Sword Beach.

Discussion in 'NW Europe' started by Trux, May 4, 2012.

  1. Can you be a bit more specific about what you are looking for?

    Other RM units than 41 (RM) Commando did land in SWORD Area on D Day and D+1, such as 45 (RM) Commando. Sse in this very thread:
    Sword Beach.

    or 5 (Indep) RM Armd Sp Bty (lots of posts about them in this forum). Plus doubtless a few RM crew of landing craft who had to land after their craft was disabled...

    Michel
     
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  2. Gold

    Gold Member

    I am looking for any informations regarding Royal Marines ( not commando) who landed at Lion sur Mer on D DAY and D DAY + 1.
    I am in touch with the family of Mr Charles thomas Robinson and i have based on information on Robinson’s war record, and from the research for this record it appears that he was trained specifically for crewing one of the Landing Craft types to land troops in Normandy or equipment. He was the “deckhand and coxswain” of a landing craft that craft that may well have carried soldiers and marine commandos. Did this mean he went back and forth from Royal Navy ships to land other soldiers from D-Day +1 onwards or was it a one-way trip on the landing craft to Normandy? Unfortunately, the war record does not give these details. He never sopke of his wartime period after the war.
     
  3. May I ask how you know that he was in SWORD Area? This might give us additional hints as to which Flotilla he was with.
    What about the type of landing craft?
    You should post his Service Records here, so that we may find any snippets which may be of help.
    Otherwise, unless we find his name in a report (unlikely), it will be impossible to find out more...

    Michel
     
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  4. Trux

    Trux 21 AG

    Some background information.

    The Royal Marines formed an infantry division in WW2. This was disbanded and the personnel used for other purposes. Many of them became the crews of LCAs operating from Landing Ships Infantry. These craft were part of the equipment of the LSI and returned to the UK with them.

    As Michel says it is difficult to identify the flotilla without more information.

    Mike
     
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  5. Ben14

    Ben14 Active Member

    hi

    did you know what's mean this marking back of LCI(S) of 3 commando?
     

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  6. This is I believe the emblem of 201 LCI(S) Flotilla.

    Michel
     
  7. peter crush

    peter crush Active Member

    Michael,

    My name is Peter Crush son of Lieutenant Edmund “Ted” Crush who was o/c 2 platoon 17 FC RE on D-day. His unit was attached to 185 Brigade For their advance on CAEN. He landed at 11:30.

    We have an embryonic thread -> unit histories -> Royal Engineers -> 17 Field Company (there’s a couple of these). We have 4 active and informed contributors: Marc, Mark Abbot, Arty and myself. There’s a current debate about 17 FC RE and the order they landed in that you might be interested in.

    later today I will be posting some more photos of 17 FC RE and my Dad’s war.

    I have been trying to build a complete picture of the men and movements of 17 FC RE on D-day and the month after that to and including Operation Charnwood (where Dad won an MC).

    it would be wonderful if you could join us. Your landing plan is an outstanding piece of work. And I for one would be very interested in any comments you might have about the posts on our thread.

    Best Peter
     
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  8. Dear all

    I was delighted to come across this thread. I am the grandson of L/Sgt Joseph Gillibrand 3716040 13/18 Royal Hussars (referring back to this discussion on page 16 as Commander of Tank with turret number 57).

    The ‘family story’ is that my grandfather’s tank was hit and taken out of action but that he escaped the tank only to be shot by a sniper and killed. The earlier war diaries certainly support his tank being destroyed by 88s some time between 11:00 and 11:30.

    He was originally buried at Benouville and later reinterred at Ranville Cemetery. We have documentation for this part.

    I am relatively new to this so would appreciate any advice on finding out additional information about my grandfather and his time leading up to D-Day as well as more of the days events leading to his death.

    I understand the panda head badge puts him with the 9th armoured division at some point, of which the 13/18 formed part. I don’t have dates on the attached pictures but believe them to be between 42 and 44

    thank you in anticipation

    Chris
     

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  9. Wessex_Warrior

    Wessex_Warrior Junior Member

    Hello Chris,
    Just to confirm the Panda head badge for you. During the period 26.11.40 to 29.7.44 the 13/18 Hussars were part of 27th Armoured Brigade and from 4.12.40 to 10.8.42 this Brigade served under 9th Armoured Division so everything you surmised is correct.
    This information comes from the Orders of Battle prepared by Joslen Page 178.

    Kind regards,

    Will
     
  10. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Obtain his service record from the MOD - forms are here Request records of deceased service personnel

    You dont need a death certificate per se but do need to download and include with the application the certificate on his CWGC data page - Casualty Details | CWGC scroll don and its about halfway down the left hand side - it says 'Download Certificate' funnily enough

    TD
     
  11. According to the informations provided by Mike, Stuart Tank (M3A1?) were supposed to land with C squadron 13/18 Hussars at H+45. Do any of you have pictures of one of them? Serial numbers, markings?

    Thanks, Jeff
     
  12. KenJB

    KenJB Member

     
  13. gary prisk

    gary prisk Charlie 6


    Mike... I am trying to find the 4-man team of Monty's Personal Tactical Liaison Officers that Landed in the 2nd wave on Sword Beach to set up his initial Tac Hqs.
    Gary Prisk
    Landing table sword beach
     
  14. Spitfires of the Sea

    Spitfires of the Sea Stephen Fisher

    Hi all,

    I'm one of those people that spends ages looking into details of things (finding the locations of historic photos, pairing LCT pennant numbers to landing table index numbers, that sort of thing), only thinking to look on forums or in After the Battle AFTER I've worked it out. In an effort to correct that, I'm going to start throwing more questions this way!

    I'm pleased to say that I'm writing a book on Sword Beach, which will be published by Penguin/Random House in time for the 80th anniversary. To my mind, Sword is perhaps the least well documented in popular literature, usually being reduced to Lovat, Pegasus Bridge and Hillman. I hope to correct that with a comprehensive book detailing the landings at Queen Red & White Beaches and the wider part they played in Neptune. The focus will be on the littoral but will naturally follow the troops inland, but there will be just as much coverage in the other direction, relating the important events at sea. The book will make use of official records made shortly after the landings, especially those of the Royal Navy, but will be told through the stories of the men who were there and have left us rich personal accounts. It will be comprehensive, but (I hope) engaging. I have a lot of accounts from Sword but I'm keen to add more. If you have any accounts, perhaps in a family collection that you'd like to see told, or if you just know of a lesser known memoir or archived story, please do get in touch. I'd be delighted to know more.

    But, my first question relates to a video that was recently pointed out to me. It's propaganda of course and a lot of footage can be discounted, but there's some fascinating footage between 4:10 and 5:45. Allusions are made to Ouistreham. The first scene, of landing vessels off the beaches I'm not sure about yet. At 4:40 there does appear to be an S class destroyer, but the one behind isn't off a class that was at Sword as far as I can tell. At 6:20 is LCP(L) 208, which was washed ashore at Franceville.

    But the really interesting bit is at 5:32. This looks like a German held beach judging from the obstacles, and the vessels visible are in their 1943 onwards camouflage. The most visible vessel could well be an LCT(5) with tanks on a ramp near the bow (a la RMASG).

    Landings.JPG

    This view could perhaps be achieved from a position on the spit/seawall in front of Ouistreham harbour mouth, looking west-north-west and capturing Queen Beach. The buildings on the beach are a bit too blurry to identify, but the tall building on the right might be something. The only building I can line it up with though, is the church at Luc-sur-Mer, almost 5 miles away, so I'm not convinced.

    Church.JPG Line of sight.JPG

    Does anyone have any thoughts? Is this footage from early in the landings? Or something else entirely? Or worse still, has this already been solved?

    Cheers,
    Steve
     
  15. Hi Steve,

    I believe the sequence starting at 5:32 was shot from more or less the same location as the one showing LCP(L) 208, i.e. the beaches at Franceville-Merville, and does indeed show SWORD Area on the opposite side of the ORNE estuary, thus with more or less the same line of sight as the one you drew. As you said, the buildings are too blurred to be recognised, plus the angle of view makes it difficult to tell them apart, but your ID of the Luc-sur-Mer church seems correct.

    Michel
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2022
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  16. Spitfires of the Sea

    Spitfires of the Sea Stephen Fisher

    Thanks Michel, that tallies with what we worked out on Twitter as well and it's been confirmed it's the church at Luc-sur-Mer. Given it was Franceville, it does seem most likely that this is a few days after D-Day, which certainly explains the lack of smoke etc...
     
  17. Pikey

    Pikey Member

    Dear all I hope you don't mind my following your conversations. My family member was a Royal Marine who landed at Sword and of course didn't speak of such matters. We do know that he enrolled before his 18th birthday in 1942 (too young to join the RN!) and although his service record states he was "hostilities only" he did in fact join up for full service and his service number changed from a Chatham CR/x to a permanent CR number after the war ended. He did his initial training in Scotland (Quebec) before eventually embarking for DDay at Warsash. Details are lacking here I don't know which landing craft or what his movements were, other than he once told me after landing they "went on to Caen". I'm assuming that he was a Marine rather than a commando at this stage, although I don't know if all marines were assigned to a commando force? In later life he was in 42 and 45 Commando seeing active service in Palestine, Aden and took part in the helicopter assault at Suez and he was able to make the trip back to Normandy for the 50th anniversary in 1994. We do have his service record but it only states "COPRA" for the period of 1944-45.
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2022
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  19. GregL

    GregL New Member

    This is a fascinating thread and I’ve gathered a lot of information from here. I have quite an interest in Sword in particular but unfortunately have nothing useful to add to what posted here. I did however come across an interesting picture on the IWM site recently that I haven’t seen shared here before (apologies if it had been posted elsewhere but was new to me). Although not listed as sword beach it does claim to be a picture of LtCol ADB Cocks on his landing craft (right side of picture) who was CO of 5 assault regiment and landed aboard LCT947 on queen white beach, although killed aboard the LCT.

    I am also interested if anyone has a list of all the LCA numbers that were used in the initial assault waves on sword beach?
     

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  20. Rob Crane

    Rob Crane Well-Known Member

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