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.
