The Travels of Tel's Tin Tent.

[A4K]

Just awesome Terry. (Love the diorama!)

Note wth the 'Horsa' swing bridge, by 1944 it was fixed, ie. no longer swivelled. And to show how up-to-date RAF aerial reconnaissance was, what looked like a mine appeared in photographs the day before the raid, which caused some concern among planners. It turned out a horse had crapped on the bridge.

 

[Wurger]

 

[rochie]

Just awesome Terry. (Love the diorama!)

Note wth the 'Horsa' swing bridge, by 1944 it was fixed, ie. no longer swivelled. And to show how up-to-date RAF aerial reconnaissance was, what looked like a mine appeared in photographs the day before the raid, which caused some concern among planners. It turned out a horse had crapped on the bridge.

Didn't know that Evan

 

[Airframes]

Thanks again chaps.
Evan, thanks for posting that - I'd forgotten that detail, and incident.

 

[Airframes]

Here's a random selection, from various stages of the tour, whilst I sort the Merville battery stuff.

Pic 1. The Three Stooges in the hotel bar after the first full day exploring. After seeing this, I need to have a quiet word with my barber !
Pic 2. Planning the next sortie, in the annexe "common room", aka Company HQ.
Pic 3. Some sort of huge castle - can't remember where, but it was impressive !
Pic 4. Typical tree-lined main road, the type often seen in gun camera footage of air to ground strafing.
Pic 5. Outside the hotel annexe, ready for another excursion.
Pic 6. An example of some of the narrow roads encountered in typical villages, in this instance the approach into Merville.
Pics 7 to 9. White Van Man International ! The white van was parked in the narrowest part of this village, partly blocking the footpath, and totally preventing the truck from getting through. White van man (in the white T shirt and dark trousers) eventually condescended to move the vehicle - around two feet backwards !!
This scene helps to illustrate some of the natural obstacles that had to be faced, and overcome, by Allied armour in this region of Normandy - and this was one of the wider village streets !
Pic 10. Another narrow street, on the edge of Plumetot.

Back soon(ish) with the coverage of Merville battery.

 

[Wurger]

 

[rochie]

Jesus christ, i look shagged in that first pic !

 

[Airframes]

I was thinking the same about myself, but we had been travelling, on and off, for three days !

 

[A4K]

I would have been asleep by that stage if I'd gone!
Great stuff again Terry (and Karl).

 

[Engineman]

Jesus christ, i look shagged in that first pic !

Pisshed?
Must admit, we were on our Battlefield tour of Normandy!

Cheers

Eng

 

[Crimea_River]

Good pics and looking forward to the next instalment. The manure mine is too funny but think of the havoc that real mines disguised as manure could have caused!

 

[Airframes]

Yep, I've personally seen the aftermath of such apparently innocent... er ... deposits. Not pretty.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

I don't know if they are planning (pic 2) or nodding off. Lets face it, they had just been in the bar!

Great pics Terry, really enjoying.

 

[Gnomey]

Great shots Terry!

 

[fubar57]

Really enjoying the tour

Thanks chaps, glad you're all enjoying this description of a fantastic tour.

My main aim when planning this tour, quite a few months ago, was to try to illustrate and describe the landings, and subsequent battles that are not particularly well known to the average person. In general, most people (particularly Americans, with respect), think of D-Day as "Bloody Omaha" and American paras at St.Mere Eglise, no doubt influenced over the years by such movies as "The Longest Day" and "Saving Private Ryan", and are, to a degree, innocently unaware of the countless battles elsewhere, on D-Day itself, and later in the first week or so the invasion.
Therefore, it was (and is) my intention to provide at least a little insight into the actions elsewhere, and their absolute strategic importance for the overall success of "Overlord", particularly those actions to secure the left (eastern) flank of the beach head.
Later in this "tour" I will attempt to describe, and illustrate, some of the areas, battles, obstacles and differing terrain that British and Canadian forces had to cope with, along with the German units they very soon encountered, including Panzer Divisions - which were not present in any appreciable numbers, in the American sector, in the first week or so of the landings, despite what's shown in "Saving Private Ryan".

Back soon ...............

Read Stephen Ambrose's book and I think a chapter or two were devoted to Canadian, British and others contributions. To me it seemed that we were an after thought

 

[Airframes]

The battles around the bridge, Benouville and Le Port.

I had originally intended to cover the assault on Merville battery at this point (with pics of the battery today), as it took place around the same time as the bridge defences were being reinforced by 7 Para, approximately 40 minutes after the first glider landings.
However, for ease of narration, and viewing, I think it's more convenient to first describe, and illustrate, just a few of the actions which took place in the Benouville area immediately after the capture of the bridge, and the developments during the daylight hours of June 6th.

Major Howard had been advised to expect a counter attack within an hour of capturing the bridges, and sure enough, at around 01.15 hours, the sound of tracked vehicles could be heard, approaching from the direction of Le Port (where our hotel was, "Manoir Hastings").
Very soon, three tracked vehicles were seen at the cross roads at the top (west end) of the main street leading away from the bridge, and these continued onwards, towards the south west. (the cross roads is now a roundabout).
However, within a few minutes they returned, and the first vehicle turned onto the main road, heading for the bridge.
Sgt. "Wagger" Thornton, armed with a PIAT, had positioned himself on the opposite side of the road, and slightly further down from "La Chaumiere", a hotel/ bar/restaurant. He waited until the "tank"(*) was as close as he dared, and fired the PIAT, which scored a direct hit, igniting grenades and ammunition on board the vehicle. The resulting explosions continued for at least 30 minutes, and the wrecked vehicle continued to burn for most of the night, and day.
The other two "tracked vehicles", believing that this unknown enemy force were equipped with anti-tank guns, reversed and withdrew.

(*) There is no definite proof as to what type of vehicles these were, and there has been quite some debate, over the years, as to what they might have been, with even veterans of the battle describing them variously as "tanks", "self-propelled guns" or "half tracks". Several published sources, and videos, have offered suggestions of Panzer IVs, Marder 1 or Marder III, SdKfz 251 with PAK 75, and Stug III or Stug IV.
The 21st Panzer Division (based around Caen and the Benouville - Le Port area at the time) are known to have been equipped with a relatively large amount of French (and Czech) armoured vehicles, captured in 1940, including tanks, SPGs, and half tracks.

Major Alfred Becker, an engineer in the German army, was responsible for the conversion of some of these captured chassis into self-propelled guns, and half tracks, adding armoured fighting compartments and German guns, such as the 75mm PAK, among others.
In the weeks preceding our tour, I started to research this particular event, and noticed that a higher proportion of veteran accounts described the vehicles as half tracks. So, knowing about the captured French and Czech vehicles, I did a little more amateur research, and came to the conclusion that the vehicles in question were most likely captured French half tracks, armed with the 75mm gun - the Samua-Unic P107.
I then finished reading Neil Barber's superb book on the battle (which I'll show later, in the suggested references), and discovered, in the appendix, a detailed reference to this episode. Neil Barber had reached similar conclusions, and this was reinforced by a photo, included in his book (unfortunately too small to reproduce here).
This was an aerial recce shot, and showed the remains of the knocked-out vehicle, still in the street, near La Chaumiere. Mr. Barber had studied the original (much larger) photo in detail and, estimating the probable size by scaling against "known" features in the photo, and noting the distinct shape, different from any of the other suggested vehicles, he concluded that this was almost certainly a Samua-Unic P107/75mm half track.
Therefore, with this "combination" of research, I am confident enough to believe that this was, indeed, the type of vehicle knocked out by Sgt. "Wagger" Thornton, 2nd Ox and Bucks.

The is much more that could be described concerning the on-going battles in and around Benouville - Le Port, but again, I'll refer you to the books (and videos) which will be noted later in this thread.

The images below cover this event, with the map also covering other events to be described in subsequent posts.
The first image is for interest, and shows a very large terrain model, in the Pegasus Memorial Museum, covering the general area of "Operation Tonga". Unfortunately, the areas of Ouistreham, on the coast, and Merville, slightly further inland, are partly obscured by the reflections in the glass case. Locations of DZs etc are included in the photo.

Pic 1. The terrain model, "Operation Tonga". (apologies for the mis-spelling of "Ouistreham" - darned crippled fingers again !.)
Pic 2. Map of the Benouville area actions (for this and subsequent posts).
Pics 3 and 4. "La Chaumiere", pre-war and now.
Pic 5. Location of Sgt. Thornton and the knocked out half track.
Pic 6. The approximate location today.
Pic 7. A Samua-Unic P107/75mm half track, 21st Panzer Dvn. (believed IWM photo)

Back tomorrow with more on the fighting in Benouville - Le Port.

 

[Airframes]

I agree Geo, and that sort of "history" is fairly prevalent, giving the impression that D-Day, and the Normandy campaign in general, were purely American actions.
I'm hoping to describe and illustrate at least some of the Canadian, and French, involvement on D-Day itself, and the following weeks, although I regret I don't have the material, or photos, to include actions by units (however small) from other nations.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Excellent info Terry, you have obviously done a great deal of post trip digging.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Vic.

Actually, it was mostly pre - trip digging, commenced when the tour was first considered, back around March or April this year.
This, together with some research done by Karl, covering his interest in the tank actions of the Sherwood Rangers, and north-east based Territorial units of the Tyne Tees Division (TT), allowed me to draw up a rough idea of where we wanted to go, and what we wanted to see, and photograph, and also allow time for visiting other places of interest.
The info was consolidated during our tour, checked and confirmed, with additional details, on return, and is currently in the process of being assembled into an easily understood and "readable" format, without getting too heavily involved in details - these can be found in the books and videos etc which I'll suggest later in the thread.