Sword Beach
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Sword Beach was the codename of one of the five main landing beaches in Operation Neptune, which was the initial assault phase of Operation Overlord (the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944). Stretching 8 km from Ouistreham to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer it was the farthest east of the landing points and around 15 km from Caen. The initial landings were achieved with low casualties, but the British forces ran into heavily defended areas behind the beachhead. The British landings were the only Allied sectors that faced attack by German Panzer Divisions on 6 June 1944.
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[edit] British forces
The landing site was divided into four zones: "Oboe", "Peter", "Queen" and "Roger" (from west-east). The landing forces came under the control of the British Army's I Corps, comprising the British 3rd Infantry Division, the 27th Armoured Brigade,[1] elements of the 79th Armoured Division, and British and French Commandos.
[edit] German forces
The German defences consisted of beach obstacles, anti-tank ditches, mines, machineguns and mortars along the beach. Across the River Orne, at Merville, there was a heavy gun battery. The defending force belonged to the German 716th Static Infantry Division. Elements of the 21st Panzer Division were also deployed nearby.[2]
Sword Beach was the farthest east of the five beaches designated for D-Day. It was about nine miles north-east of Caen, less than ten miles from Gold Beach and four miles from Juno Beach.
[edit] German dispositions
Sword Beach itself was about five miles across, straddling the town of Lion-sur-Mer. The British forces' main objective of Caen was vital, because all the main roads in the region ran through the city and the Allies needed to control these if they were to advance inland and to the east and west.
The area around Sword Beach was defended in keeping with Rommel's policy of fortified strongpoints. The Germans had oriented their main defence around artillery emplacements away from Sword. Five miles east of Sword was the Merville gun battery where the Germans had placed 75-mm guns. Twenty miles further to the east at Le Havre were 150-mm guns. Eight miles inland of Sword were 88-mm guns.
[edit] Landings
[edit] Breaking the beach defences
Units of the British 2nd Army led by Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey were assigned the beach. Troops from the British 1st Corps led by Crocker continued the beach assault. The landing was concentrated in the Queen sector of the beach Hermanville-sur-Mer. The key objective was to take the key town of Caen and the nearby Carpiquet aerodrome to the west. Landings began at 07:25 am when the 3rd Division landed in Peter and Queen. Attached Commando units 1st Commando Brigade and part of 4th Commando Brigade were tasked with seizing the bridges on the Orne River and the Caen Canal, linking up with paratroops of the 6th Airborne Division who were holding the bridges and had earlier destroyed the batteries at Merville.
Resistance on the beach was weak. Within 45 minutes, by 08:00, the fighting had been pushed inland and on the east flank the Commando units had reached the Orne, linking up with British paratroopers who had landed by the Orne waterways inland from Ouistreham, by 13:00. The British could not link up with the Canadian forces to the west until much later in the day. The only significant German counter-attacks on D-Day came into this area, starting around 16:00. In two attacks the 21st Panzer Division pushed all the way from near Caen to the beach between Lion-sur-Mer and Luc-sur-Mer and were only fully neutralised by late evening. 54 of the 98 German tanks were destroyed or disabled.
[edit] The 21st Panzer Division counterattacks
The only real German counter-attack on 6 June took place at Sword Beach. British troops had not been able to link up with Canadian troops from Juno according to the plan, and they were attacked by men of the German 21st Panzer Division. The 192nd Panzergrenadier Regiment reached Sword Beach by 20:00 but many vehicles were destroyed by British air attacks. The flak units attached to the 21st Panzer had been spread thin, and as a result many vehicles were destroyed.[3]
Still, the 22nd Panzergrenadier along with fifty Panzers attacked the British-held position. The British had constructed effective defences and the counter-attack was defeated. Despite this, one company made it through the gaps in the defences and reached the coast at Lion-sur-Mer. Finding the coastal defences there intact, they set about reinforcing them. By coincidence, 250 Gliders of the British 6th Airlanding Brigade, on their way to reinforce the Orne bridgeheads, flew over their positions. Believing they would be cut off, the Germans abandoned their defence. By the end of the 6 June, the 21st Panzer Division has lost 50 tanks to British anti-tank guns.[4]
[edit] Aftermath
The day ended with 28,845 British troops ashore and only 630 casualties.[citation needed] However Caen had not been reached and in the face of stiffening resistance the assault had stalled 6 km short of the town. British forces had been bogged down on the beaches by the sheer volume of men and equipment being unloaded.
After the 21st Panzer Division's retreat, the British forces linked with the Canadians on their right flank next morning.[6] 21st Panzer division did not recover quickly enough to see action that day, but later on 7 June, the German 12th SS Division attacked the same point. 12th SS lost 31 tanks without making useful headway.[7]
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Fortin, p. 58. 27th Armoured Brigade came under the direct control of I Corps.
- ^ D'Este 1994, pp. 120-135.
- ^ D'Este 1994, p. 138.
- ^ D'Este 1994, p. 140.
- ^ D'Este 1994, p. 124.
- ^ John Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, ISBN 0712655794, p. 143.
- ^ John Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, ISBN 0712655794, p. 147.
[edit] Bibliography
- D'Este, Carlo. Decision in Normandy: The Real Story of Montgomery and the Allied Campaign. Pengiun Books. 1994. ISBN 0-141-01761-9
- Fortin, Ludovic (2004). British Tanks In Normandy. Histoire & Collections. ISBN 2-91523-933-9.
- Reynolds, Michael. Eagles and Bulldogs in Normandy 1944. Casemate, Havertown, PA, USA. ISBN 1-86227-201-8
[edit] External links
- http://www.dday.co.uk/page30.html
- Sword Beach United Kingdom Ministry of Defence website.
- D-Day : Etat des Lieux : Sword Beach
