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NAVYNEWS D-DAY 60TH ANNIVERSARY,JUNE 2004 i

1 in itiiiiiaiiziiits A

t“’|3|t1\'l’|0Ne geatest invasion torce

the world had ever seen...’

N a bluff highabove the wide,sandy beachstretching from

Vierville—sur—Mer to StHonorine in the vast Baiede la Seine, 21-year-oldObergefreiter — LanceCorporal — HeinrichSeverloh, peered out fromhis post, a heavy machine-gun position dug in on topof the cliff.

Severloh, a veteran of theGerman Army’s titanic strugglewith the Soviet Union, had beenwoken at midnight and driven tohis post, Widerstandnest — nest ofresistance — number 62 overlook-ing the Channel.

He had been sweeping thehorizon with his binoculars forfour hours or so now. Nothing.

In mid-Channel, Marine TomLovell was carrying out finalchecks on his landingcraft aboardllM'I‘G|enroy around the sametime as Severloh was nervouslylooking across the sea.

Lovell, a 22-year-old coxswain,was charged with delivering 30men of the Royal HampshireRegiment, theTigers, safely on toGold beach at lc Hamel, a fewmiles east of Arromanehes.

“We were all highly trained,"the Royal Marine recalled, “but itseemed to me that thoughts of\vivcs, kids and so on were upper-most in the minds of everyone 1met.

“Here I was, privilegedtobe present with the great-est invasion force theworld had ever seen andindeed was ever likely tosee again.”Lovell chatted with the soldiers

he was about to ferry ashore tostorm llitler's vaunted FortressEurope.

“We talked to each other andexpressed our fears about whatwas to come and whether wewould be returning," he remem-bered.

in the half-light of this greydawn, the fog hanging over thesea was beginning to fade.

Aboard Glenroy the landingcraft were gently lowered into thewater below for the final act: the

0 “And when Alexandersaw thebreadthof his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquen" The invasion fleetoff thebeachesas seen from a passing aircraft — note thedistinctive ‘D Day’ striped markingson its wing.

assault on the beaches.“On the way in we were going

with the sea and it was quite pleas-ant and fast," recalled Lovell, whothroughout the boat’s passage con-sulted a panoramic photograph toaim for his landing point.

From the land it seemed as if thehorizon was shimmering. The foggave way to “the most powerfularmada ofall time — an endless lineof gigantic battleships," Severlohrecalled. The armada drew evercloser to the Normandy coastline.“You could not see the waterbetween them. it defied descrip-tion.”

A few miles from HeinrichScverloh’s trench, artillery officerMajor Werner Pluskat had alsobeen at his command bunker sincethe small hours. It was “anotherfalse alarm", he told his comradesin frustration. Now it was dawning,

O ‘Mountains of bodies’: Gennan troops survey the scene atDieppe in thewake of theAlliedraid in August 1942

Pluskat grabbed his binoculars toscour thewaters again. “I thought Icould see something on the hori-7.on. it was literally filling withships of all kinds. l could hardlybelieve it,” he remembered. Hepassed the binoculars to a com-rade. “Takc a look," Pluskat toldhim. He did, then gasped: “MyGod, it’s the invasion.”

It’s hard to imagine now. Today‘sRoyal Navy musters little morethan 100 front-line warships andauxiliaries.

But in June 1944. the RoyalNavy delivered the core of theforces sent to liberate occupiedEurope on to the beaches ofNormandy.

Seven out of ten ships commit-ted to Operation Neptune — code-name for the Naval arm of theassault on Fortress Europe — was

crewed by a British orCommonwealthsailor.

Against this mighty armada, theGerman Navy — the Kriegsmarine— could muster barely 25 motortorpedo boats and 17 U-boats fromBoulogne to Brest.

Ranged against them were bat-tleships. cruisers, destroyers.frigates, troopships, landing craft.tugs, barges, submarines.Overhead hung the protectiveumbrella of the Allied air forces.the Americans. the British.

And yet for all this might, never

surpassed and unlikely to be, theAllied commanders were nothopeful as the landing craftploughed the waves that Tuesdaymorning.

Allied Supreme CommanderGeneral Dwight Eisenhower hadscrawled a communique to beissued ifthe invasion failed.

“The troops. the air [forces] andthe Navy did all that bravery anddevotion could do. if any blame orfault attaches to the attempt. it ismine alone." he wrote.

The Naval commander of theoperation. the RN's Admiral SirBertram Ramsay. was equallyunsure about D-Day‘s outcome.He confided in his diary on

Monday June 5 1944:

‘‘I’m not under any delu-sions as to the risksinvolved in thismost difficultof all operations. Successwill be in the balance.”And then there were the

Germans, the Germans who hadhad four years to strengthen theirdefences in France, but who hadwaited until the winter of 1943-44to start work in earnest.

Coritirmcll an Pug ' 2

0 General Eisenhower'sfamous order of the day toAllied forces embarkinguponthe ‘great crusade’. Heimplored: “We will acceptnothing less than full victo-or!”

DJ [miniiiflhLifziiftfiLPiili”Ldl\_',/eqaamtau

OF the 6,833 vessels com-mitted to Operation Neptune— mighty men o’war; mer-chantmen, landing craft andmotor boats — nearlyeightout of 10 were British orCanadian.

The American maritimeinput was just 17 per cent ofthe invasion force. FreeFrench, Non/vegians, Dutch,Poles and Greek vesselsaccounted for the remainingfive per cent.

The FleetAir Arm commit-ted 12 squadrons in supportof the invasion, the RoyalMarines more than 10,000men. Of the hundreds oflanding craft which assault-ed the beacheson TuesdayJune 6, 1944, two in everythree were crewed by RoyalMarines.

‘A picture like Dunkirk...’Ileteat at Dieppe points to victoryIN thedark of thesmallhours ofAugust 19 1942, Gennan radar sta-tions began to pick up an approach-ing Allied task force. In thehourswhich followed, a Canadian-dominat-ed force assisted by Royal MarineCommandos would attempt to stonntheport of Dieppe. It was a fiasco.

By mid-moming it was clear theattempt had failedand by 2pm it wasallover.

Of the5,000 Canadians who setfoot on French soil, barely2,200returned to Britain; 33 landing craft,106aircraft and every one of the28tanks which put ashore, plus one

destroyer, were destroyed. All theAllies had to show for it were asmashedcoastal battery, 600 Gennan

dead and 48 enemy aircraft downed.The day after the raid, a Gennan

officer visited theport. He found“bloody English [sic] losses.Everywhere stilldead Englishmen.Mountains of bodies. The beachwestof Dieppe presents a picture likeDunkirk.”

But Dieppe taught theAllies a valu-able Iesson; theyknew now that theycould neverhope to take a portintact.They would have to bring onewith them... the legendary Mulbenyharbours, theremnants of which canstillbe seen in Arromanches.

Lord Mountbatten, thenhead ofCombinedOperations, famouslystat-ed thatD-Day was won on thebeach-es of Dieppe.

0 Logistics were a key factorin theinvasionssuc-cess - or failure:one of theguarantors of victory,the sprawlingartificialMulberry harbour

Pictures: Imperial War Museum

iv NAVYNEWS D-DAY 60TH ANNIVERSARY,JUNE 2004 www.rzavynews.c0.uk

‘We, whom Wlliam conquered, have setlI‘BB the conquer-or-'s lather-Iantl...'

or most of its1,000-year-plusexistence, the tinyseaside hamlet of

Hermanville—sur—Merhadthrived relatively undis-turbed by world events.

That was until Allied plan-ners designated the seafront atllermanville part of Swordbeach.

Each year since I974, formerAB Billy Swift has headedacross to France and stood onthe shore at Hermanville, look-ing out over the Channel towhere he was stationed withHMS Scourge and the 23rdDestroyer Flotilla,safeguardingthe assault on Sword beach.

Scourge, a veteran of theRussian convoys, had beenordered south to escortmineswcepers during the land-ings, before turning her gunstowards enemy positions aroundOuistreham.

Already that morning, the23rd’s Norwe ian destroyerSvenner had fal en victim to tor-pedoes launched by Germanmotor boats. Her back broken,she sank in minutes.

Now from his post at ‘A’ gun,21-year-old Swift peeredthrough his directors to watchthe invasion progress.

“All it seemed you could seewere the boys dying on thebeach,”he recalled.

Scourge spent nearly threeweeks off Ouistreham in sup-port of the invasion. Her ammu-nition almost exhausted, theorders were given to replaceherwith 23rd Flotilla’sHMS Swift.

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0 No greater sacrifice:The freshly-duggraves of the dead of 48commando at St Aubin. Post-war many of the victims ofNormandy were re-intened in larger official cemeteries, such asBayeux

As she moved in, Swift fell vic-tim to an aerial mine which brokethe ship in half. Seventeen men

were lost with her.Yet until a handful of years ago,

Swift, Svenner and Scourge had nomonument to their sacrifices.'Ibday they do. A memorial standson the seafront at Hennanvillehonouring 23rd Destroyer Flotilla.

On June 6, 2004, the dwindlingband of flotilla survivors, led byJohn Gower, HMS Swift’s fonnerCommanding Officer, will gatherwith the Band of the RoyalMarines to pay their respects.

It was a source of chagrin to thedestroyer men thatuntil the turn ofthe 21st Centu there was nomonument to their deeds.

.HMS"TRAFALGAR‘

To Billy Swift it seemed to sum

up D-Day as a whole.“Itwas as if therewas nothingto

commemorate the Navy. If you goto France you find monuments tothe French, the British, theAmericans. But they’re almost allArmy,” he said.

“Who took all the troopsover there?Who escortedthe invasion fleet?We did.”All three Armed Services paid

heavily in blood for theirvictory inNormandy.

By the time the struggle forNonnandy ended in late August,the Allies had recorded 210,000casualties, 40,000 of them dead;the Gennans lost an estimated

HMS pm oryou

ROYAL NAVY

HMS UNBEATEN

O The Memorial to theMissing, opposite theBritishmilitarycemetery in Bayeux, honours 1,805 men of

,

the Commonwealth with no known grave. Itsinscription reads: Nos a Guilielmo victi victorispatriam liberavimus — We, whom William con-

quered, have set free theConqueror's fatherland.

450,000 men, 60,000 of them killedin action.

In death, all are comrades inarms, whatever cause they foughtfor. Nowhere represents thisbetterthan the Commonwealth WarGrave Commission’s immaculate-ly-kept burial ground on the edgeof Bayeux, the first major town lib-erated by Commonwealth forces.It is the largest final resting placefor British victims of World War IIin France.

3,935 Britons of all threeServices found peace here, along-side brothers in arms fromCanada, Australia, New Zealand,South Africa, Poland, France,Czechoslovakia, Ital and Russia,plus more than 450 ermans.

F.urth.e:r readingThis supplement has beencompiledwiththe assistance of:

Stephen Ambrose -— D-Day. Simon 8.Schuster, 1994Heinz Boberach— Meldungen aus demReich, Herrsching, 1984Max Hastings — Overlord, Pan. 1999Richard Holmes - The D-DayExperience, Carlton. 2004David lrvlng — The Trail of the Fox,Weidenfeld 8. Nioolson, 1977Robert Kershaw — D-Day: Piercing theAtlantic WalI,lanAllan. 1993Russell Miller — Nothing Less ThanVictory, Penguin, 1994Erwin Rommel — The Rommel Papers,Harcourt Brace, 1953Comellus Ryan — The Longest Day.Popular Libra

,1959

Salewski, M chael — Die deursche

Sggrfiegsleitung. Bernard & Graele.1

Colour (Circle) Size (Circle) QTY Unit Price

Some of theprincipal events

Thursday May 27 onwards: D-Day 60thanniversary exhibition,D-Day Museum, PortsmouthFriday May 28 onwards: 60thanniversary exhibition at theCaen MémorialThursday June 3: March pastwith regimental standards andRoyal Marines Band, CastleField, Southsea, 4pmSaturday June 5: Veteranscross to France by ferry, escort-ed by warships HMSGloucester; HMS Campbelltownwill also be sailing to France aspart of the Allied ‘fleet’; exhibi-tion of photographs at theImperial War Museum North,Manchester, until September22Sunday June 6: Ceremoniesthroughout Normandy, includingArromanches and Bayeux, withthe main international com-memorations focused on Caen- wreath-layingceremony at theChateau and monument to 3rdBritish Infantry Division — culmi-nating in an evening concert atthe Abbaye aux Hommes,8.30pm; beat retreat by theRoyal Marines Band, Caen CityHall, 10.15pm; 23rd DestroyerFlotillaservice with Band of theRoyal Marines, Hermanvi||e-sur-Mer, 3.30pm; traditional ser-vice of remembrance inPortsmouthat the D-Day Stone,featuring the Band of the RoyalMarines, 10.30am; memorialservice, Manchester Cathedral,3.30pm

Total

‘xvi

Royal Navy (New)

Royal Navy (VlthiteEnsign)

Name:

II

lIIIII

: Royal Navy (AdmiraltyCrown) Navy Blue/White: HMS Belfast Navy BlueI

: HMS Trafalgar Navy Blue

: HMS Unbeaten Navy Blue/Whitei HMS Welshman Navy BlueI

: Royal Marines Olive Green

: HMS Illustrious Navy Blue/WhiteI

: HMS Ark Royal Navy Blue/Vvhite

: HMS Duke of York Navy Blue

i HM Submarines Navy Blue

Navy Blue/White SM LXL XXL

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romr. VALUE E

ALL SHIRTS PREMIUM HEAWWEIGHT (l95GR)

(Postage and packing included)

I enclose a cheque/postal order payable to GBTSE

Unit 29, 17 Leyton Road, Harpenden, Herts. AL5 2HY

Tel: +44 (0)1582 766 611 Fax: +44 (0)1582766 633 Email:sa|es@gbtse.com

Address: Postcode:

Tel: Email: www.gbtse.com

Names and Insignia: used by the Armed Services aretrademarksreproduced under licence from the Secretary

of State for Defence

Please allow 28 days for delivery.Registered in England. No. 2798630

ii NAVYNEWS D-DAY 60TH ANNIVERSARY,JUNE 2004www.nav_vr1ews.co.uk

‘All the ships are blazing away now. It's a great day...’From Page 1

Their leaders looked to theimpending invasion with nearrelish.

When news of the Normandylandings reached Adolf Hitler'sAlpine retreat, the Germanleader g|oated:“Now we havethem where we can destroythem."

But no man — Allied or

(iermany — who witnessed thatgreat armada that blusteryTuesday morning was in anydoubt about the outcome.

Aboard HMS l.args. l‘)—year—old telegraphist (‘lifford Palliserwas awestruck as he looked out

upon Sword beach from bamonwards. An officer had urgedhim: “Go and watch a

history in the making." He didn'tneed much urging.

“The small assault craft were

slowly making their wa_v ashore.bobbing and weaving." herecalled.

"I watched the inspiring sightof a rocket landing craft slowlyposition itself. turning sidewaysto the beach and releasing morethan _a thousand rockets. Thecraft vanished in its own smoke.

“I could just see the engineersamong the beach obstacles athalf tide destroying the variousexplosive devices in the water."

Overhead. the Seafires andSpitfires of the Fleet Air Arm‘sNo.3 Fighter Wing served as

spotter aircraft. guiding thenaval bombardment.

Beyond the beaches. venera-ble Swordfish patrolled the skieshunting U—boats and li-boats.

()n the ground. few Alliedunits had a more bitter first daythan 48 (‘ommando. committedaround St Aubin-sur-Mer andLangrune in the sector of Junobeach.

When they finally silencedone bunker at St Aubin. thecommandos found 70 emptyshell cases inside.

It took four hours to clear thebeach effectively. before theRoyal Marines headed two milestowards l.angrune. a heavily for-tified position.

A (‘entaur tank was called upto support the assault; it ran outof ammunition. A second(‘entaur blew up in a minefieldand a Sherman tank was alsoknocked out.

It was only after bitter hand-to-hand fighting that the battlefor Langrune ended on June 7:3| Germans were marched offinto captivity.

By then. the struggle for thebeachheads had largely beenwon.

Indeed. by nightfall on June I).nearly 175.(l()() Allied soldierswere ashore. The British andCanadians at Gold and Juno hadmerged to form a sizeablebeachhead which stretched tothe gates of the historic town ofBayeux.

To the east. there was a goodtwo—mi|e gap between the Junoand Sword bridgeheads. the lat-ter ofwhich fell short of the cityof (‘aen. objective for l)—I)ay. bytwo miles. The Americans'foothold at Omaha was limitedto a handful of scattered pocketsno more than half a mile inland.()nly at Utah had US forcesenjoyed any great success.Around 25 square miles of the(‘otentin peninsula were inAmerican hands and the railwayline to (‘herbourg was cut.

The price of the Allies‘ pre-carious foothold on French soilwas fewer than 5.001) casualties.‘Blood_\" ()maha cost theAmericans 3.400 dead. woundedand missing. but the invadingforces at Utah suffered fewerthan Ztltl dead. The British lost

piece of.

‘Wit itll')ll4'lj

',-'>n:mi=III

400 men at Gold, a further 630troops were casualties at Sword.and the invaders at Juno sufferedl.2()(l casualties. In its two-day bat-tle. 48 Commandos tanks werereduced from 450 strong to just223. All five troop commandersand four out of five of theirdeputies were casualties.

The German Army lost at leastas many men defending the beach-es and landing grounds thatTuesday.

Operation Neptune continuedfor l8 days beyond D-Day. ensur-

ing that the Allies had an unassai|-able foothold in France.

By the time the operation waswound up. more than 7(l().()t)(l menhad been put ashore and 25ll,(l()()tons of stores landed.

The price of victory was heavy.Allied casualties by mid-Juneamounted to more than 5.l)()()dead and another l2.()(l() missing —

most of these were later confirmedas dead — and 23.000 wounded:nearly 4(l.0ll() casualties for twoweeks‘ lighting — but still less thanAllied planners expected.

ln the years since June 6 1944.l)-l)ay has assumed mythical sta-tus. It is deserved. it helped todetermine whether WesternEurope would be enslaved bytyranny or whether the peoples ofFrance. Belgium. Holland andultimately western (icrmanywould live in freedom.

l-'.ver_vone involved in that greatcrusade deserves our eternal grati-tude for ensuring thatwe enjoy thelatter.

SHEPWOOLLEY

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0 Green berets of 48 Commandowade ashore at Juno beach, 0900Hours, June 61944

/H117: .-31'/'.=_1_y'=.

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lNAlanding craft strugglingthrough heavy seas towardsJuno beach, BBC war cone-spondent Colin Wills accompa-nied Canadian 3rd Division. Hesomehow found time to recordthisdramatic report:

“One could not imagine amore stupendous scene. Thesea itself seems restless andexcited.

“This is the day and this isthehour! The sea is a glitteringmass of silver with all thesecraft of every kind movingacross it and the great battle-ships in the background blaz-ing away at the shore.

"All the ships are blazingawaynow. All aroundthisgreatgrey-green circle of waterthere are ships, ships movingin, ships on patrol, ships cir-cling, ships standing to and fir-ing.”

“You cannot imagine any-thing like this march ofships. It's a great day."A few miles to the west, AB

Lol Buxton, a gunner in Huntclass destroyer HMSGoathland,was supporting theassaulton Gold beach.

“We came under shellingand bombing but we were sogeared up by our intensivetraining that we got on withwhat he had to do. We wereglad thatat long last therewassomething to get our teethinto," he remembered.

Heading for the westernflankof Gold, the landing craftof a Capt Wood RM of 47Commando took a direct hit.

He struggled through thewater having “swallowedpintsand pints of water”. Of the445comrades Wood expected tofind on thebeach, four officersand 68 ranks were missing.

“The scene on the beachbeggared description. It wasunder intennittent mortar fire.Tanks burning, vehicles stand-ing about either stranded,

HMS ScyllaBritsh HO Ship

’ STERN TASK FORCE (BRITISH)BRITISH SECOND ARMY

O A German radar station'sreport, 4.15am, June 6 1944:“Thousandsofships tracked. Siekommen!- They're coming!"i“They'ecoming...’

drowned or unable to move.The only markings I saw was asmall Union Jack whichmarkeda numberof stretchercases," Capt Wood reported.

As theassaultprogressed, ashore party from HMSGoathlandwas needed to clearGold beach of the detritus ofthedays fighting.

A party of 50 lower ranks ledby two officers set foot in a tinyslice of liberatedFrance.

“I shall never forget what Isaw and experienced thatday.It was absolute hell,” said ABBuxton. “Allyou could see wasdust and smoke and flamesand the pungent smell ofcordite hung in theair.

“Every time I return toNormandy I know what afantastic feeling it is to bealive. June 6 1944 was oneof the proudest days of mylife.”In theBrittany port of Brest,

Oberleutnant Herbert Wemer,captain of U415 waited for theorder to sail against the inva-sion fleet.

"We never talked about theinvasion. We thought of itincessantly - and of ourdeath," he wrote.

Werner commanded one of17 U-boats held back ready todefeat the invasion when itcame.

As night fell on June 6, theU-boats slipped theirmooringsin Brest to head out to attackthe invasion fleet. For HerbertWerner’s U415, the missionwas suicidal.

He had to “remain on thesurface and race unprotectedtowards the southem Englishcoast at a time when the skywas black with thousands ofaircraft and the sea swannedwith hundreds of destroyersand corvettes.”

Before June 7 dawned, U415would be crippled by air attackbarely out of Brest.

_...~>~i...e...r~ ...._

0 Veteran of Jutland, mighty HMS Warspite pounds Germanpositions around the Ome estuary, daybreak, June 6 1944

‘The I‘I|I|)IE III IIBSIIBS alongIIIB 9|‘!!! IIOI‘IZ0ll...'

LtRon Martin sailed fromthe Clyde in HMS Warspitelate on June 4. By dusk thefollowing day, Warspite hadjoined thecore of the inva-sion fleetoff the Isle ofWight.

"Over 6,000 vessels of allshapes and sizes weresteaming up and down inwell-ordered confusion. Wecould see thepoor soldiersin theirlanding craft beingseasick.

“As dusk fell we lined upbehind40 minesweepersand crept slowly towards theFrench coast at actionsta-tions."

By dawn thenext day,Warspite was in position inthe eastem Seine Bay readyto cover the landingsatSword Beach by poundingGennan coastal batteriesnorth of Caen, opening fireat 5.30am on TuesdayJune6.

Each broadside fired byWarspite delivered 11,500lbsof deathand destructionupon the vauntedAtlanticWall.

O The exhaustedgun crew of LCG(L) 1007catch 40 winks after the initial assault

At theheight of theAlliedNaval bombardment thatTuesdaymorning, ten tonseach minute was being firedby every battleship.

Novelist Douglas Reeman,thenserving in a motor tor-pedo boat thatmoming,watched in awe as the inva-sion force opened fire.

“You could see the rippleof flashes along thegreyhorizon and had to forceyourself not to duck as thegreat shells tore overheadwith the sound of tearingcanvas.”

As theday drew on, thehonors of the fightingashore becameevident tothebattleship’s crew.

“It was heartbreaking tosee dead bodies of Alliedtroops driftingpast theship, " LtMartin recalled.

The effect of theAlliedbombardmentashore wasdevastating; it was alsodamaging belowdecks.

A petty officer in battle-ship HMS Ramilliescom-plained: ‘Fumiture wassmashedand heavy pieces

of equipmentwere shakenfrom thebulk-heads andthrownacrossthedeck.

“The messdecks andspaces belowthe 15in tumetswere a sham-bles and therewere evencracksappear-ing in thesup-porting steelstanchionsbetween decks.”

O “In the first rank of British Naval leaders":AdmiralRamsay(left) withRear-AdmiralPhilip Vian, commandingnaval forcesin the eastern Bay of the Seine on June 6

LESS flamboyantthanMonty and more of a ‘hands-on’leader than Eisenhower; AdmiralSir Bertram Home Ramsaywas an outstanding organiser and motivator.

Architect of theDunkirkevacuationin 1940, his ultimatereward was to oversee theplanning of the invasion of NorthAfrica in 1942 and Sicilythe followingyear.

In autumn 1943 he was selected as Naval commander forOperation Overtord, serving as Eisenhower’s deputy.

His instructions for the landings ran to more than 1,000pages and covered every eventuality,yet as the fleetsailedhe placedhis faith in theAlmighty: “We shall require all thehelp thatGod can give us and I cannot believethat thiswillnot be forthcoming,”he wrote in his diary.

He was amazed, then, thatthe fleetapproachedFrance“withouta murmur" from theenemy.

Ramsay was killedin a plane crash in January 1945 as hetravelled to see Montgomery.

WWW.l1(1Vyl’l(:'WS.C0.llk

HERE was an airof uneasy confi-dence in Germanyin spring 1944.

After four years of waiting,every German was convincedthat the great test in the Westwould come: the Allied invasionwas imminent.

In the years since the fall ofFrance and the Low Countries,the Western Front had become abackwater for burned-out unitsand old men as the Nazis focusedtheir efforts on defeating theRussians.

But by 1944 AdolfHitlercouldafford to neglect the West no

longer.Some of the finest divisions

the Third Reich could stillmuster found themselvesdefend-ing Fcsltuig Europa — FortressEurope — in the late spring of1944.

They stood behind the much-lauded/ltlmztikwall— the AtlanticWall, a great line of fortificationsdefending the shores of occupiedFrance, Belgium and Holland.

Nazi propaganda proclaimedthe wall “a double ring of death".Germany's principal newspaper,the Viilkisclrer Bealzac/xlcr,\varned that “if the enemy daredto set foot on land. there wouldbe terrible revenge."

The chief architect of thiswallwas Field Marshal ErwinRommel, the Desert Fox. vaunt-ed former commander of the/lfn'/<11 Km72.s' and now overseeingthe defence of Fortress Europe.

Famously declaring thatthe day the enemy set footon the shores of Europewould be “the longestday”, Rommel trans-formed the Atlantic Wallinto something approach-ing the mythical statusafforded it by Germany'spropaganda machine.In the six months after l1is

arrival in France, half a millionbeach obstacles were installedand (),5(l0.0()() mines laid. Fourthousand new fortifications hadbeen built.

But the job was half (lone. Inwestern Normandy alone, onlyhalf the planned new defenceshad been completed.

Yet there was confidencethrough the supreme strata ofNazi Germany in the late springof I944.

No-one was more hopefulthan AdolfHitler himself.

“The Fiihrcr is convinced thatthe invasion will fail,” hisPropaganda Minister JosephGoebbels wrote in his diary.

“Nothingparticularly unpleas-ant can happen any more.”

‘Prepaehl

I-Iitler‘s optimism was infec-tious.

The German Navy‘s supremecommander, Grossadmiral KarlDonitz. expected his men to “pre-pare a bloody welcome for ourenemies and bar their entry toEurope!"

Meanwhilc,.Rommel wrote tohis wife in early May: “Every day,every week we get stronger."

The field marshal’s comman-ders shared his confidence.

“We've done nothing to blameourselves about. Everythingwhichis humanly possible has beendone,” General Erich Marcks,defending the Cotentin peninsulaand the western stretch of theSeine Bay, declared.

Such confidence filtered downthrough Nazi society to the ordi-nary man and woman in the street.

“Most of the public havegreat hopes that the inva-sion will provoke a decisivechange in the war in ourfavour,” a secret report onpublic morale observed inthe spring of 1944. “Peopleexpect theenemy will suffera heavy defeat.”And now — just as in Britain,

Canada and the United States —

the hopes and fate of an entirenation rested on the ordinary sol-dier.

In June 1944, 58 divisionsdefended Fortress Europe from

o The otherside of the

the German-Dutch border toFranco-Spanish frontier. Just nineof these divisions held the 190miles of the Norman shores.Behind them stood l,370 panzersof l() German armoured divisions.

The defenders were a mixedbag. There were elite divisions —

the Panzer Lclrr, the 12th SSHillcrjugcml— Hitler Youth — andthere were second-rate fortressdivisions of old men, conscriptedRussians and Poles.

The ordinary German soldier,the lamlscr — the German equiva-lent of ‘Tommy’ and GI Joe —

looked to the invasion with confi-dcnee.

“We were not afraid,” JoehenLeykauf of the Hitler YouthDivision declared. “We were look-ing forward to it."

Peter Masters, who interrogatedGerman prisoners after the inva-sion began, found most enemytroops expected victory.

“We will easily push them backinto the sea. Stukas will dive bombthem, bomberswill sink their land-ing craft; panzers will rout them onthe beaches,”was the typical viewof the defender of Normandy.

hill:A German ‘"9"t t 0hows the _::"~’;1‘_:g of July

r the Battle

In the smalltown of Colleville,18-year-old FranzGockcl looked outacross the Channelas he had done formonths on end.Home to Gockclwas a crampedbunker, its ceilingreinforced by morethan six feet of con-crete. It was nowthe beginning ofJune. Thereseemed to be a

growing sense ofurgency. The alertstatus was raised.Veterans not mucholder than Gockclwere certain.“Something’s inthe air,” they mut-tered.

The e“e'“V has bYou will now del°“d our

anackon Europe...contine

.

our enemiesR ' h.

_.elslbldiers. I“ ““

NAVYNEWS D-DAY 60TH ANNIVERSARY;JUNE 2004 iiiody welcome for our enemis..O The myth and reality oftheAtlantic Wall: (Far left) A

i propaganda image of aGerman soldier standingguard next to a gunemplacement; (left) German

- dead outside a fortificationPicture: Imperial War Museum

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ng-awaited

egun his I0

ttackbtll smas“‘"2aand our

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eal 10s hist0f'° hour’ iarflftgurage

r provV0‘-“' bravery’ Eielzliilfastness of Y°‘"

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entry to Etillfllgettfe strengih °I y°urstrengl-I‘ l“ V9”hest thisattackE0:

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O Casualty of war:A burned-out GermanPanthertank on a Nonnan lane

O The wily Desert Fox, FieldMarshal Erwin Rommel

Last prowl ofthe Desert FoxSCOURGE of the BritishArmy for 18 monthsin NorthAfricauntilEl Alamein, FieldMarshal Erwin Rommel hadbeen out of favour for muchof 1943 untilhe was recalledby Hitler to strengthenGennany’s defences in theWest.

“I believewe shall win thedefensive battle in the Westif we have time to prepare. Ibelievewe can repulse theonslaught,"he wrote hometo his wife.

Rommel set about his taskwith vigour; ordering a 1,000-yard wide ‘zone of death’created along theentireFrench coastlinewithminesand beachobstaclesbarringan Alliedassault.

Under Gennany’s SupremeCommanderin. the West, theelderly Field Marshal Gerdvon Rundstedt, Rommel wasgiven commandof ArmyGroup B, charged withthwarting the invasion.

Fatefully,on themomingof dune 6, Rommel was athome in Gennany celebratinghis wife’s birthday.He arrivedin Nonnandyafter dusk thatday, too late to influencethecourse of thebattle on itscritical first day.

As theBattle of Nonnandydragged on, Rommel becameincreasinglyfatalistic.

By July 15, the Desert Foxwas convinced the war waslost and told Hitlerso.

“Everywhere, the troopsfight heroically,but theunequal battle is nearing itsend. In my opinion, it is nec-essary to draw theappropri-ate conclusions from thesit-uation,” he reported.

Two days later he waswounded by an air attackonhis staff car. lmplicated in thefailedplot on Hitler’s life onJuly 20, Rommel was forcedto commit suicide in October1944.

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