Forward 30 Years - the Anniversary of the D-Day Landings

D/DLI 2/6/593(1) Oblique air photograph of the east of Gold Beach, Normandy, France, the site of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division landing on D-Day, 6 June 1944

Whilst this is a First World War project blog, it is hard not to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings during the Second World War. Many of the men involved would have been the sons of First World War soldiers, and some men were born at a time that meant they served in both wars.

We hold a set of oblique and vertical aerial photographs, of which the above is an example, used by Durham Light Infantry soldiers who took part in the 50th (Northumbrian) Division landing on Gold Beach in Normandy seventy years ago. To make the photographs easy to carry they were stuck to a piece of linen cloth in nine separate sections on each side, so that they could be folded up to fit inside a map case.

The oblique air photos, taken from a few feet above the sea, were supplied to the assaulting troops so that, as they approached the beaches, they could check whether they were landing in the right place.

D/DLI 2/6/11(569) Photograph of Lieutenant-Colonel G.L. Wood, left, and Major Atkinson, right, of the 6th Battalion, The Durham Light Infantry, standing on a beach, taken in Normandy, France, June 1944

At the time of the D-Day landings, Lieutenant Colonel G.L. Wood held the rank of Major and was second in command of the 6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, to Lieutenant Colonel Green. On the 5 June, the eve of the landings, Colonel Green was hospitalised with malaria, putting Major Wood in charge. He wrote an account of the operation (D/DLI 7/789/1): 

0500 Hours [6 June 1944]
…How this ship rolls and tosses. Feel a bit queasy…the men look ghastly – white faces, dirty, unshaven, some being dreadfully sick…Will be damn glad to get my feet ton shore.

The first attempt to land is aborted due to the rough seas, the second attempt is successful. They do not receive any shell fire until the men start digging it at their assembly position, the shells pass overhead.  'Phase I is complete…we will soon be ready to move forward as a Fighting Force…'

At 1500 hours the mobile column moved off, two hours later than planned, ‘…we encountered no enemy artillery and were only held up only by small pockets of enemy which were beaten up by the mobile column.’ The battalion reached its first objective of Esquay sur Seulles by 2000 hours and were ordered to dig in. 

It was at Esquay that the battalion

…had our first spoils of war in the shape of a 10 HP Ford car, proudly driven into the Battalion Area by Major MJ Kirby, officer commanding ‘C’ Company. Two days later its German camouflage had disappeared and the emblem TT 60 was in bold letters on the body. [TT = Tyne Tees Divison]

The account continues:

[7 June 1944] The advance to the final objective was without incident and the mobile column established itself in three strong points in the area north west of Conde.
The process of clearing out the enemy was carried further by Captain G Hawkins, officer commanding Anti-Tank Platoon. While siting his guns…he noticed a 37mm Anti Aircraft Gun behind a 5 ton truck standing on the cross roads…He sited his gun behind a hedgerow some 200 yards away from the cross roads and cleaned out the AA gun and the truck with his first shot.

The battalion carried on throughout June, including six days of continuous fighting.

The successes of the battalion were not won lightly and by the end of June the battalion had suffered the following casualties:
Officers:       1 missing
                    18 wounded – 3 later died of wounds
Other ranks: 62 killed
                    17 missing
                    239 wounded – 8 later died of wounds

Taking part in commemoration events in Normandy today is HMS Bulwark, County Durham’s ‘adopted’ Royal Naval vessel. You can find more about this relationship here: http://www.durham.gov.uk/Pages/Service.aspx?ServiceId=6846