On 1st July Dick’s 61st Recce ‘B’ Squadron were involved in the defence of the British front-line from an attack by 1st SS Panzer Corps near Grainville-sur-Odon, between Caen and Villers-Bocage. Eric Brewer, of the Assault Troop, was in a forward position directing mortar and artillery fire on the enemy. A General inspected their position on 3rd July – presumably Lt-General Bucknall, the commander of XXX Corps.
Dick may also have been on, or ahead of, the front-line – Eric Postles remembers that for most of July ‘B’ Squadron was operating independently from ‘A’ and ‘C’ and troops often worked alone. In his letter of 4th July Dick says he is “having a rest in a fairly safe area”… apart from the occasional hedge-hopping ME109 or the odd mortar bomb”. He was in an orchard (as usual in Normandy), next to a beautiful château with a moat, and had just received all of Chotie’s letters dating back to 13th May.
Eric Brewer was also back at base and very pleased to hand in his bike – the Assault Troop were now given half-tracks. Tony Rampling had been right to dread the prospect of handling a a bren gun on a bicycle. Sandy Handley, also in Dick’s troop, was in a Light Humber but when this ran into a mound on patrol they couldn’t steer and were “stuck in the middle of nowhere” for 24 hours. At dawn they watched as a British Infantry attack half a mile away was mortared by the Germans until Allied artillery opened up on the enemy. The REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) came out to rescue them but in Bayeux they found they didn’t have spares for “these old things”. Sandy was assigned a Bren carrier instead, which was “pretty hairy with no cover like my turret on the armoured cars”. Sandy’s Humber was repaired with a “drop off an old ambulance” and restored to him by mid-July. German infantry relied largely on horse-drawn vehicles for transport and Anthony Rampling recalls a road blocked with dead horses in their carts near Caen. One horse was still alive and he tried to put it out of its misery.
Another attack on Caen, Operation Charnwood, began on 8th July with heavy Allied bombing of the city, which inflicted terrible damage on civilians and the old city while missing most of the German defences in trying to avoid the Allies’ front-line. 61st Recce were continually cautious of ‘friendly fire’ even though they had “red and yellow fluorescent panels on display to identify us” (Eric Postles). They also had to be particularly careful returning from patrol to their own front-line.
Dick wrote to Chotie on 9th July. At his last location he’d “got his feet under the table” at the farm, sharing whisky and Calvados with the inhabitants, including four female refugees they were sheltering. On 8th July he’d managed to buy a pig, which they roasted and ate. (Eric Postles remembers his troop helping themselves to a sheep, which they cooked in ammunition tins.)
Eric Brewer was at Grainville-sur-Odon on 9th July, which had just been taken by their infantry. From 10th July XXX Corps were involved in the Second Battle of the Odon, to disrupt German re-organisation after Operation Charnwood and distract from the preparations for Operation Goodwood (which required 8,000 tanks and armoured vehicles to cross the Orne and assemble ready for the initial bombardment). The Germans had vacated the north and west of Caen during Charnwood but still held a heavily defended position south-east of the city – the infamous Bourgébus Ridge.
50th Division, and Dick’s former unit the 43rd Division, took part in major attacks south from Grainville-sur-Odon towards Evrecy from 10th July resulting in a high number of casualties and little progress. The 50th also attempted to take Hottot-les-Bagues (just south of Tilly-sur-Seules) on the 9th and 11th July – Eric Postles remembers 61st Recce holding the right flank for the 1st Hampshires as they attacked on 11th July.
On 12th July Dick wrote briefly that he was “having a quiet day today” and searching for a friend reported missing in action. Eric Brewer’s letters and diary reveal that they were careful to give the impression, to those at home, that they were much safer and further from the front-line than the Recce business required. They were also anxious about the effects of the V1 rocket bombs back in Blighty.
On 12th July Eric Brewer had moved to a new position with active German mortars and snipers and was there until the 14th. On the 15th July XXX Corps commence Operation Greenline around Gavrus, Evrecy and Esquay-Notre-Dame (south of Grainville-sur-Odon) and on 16th July, Operation Pomegranate near Noyers-Bocage (west of Grainville-sur-Odon). They gain little ground (although 50th Division at last took Hottot-les-Bagues on the 19th) but amassed 3,500 casualties by 17th July - the Germans had 2,000.
On 16th July Eric Brewer mentions the surrender of “6 Gerrys”. Sandy Handley recalled six soldiers and an officer surrendering to their troop – Dick interrogated the officer in German without success so they dismounted and searched the woods on foot. Six more Germans surrendered.
Dick sent Chotie a postcard of a Normandy wedding in traditional costume on the 17th July and told her he was “in the pink”. He was about to endure one of the worst times for 61st Recce during the war – Briquessard. This was a long narrow wood on a slope east of Caumont-l’Éventé and bang on the front-line. 61st Recce were required to leave their vehicles to play an infantry role, taking over from the American 101st Airborne Division ('the Screaming Eagles') in slit trenches and dug-outs.
As they took over their two man trench in the dark Sandy recalled Dick visiting them saying “The enemy is not so far away, maybe 100 yards or more, so be as quiet as possible. Remember, he’s doing the same as you, listening.”
Mornings and evenings were not so quiet – the Germans subjected their positions to salvos of shells from Nebelwerfers , the German multi-barrelled mortars nicknamed ‘Moaning Minnies’ for their horrible screaming sound. In return they received a barrage of artillery fire from the Essex Yeomanry to the rear of 61st Recce. Sandy recalls German aircraft dive-bombing the artillery in response. One night the Recce’s Regimental HQ in the middle of the wood received a direct hit from Nebelwerfers.
Dick wrote to Chotie on 21st July complaining of the week of rain they’d just had (which put an end to Operation Goodwood) but “On the rare occasions that the sun does shine I have a wonderful view here, which tends to compensate a little for the everlasting mists which hang over the river valley I overlook. I can’t explain the job we’re on at the moment, but it’s a pretty miserable one and we’ll all be glad when we get something else.” A friend of his had been wounded the previous night.
The Troopers took turns to do 24 hour duty lying flat in the Listening Post – a crudely scraped-out trench for 4 or 5 men, 20 yards to the front with a field telephone to link up with the men behind. Once when Tony Rampling was in the Listening Post they didn’t have any food so Dick crawled out, carrying a bag of food in his mouth for them and risking the German snipers. When Sandy Handley momentarily forgot the trench drill and stood up in the open two bullets immediately whistled past his ears.
‘Foot patrol’ at night meant crawling out on your stomach. Roy Howard https://www.chotiedarling.co.uk/my-blog/2014/07/ss-panzer-grenadier-regiment.html returned with an SS Panzer Grenadier jacket one night only to be sent out again another night to confirm the unit identification. They became caught in cross-fire between British machine-guns and the Germans who used flare guns to reveal their position. Roy escaped with a perforated ear-drum but his companion was critically wounded.
The pressure and deprivations of Briquessard were unrelenting. Colonel Brownrigg reminisced that “For the rest of the campaign we used to judge all ‘black spots’ by reference to Briquessard. Anything described as ‘worse than Briquessard’ stank.”
Dick wrote to Chotie on 28th July:
61st Recce Regt RAC
B.L.A.
Friday July 28th
Chotie Darling,
Received your last batch of letters in very good time. So here goes in reply.
Glad to hear you got the card OK – they’re the only sort we’re allowed to send, needless to say, and as you remark it was gay if nothing else.
Hope to get a few days rest shortly when I’ll be able to write you more fully than at the moment. Actually there’s practically nothing to write about, owing to the security restrictions. I can’t tell you where I am or even what we’re doing. You’ll just have to wait until we can get together again, preferably around a thick fireplace, sometime in the autumn, after a tea of hot buttered muffins…..
What absolute rot that bloke does talk!
There’s a slight pause at the moment for tea, which my troop Sergeant is endeavouring to brew whilst keeping himself and the smoke under cover…. The word ‘brew’ has become very popular in Army Slang. A knocked out tank is referred to as ‘brewed-up’ etc, etc. Also of course the old saw – “When in doubt, “brew-up” ….”
Well, my Precious, I’ve just had some tea – bread + processed cheese and a bar of choc, and biscuits, so I’ll be alright until the morning.
Just had three letters (from home & Diller). Bryn had a good time on leave apparently. Diller said he went to work on the new barmaid at the ‘Beach’. She caught him in the act of giving her some coupons! That sounds pretty ghastly to me, though you know how irreproachably innocent Brinner is….
About half an hour ago I put my hand in my battle dress pocket straight on top of a razor blade which removed approx. ¼" off one of my fingers. As if my hands weren’t cut about enough already.
In a very charming spot at the moment – must come here after the war*. I’d love to come back here if only to be able to walk about as I pleased without having to duck all the time!
It’s difficult to judge this countryside owing to the devastation but I know of many more beautiful spots in England. There is however a certain charm, perhaps due to the fact that things are ‘different’ in some small way, from England. They have no timbered buildings, of course, everything being built of grey stone, very much akin to the Cotswold style. There seems to be no deviation from this general custom.
Wish I could have heard the last concert you saw – the old 5th** wants a lot of beating. Last time I heard it was in Folkestone just before Xmas.
I fancy I’d better close here as things are warming up.
Dicker.
*Sandy Handley and Anthony Rampling did just that, visiting with other veterans in 2004. (Tony is on the left and Sandy on the right in this photo).
**Presumably Beethoven’s 5th Symphony – Beethoven’s symphonies are mentioned in letter December 10th 1943 and Beethoven in January 1944 letters. The opening notes were used as code to announce the D Day landings to the French resistance on BBC radio.
The only time Tony disobeyed an order from Dick was when he was put on guard after 10 sleepless days at Briquessard. He protested “Sorry Sir, I couldn’t keep awake” and never heard any more about it.
At last the terrible days at Briquessard came to an end with ‘the great surge forward’ of Operation Bluecoat, which was preceded by a thousand bomber attack aimed at enemy positons. On 30th July XXX Corps began to advance, with British VIII Corps, south-east from Caumont. 61st Recce passed through the German positions at Briquessard ‘high with the smell of corpses’ and ‘B’ Squadron carried out a “textbook reconnaissance into Amayé-sur-Seulles”. Unfortunately 50th Division became stuck at Amayé, which was held by the Germans until 2nd August. XXX Corps, who had been ordered to quickly reach Aunay-sur-Odon, were still a few miles short after two days while VIII’s Corps 11th Armoured Division had seized a vital bridge over the Soulevre River and taken le Bény-Bocage south of Caumont. Montgomery sacked Lt-General Bucknall from the command of XXX Corps.
In Dick’s letter to Chotie of 31st July he has a whole day to himself, a second beer and a second bath so doesn’t appear to have been involved in the action. In contrast Eric Brewer, who had spent the first three days of Briquessard at rest camp, was on patrol having grenades thrown at him by the Germans on the 29th, under rifle and mortar fire on the 30th and on recce patrol near Villers-Bocage on the 31st. Eric Postles was also involved in constant patrolling and had a narrow escape when they were penned into a farm by Germans and had to flee through a hole in the wall, leaving their injured behind (although they recovered them later). The Germans had had time to heavily mine the positions all around this area and “one of the most stressful jobs was checking road surfaces where we suspected mines had been laid. The headphones of the mine detectors cut outside sounds. Nobody volunteered for this task ” (Eric Postles). A breakout on the British-Canadian front still seemed impossible but the Germans had taken heavy losses of men and materials and were requesting permission to withdraw.
At the beginning of the month Hitler had replaced von Rundstedt with Field-Marshall Gunther-Hans von Kluge as Commander-in-Chief of the Western German Forces. Rommel was injured in a Spitfire attack on 17th July and Kluge also took on the defences of the western wall. Hitler was still directly in control of the OKW (Oberkommando des Wehrmacht – Supreme Command of the Armed Forces) overseeing the Army, Navy and Air Force. Following a failed assassination attempt by von Staffenberg, a German Army Colonel, on 20th July Hitler’s paranoia regarding the conventional (non-SS) German Army increased. The Gestapo arrested 5,000 suspected opponents of the regime and the Wehrmacht were all forced to adopt the Heil Hitler greeting instead of their traditional salute. Rommel was suspected of links to the perpetrators and never recovered his status.
Allied Command was also losing faith in his old nemesis, Montgomery, who made optimistic claims that a succession of British-Canadian operations (Epsom, Charnwood and Goodwood) would take Caen and break-out of the bridgehead while in reality achieving only a cautious and limited advance. By 20th July Monty’s 21st Army were at last fully in possession of Caen, the large city they had intended to take on D-Day. On 23rd July 21st Army split into Lt-General Crerar’s Canadian First Army (with its own separate HQ) and Lt-General Demsey’s British Second Army, both directly under Montgomery’s command.
With the capture of Cap-de-la-Hague at the beginning of the month the Americans had secured the north of the Cherbourg Peninsula and turned their attentions south beginning ‘the Battle of the Hedgerows’ on 3rd July with slow progress and agonising losses. By 9th July they had taken the important road junction of La-Haye-du-Puits west of Carentan.
Although Kluge was still convinced the Allies' main advance would be in the east of France, and concentrated the fiercest of his forces there, the Americans still met steadfast defence and ferocious counter-attacks from the Germans in the south of the Cotentin. The large city of Saint-Lô, south of Carentan, was almost completely destroyed by the time it was liberated on 18th July.
On 24th July the US First Army was ready to launch a major new offensive on a narrow concentrated front between Saint-Lô and Periers, to the west. Operation Cobra (it amuses me that the Americans code-named their key initiatives after deadly beasts while the British chose horse race meetings!) began disastrously with the USAAF prematurely bombing the front-line and revealing the location of the advance, then, the next day, accidentally bombing part of the American front-line. The attack went ahead, however, and began rapidly to gain ground with the help of ‘Rhinos’ – Sherman tanks fitted with ‘tusks’ that could break through the Normandy hedgerows. Although the Germans stood firm to the east around Percy (south of Saint-Lô) the advance penetrated their lines in the west. Periers and Lessay fell on the 27th, Coutances on the 28th, Granville on the 30th and on 31st July the Americans took Avranches and could turn the corner towards Brittany.
International co-operation, at least among the Allied nations was progressed at the Bretton Woods conference in the United States. Focusing on post-war economic recovery it created the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The first jet engine, a joint USAAF and RAF project, went into operation on 27th July (although the Germans had their own jet engine in the Messerschmidt Me 262 by August). A Junkers German fighter plane that accidentally landed in Suffolk on 13th July enabled the British to develop counter-measures for the latest German radar devices.
Although the USAAF and the RAF were now predominately involved in support for ground forces in Normandy (and had played a critical role in hindering the movement of German re-enforcements), heavy bombing of German cities still continued with the Americans attacking Leipzig on 7th July and the RAF Stuttgart on the 29th. Germany continued to terrorise south-east England with the V1 rocket bombs.
In Italy the Allied front was steadily advancing north of Rome taking Arezzo (between Florence and Perugia) on the 16th July and Livorno (on the coast west of Florence) on the 19th. Polish forces in the British 8th Army finally captured Ancona, on the coast to the east, on 18th July.
Meanwhile Operation Bagration was sweeping across Eastern Europe. Minsk (now the capital of Belarus) was taken by the Soviets on 3rd July and by 8th July the Germans had lost 300,000 men in three weeks. Vilnius, now the capital of Lithuania, fell on 13th July and the Russians entered Latvia from the south at Dvinsk (now Daugavpils) on the 19th. By the 23rd northern troops were nearing the border of Estonia at Pskov (the last pre-war Russian town to be held by German forces). Progress in Estonia was slower, although, after five months of fighting, the Germans retreated from Narva near the Russian border to take a new defensive line between Lake Peipus and the Gulf of Finland. Further south the Soviets captured Brest-Litovsk, on the border between Belarus and Poland, on the 28th July. The Russians were now just 25 miles from Warsaw and German occupants near the front-line in Poland began to be evacuated. On 23rd July the Red Army had found Majdanek concentration camp, near Lublin – the first major concentration camp to be liberated.
Further east Japan called off the Imphal offensive in India on 3rd July and, with the US victory on Saipan on 9th July, the Japanese Prime Minister, Hidekai Tojo, resigned from office. On 21st July American forces landed on Guam, the largest and most southern of the Marianas Islands, occupied by the Japanese since December 1941.
The Stars and Stripes and the Russian Red Flag were beginning their mighty advance across the world.
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