rd June ( a quick correspondence device where you just entered the address and date and crossed out lines that didn’t apply eg ‘admitted into hospital’, ‘wounded’ or ‘sick’) but managed to write a letter on 24th June. He was rapidly acquiring the local patois and had been talking to the refugees “scores of families with all their remaining belongings in one wheelbarrow”.
This was also the day the ship Derrycunihy was sunk on the way to landing 43rd Reconnaissance Regiment at ‘Sword’ beach. 180 men died including Dick’s best friend when he was in the 43rd, the piano player Donald 'Alex' Johnston.
The next day XXX Corps renewed its battle with the Panzer Lehr as a diversionary attack for the launch of Operation Epsom, Monty’s plan to attack west of Caen and then swing round to encircle the city. Eric Brewer and his comrades were sent out to find the German forward position for assaults by the East Yorks Regiment and, on 26th June, found the place formerly occupied by a company of the Green Howards – their kit was still there but the 57 men had not been heard of for a week. Eric Postles records that 10 and 12 Troop lost men that day. The attack on Grainville-sur-Odon was stalled on 27th June although the Allies took Rauray, Colleville and Mouen and a bridge over the River Odon. Grainville was also in their hands the next day and 61st Recce crossed the River Odon to Mondrainville. Eric Brewer was relieved at last and went back to base where he found ‘B’ Squadron had lost about a quarter of their men, 25 killed and about 25 injured, since D-Day.
Dick wrote to Chotie on 29th June saying that he was having a quiet time “doing Liaison Officer to a Brigadier – quite cushy in fact”. He appears to have been in Bayeux for about 9 hours and managed to buy bread rolls with coffee – the first bread he’d tasted since he arrived in France.
After terrible fighting to take Hill 112, the strategic high ground south-west of Caen at Esquay-Notre-Dame, Operation Epsom was closed down on 30th June.
Dick and the history of the war had now collided, with the spotlight on the efforts of 2nd British Army and 12th US Army in Normandy. The beginning of Operation Overlord, D-day and the landings on the beaches have been covered in the previous post. The attempts by 8th Armoured Division (with 61st Recce) and then 7the Armoured to take the D-Day objective of Villers-Bocage had ended in failure before Dick arrived in France. His men had come up against the legendary Panzer Lehr Division - which was holding the line west of Caen with 12th SS Division and 2nd Panzer - and the difficulties of the bocage countryside, which masked defenders, snipers and even tanks. By the end of the month 2nd British Army was under attack from seven Panzer Divisions, although Rommel still kept Fifteenth Army in the Pas de Calais in case of Allied invasion further east.
The Allies depended on their huge supplies and reserves, air support (very successful in picking off German tank convoys heading for Normandy) and their effective artillery, including Naval bombardment since much of the fighting was within gunnery distance of the shore. The brilliant Mulberry Harbours, erected soon after D-Day, had played a key role in landing troops, equipment and ammunition; although they proved vulnerable to the stormy weather later in June. However, compared with the Germans most of the soldiers lacked experience and Monty relied again and again on his battle-worn troops from North Africa and Sicily, including the 50th Division.
The Americans fought bitter battles to take towns such as Carentan (liberated on 12th June, joining up the ‘Omaha’ and ‘Utah’ bridgeheads), key strategic road junctions or even small villages. US troops held a line across the Cherbourg Peninsula to Barneville by 18th June, cutting off 40,000 Germans to the north. On 27th June they took their key target, the port of Cherbourg; so damaged that, although it was of some use after 3 weeks, it was not fully functioning until September.
The Canadians having been involved in the disastrous first attacks on Caen (they lost almost 3,000 men in the first six days after D-Day) held their ground against 12th SS Panzer’s attempts to break through to the sea.
By 30th June the Allies have landed a total of 630,000 troops but suffered 62,000 dead or wounded.
Germany was also retaliating on home ground: V1 rocket bombs first reached Britain on 13th June, landing at Swanscombe in Kent and killing six people at Bethnall Green in London. On 16th June, Germany’s ‘Day of Vengeance’ 244 V1 bombs landed in England. A V1 striking the Guards Chapel during the service on 18th June killed 119 people.
Horror continued in the occupied countries with the Heuaktion in Poland – an order, which authorised the kidnapping of 40,000 children for slave labour in Germany. The brave Danes were resisted Germany’s imposition of a curfew with a General Strike beginning on 26th June and the curfew was withdrawn.
In Italy the glory of the US Fifth Army entering Rome on 4th June was soon upstaged by D-Day but the Allies in Italy pressed steadily northward up the central spine taking Todi, Terni and Orvieto on the 14th June and Perugia by 20th June. To the west the Free French landed on Elba, between Italy and Corsica, on 17th June and the island was liberated by the 20th.
Russia had launched offensives against Finland from Leningrad and on the Karelian isthmus earlier in the month, and captured Viipuri/Vyborg, the second largest town in Finland (still part of Russia now). The Finns eventually succeeded in stopping the Russian advance with the Battle of Tali-Ihantel, begun on the 25th June. However, these were deliberate distractions from the huge build-up of Soviet armies along 450 miles the German central front for Operation Bagration, launched on the Anniversary of Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa. The German 4th Army was quickly in danger of encirclement and by 30th June Operation Bagration had caused 200,000 German casualties.
In India the siege of Imphal was at last lifted on 22nd June and the Japanese were forced to withdraw. However, Japanese forces were still advancing in China. By 26th June they were in Hunan (southern China) and had captured the American air-base of Heng-yang.
Japan was under attack from the Allies in the western Pacific with the Battle of Saipan beginning the US Navy’s Marianas Campaign on 15th June, aimed at liberating the American’s former base at Guam. On 19th June the US 5th Fleet engaged with the Japanese Combined Fleet in the Battle of the Philippine Sea – ‘the greatest carrier battle in history’ and a decisive victory for the Americans.
With the Allies gaining ground (or sea) on same many fronts it must have been frustrating and fearsome to be inching forward so slowly in the bocage and at such a great cost to friends and comrades.
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