Merville Battery.
To describe the assault on Merville battery, the individual actions and subsequent events over the following days, is far too complex to cover here, therefore I'll just provide a brief overview, and show the location, brief details of the battery and the assault and, In following posts, photos of the battery today. (as in the previous section, suggestions for suitable further study will be provided later).
The battery is located approximately one mile inland from the Normandy coast, on the east bank of the Orne estuary, near the village of Gonneville - sur - Merville (now Gonneville -en- Auge), and consisted of four huge, reinforced concrete casemates, each with 6 feet thick walls and roofs, armoured steel double main doors, and MG posts set into the roof, and further MG embrasures covering the personnel entrances.
In addition, there were open gun platforms, surrounded by defensive sand bags, and concrete ammunition stores and (underground) shelters, with a further large concrete structure as the Command Centre.
The site was defended from aerial attack by a number of 20mm flak guns, which could also be brought to bear on ground targets.
The northern perimeter was ringed by a wide and deep anti-tank ditch, and the entire site was encircled by barbed wire, minefields, obstacles and trenches, with machine guns covering the approaches.
Allied Intelligence had identified this battery when under construction in March 1944 and, due to the size of the casemates, thought that they would house guns of 150mm with a range of over 11 miles, capable of easily reaching down the entire length of Sword beach, just 6 miles to the west, and out to sea, when they would have a devastating effect on troops and equipment landing on the beaches, and the invasion fleet itself.
It was absolutely vital that this battery had to be put out of action before the seaborne landings began, and so it was marked as a priority target, and included in the objectives as part of "Operation Tonga", the Airborne assault.
In May, in the weeks leading up to the Invasion, the battery was pounded by allied bombers, which had minimal effect on its operational capability, and probably added to the difficulties for an attacking force, due to the huge numbers of bomb craters all over the area.
The task of storming and destroying the guns was delegated to 9th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, under the command of Lt. Col. Terence Ottway, DSO, and there would be support from Canadian Para units, engineers and other units, both in diversionary actions, and outer defensive tasks, as well as coordination in relation to other actions further east, involving British, Canadian and Belgian formations.
The attacking forces were to land, by parachute and glider, on DZ/LZ -V, just outside Gonneville-sur-Merville, using Stirling, Albermarle and RAF Dakota aircraft, with Halifaxes towing the Horsa and Hamilcar gliders, bringing in the heavy weapons and equipment (including 6 pdr anti-tank guns to breach the armoured doors).
In addition, a "coupe de main force", in three Horsa gliders, was to land
inside the battery, between the casemates !
The first drop, the pathfinders to mark the DZ, took place at 00.50 hrs, with the main forces following over the next 30 minutes to an hour or so.
As with the earlier drop in the Ranville area, this did not go to plan, due to the strong winds, poor visibility not only due to the clouds and the dark night, but also from heavy smoke and dust, from the RAF bombing immediately before the Paras dropped, intended to soften up the battery defences.
The drop was widely scattered, and many men landed in an area flooded by the Germans. Weighed down by heavy equipment, quite a number drowned, and those that survived had a very difficult, and time-consuming task regaining solid ground and, in small parties, re-grouping and trying to find their objective in the dark.
At the designated RV, Lt Col Ottway waited as long as he could for the Battalion to arrive (he included an extra 15 minutes "leeway" in his plan).
Eventually, just 150 men were staged at the RV, with only personal weapons and equipment, one Vickers medium machine gun, and a single box of ten Bangalore torpedoes (to blow the wire defences). The only explosives they had were some Gammon bombs - the gliders carrying the Bangalore torpedoes, explosives and heavy weapons and equipment had either landed way off course due to the conditions, or hadn't arrived at all.
Of the "coupe de main" party, only one Horsa arrived, and this crash-landed in an orchard alongside the battery.
Colonel Ottway was faced with the enormously difficult decision of whether to carry out the attack and probably have his remaining force annihilated, or withdraw to fight elsewhere, leaving the battery intact and able to wreak havoc on the landings, just five hours later.
He chose to carry out the assault, and later commented "It was a question of move off, or give up. In The Parachute Regiment, giving up is not an option".
So, with just 150 men, out of the original strength of 600, the men of 9 Para proceeded to storm the battery, against a well-entrenched, heavily armed force of over 180 German troops, moving across exposed open ground, through a minefield and barbed wire, and fought their way into the casemates.
They found that the guns, thought to be of 150mm calibre by Intelligence, were, in fact, 100mm guns, Czech artillery pieces of First World War vintage. But nevertheless, these would still be capable of raining down destruction on Sword beach, and the invasion fleet. Using what explosives they had, mainly Gammon bombs, the Paras and Engineers managed to destroy or otherwise disable the guns, thereby preventing their use against the landings on Sword beach, on the left flank of the invasion.
The surviving troops needed to signal the cruiser HMS Arethusa, standing off the coast, immediately after taking the battery ,as she was ordered to shell the site with her 6 inch and 4 inch guns, if the assault was a failure. The signal was duly received in time, and the site was bombarded soon after the withdrawal of the Paras.
Although this part of the action was successful, the battery wasn't completely out of action, as German troops emerged from their underground shelters the next day, when a follow up attack by Commandos took place, with limited success. Even though the battery was more or less neutralised, it wasn't until 17th August, when German forces withdrew from the area, that the battery was, once and for all, totally out of the battle.
Of the 150 men who assaulted the battery, only 75 came out. The survivors joined-up with the rest of the Battalion, who had been dispersed over a wide area, and proceeded to continue with their additional objectives over the following days.
All of the above is a
very condensed and limited account of the assault on Merville battery, and the full, complex story can be found in numerous articles, videos and books, one of which I'll show later.
The images below show a satellite view of the battery location and the DZ/LZ, a map showing the battery and arcs of fire, a RAF recce photo from March 1944, satellite view of the site today, results of the aerial bombardment in May 1944, and finally, a diagram of the assault.
Photo coverage of the battery site today coming next............