German Gun Boats Pegasus Bridge

Discussion in 'Airborne' started by brithm, Jun 2, 2014.

  1. PRADELLES

    PRADELLES Well-Known Member

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  2. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    As for the location of the landing stage used by the gunboats Lt. Parrish describes it as being near a house which was not far from the sandpit his group was searching to flush out German snipers.

    "When we reached the point at which we must descend into the pit though we found that the descent would be observable from the landing stage and also the house which lay behind it."

    There is a white stone house in that area near the canal which is seen in the background of a few videos showing the construction of the York I pontoon bridge. In the one film shot June 28th there does appear to be something in the canal not far from the house location.

    A70 61-1-York 1.- 01.27 -stitch.jpg

    Could the dark structure to the right be a submerged vessel sitting next to the lighter rectangular landing stage? Or is it just a damaged pontoon boat that has been pushed aside as they get on with the bridge building. There definitely aren't three destroyed gunboats present there but interesting nonetheless.

    Regards ...
     
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2023
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  3. PRADELLES

    PRADELLES Well-Known Member

    An interview who help us to understand the Godbold shot...

    Private Harry W. Clark
    "A German patrol boat was spotting coming from the direction of the coast. When it was some 200 yards away Cpl Godbold, myself and Pte Cheesely ran with a PIAT to some cover on the canal bank. We kept a close eye on it. There was no sign of life. The engine was ticking over and someone appeared to be steering it. A wicked looking gun was mounted on the forward deck. At about 50 yards range Cpl Godbold fired a PIAT grenade. It struck the boat just behind the wheelhouse and exploded internally. The boat drifted in to the canal bank. Two very scared Germans appeared from below deck. They were lucky to have survived the blast. We ordered them ashore. The NCO, a blond Germanic type started to argue and shout, so I thumped him on the shoulder with the butt of my rifle and he immediately became meek and caused no further problems."
     
  4. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    Xavier,

    See quote below from Neil Barber's book with footnote 17 which may be the explanation for why Cyril Larkin never witnessed any firing coming from the gunboat that went aground near their position.

    "One of the boats opened fire with its heavy machine gun on the 7th Battalion HQ, and the Paras responded. Nobby Clark of 24 Platoon was positioned behind some large rocks on the bank, north-east of the bridge:

    We heard the 7th Battalion about two hundred yards down on the other side, firing at them. One turned tail and went back off towards Ouistreham and this other one got in the middle of the canal and it started to drift down. You couldn’t hear the engine, it must have been geared down as low as possible to cut out the engine noise. We wondered whether they’d killed some people aboard and it was just drifting. Because we weren’t sure if it was an attempt to go down and blow up the bridge or something, we decided to put a PIAT bomb into it and if there was anybody in the wheelhouse, it would get them. When it got level with us, we were probably fifty yards down on that side, on the bank, myself, Corp Godbold and Jess Cheesley, Godbold it was, he fired the PIAT … We fired at the rear end of the wheelhouse, where we thought the engine might be. It went off in the boat internally and it im mediately swung in, came into the bank… 17

    Footnote 17 - Pine-Coffin recalled the boat which was hit by the PIAT subsequently opening fire on their HQ. However, this does not appear to be correct as none of the Oxf and Bucks have mentioned this, and they would surely have opened fire again if the boat continued to fire after being hit by the PIAT. Therefore it must have been the other boat which opened up."


    As you say on June 7th aerials there is a small vessel on the east bank about 400 metres up the canal north of bridge. There is an air photo of Horsa Bridge (Pont Tournant) in the Barber book that is marked as being taken on June 6th. Part of the Caen Canal can be seen to top left and there is no gunboat present. Perhaps it was moved farther north later as seen on June 7th aerials.

    Pont Tournant June 6th.jpeg

    Regards ...
     
    Last edited: Jul 13, 2020
  5. Biggins342

    Biggins342 New Member

    Any new updates to this debate?
     
  6. Andreas

    Andreas Working on two books

  7. Biggins342

    Biggins342 New Member

  8. S Hayward

    S Hayward Well-Known Member

    Hi Everyone,

    I've been looking into this over the past few months, below are some thoughts on an interpretation of the information at hand, I will follow up with some maps showing this more visually in the near future.


    A Hypothesis on the Boats,


    WARNING: This is highly speculative on my part. It is aimed at forming a narrative that explains away as many of the inconsistencies in the eyewitness testimony as possible, it is mainly aimed at generating further discussion on why there are so many boats and so much discrepancy in accounts + adding a small amount of new information and possible ideas.


    Early on D-Day there are 6 German boats in Ouistreham harbor near the locks. These are the: the Petrus-Paulus, the Monique, the Kehrwieder, the Fuhrertreu, the Hedwig, and the Durandal.

    Bombing and shelling of Ouistreham begins which leads to the Kehrwieder and Furhrertreu taking hits from bombs and eventually sinking. The order is given sometime after 7am for the remaining boats to retreat to safety at Caen.

    A group of 3 boats all of which are converted fishing vessels leave Ouistreham with the 4th boat trailing close behind (“15” minutes / “not soon after”). They head down river and pass the sand pit and are spotted by Lt Parrish of 7th para C platoon, at 8:00am. All 4 boats are between 40ft and 60ft long.

    To get to safety at Caen the boats must first pass Bénouville Bridge, a rolling lift bridge which crossed the Orne Canal about half way between the coast and the outskirts of Caen. The bridge is now commonly known as Pegasus Bridge following the actions of Major Howard and the 6th Airborne on D-Day.

    The 3 leading boats either: spot evidence of the British who are occupying the bridge area and stop to investigate and decide what to do, or are on orders to call into the bridge / German HQ before passing. They possibly moor up at the oil terminal Jetty, which is between the sand pit and Bridge, and from here may have tried to phone the German control bunker by the bridge using a phone at the oil terminal. This phone’s cable connection is marked on the British Defense overprint map.

    At 8:15 the trailing boat arrives and stops at another jetty used by a ferry and located beside the stone house and sand pit. This would have been in direct line of sight of the oil terminal jetty which is only 1500 yards away and with a phone and cable at this location as well it would have been possible to call the other boats or the bridge directly from this location also.

    The boats stay in these positions for at least an hour, possibly as much as two hours. I believe the pause here is due to the boats making repeated attempts via both phones, to contact the bridge, bunker and HQ. There would have been some confusion over why the phone lines were inoperable and they may even have asked others to try and get through on their behalf.

    With no answer from the bridge (as it and the bunker nearby were already under British control), the crews then decide to send 2 boats to try and sneak past the British who are guarding the bridge. This serves two purposes, firstly if something is amiss it allows them, to recon the situation at the bridge and report back. Secondly if successful it gets them to safety up stream.

    They would attempt to pass the bridge by keeping below decks, closing down the wheelhouse doors, and chugging downstream slowly with the engine on low power or idle, hoping they get past.

    One of the 3 boats opts to remain behind at the oil terminal observing from a distance, and if the first group are successful would probably join up with the final boat and head together under the bridge as well.

    The 2 leading boats, head up stream. The largest of the boats has a 20mm gun and its 2 crew are hiding below deck. The smaller probably also has a 20mm “pom pom” gun on its deck although this is less certain.

    The 2 boats approach the bridge at around 10am, and are spotted, possibly by General Gale himself who was inspecting the British position at the bridges at around this time having left HQ and headed to the bridge sometime after 9am.

    When the lead boat is 200yards from the bridge the British open fire, first with machineguns whos fire makes chips in the paintwork of the boats, followed shortly by a PIAT fired by Private Cheesley of Godbold's platoon, The PIAT is probably fired from the northern end of the trench system by the bridge, just north of the small brick bunker being used as a HQ. This location matches the painting of 2 soldiers firing on the boat.

    The PIAT is a direct hit on the wheelhouse at the rear of the lead boat and the engine on the lead boat cuts, this boat then drifts into the eastern bank of the canal near the British position. The trailing boat is obviously now aware of the situation and makes a u turn and heads back downstream towards the coast.

    Some of the Soldiers at the bridge reach the stricken lead boat now embedded in the eastern canal bank and capture its two German occupants, the commander is a young German man. He makes some cocky remarks before being taken down a peg or 2 and both occupants of the lead boat are then taken to the POW Cage in Ranville (in the grounds of the HQ Chateaux).


    The trailing boat makes it back to the oil terminal jetty and informs them of the situation at the bridge. Both boat crews decide to head back downstream and moor up with the boat by the Ferry Jetty (by the house and sandpit). They move off and arrive at the house by the sand pit at around 10:30.

    Note: This differs from the statement made by Parish by a full 6 hours “14:30”, and thus the hypothesis stated here relies on this being a typo / 0 rather than 4, or miss remembered. As such If this time can be proved correct, I am wrong in this hypothesis it is clear something else must be going on.


    I suspect they then spend the next two hours attempting to contact HQ or awaiting the assault on Ouistreham battery which has the only direct telecoms connection from the sandpit area to be repelled i.e. most likely place the boat crews could have been in contact with.

    No4 Commando would ultimately take the Ouistreham battery on D-Day and at this point I believe the crews who were now isolated with no form of communication decided to try and cross the river to escape. They did not succeed in this fording attempt and eventually decide to abandon the boats setting fire to them in the process.

    I suspect ultimately these crews and what remained of the boats where eventually captured by these commandos (hence several accounts refer to the 2nd boat from the bridge later being captured by commandos but why there is little mention of the crews).

    The lead boat that crashed into the eastern side of the canal ends up being washed downstream and back across the canal to the west side before coming to a more permanent position on the western bank. It remains here for several days possibly a few months.

    Later in the day another boat would approach the bridge and fire upon it, this would ultimately be hit by the gun emplacement at the bridge.


    The Hedwig is the only boat from the list reported to have been sunk deliberately this differs from the other 3 and I suspect is because they reported this as the plan during the first assumed communications at 8:30ish.

    The timing of these events coincides fairly closely with the timing of some Cine cam footage of the glider field taken by a German cine cam operator. The position of this operator during the filming is only 2000yards from the oil terminal. Whilst I don’t believe these 2 events are related, if there happens to be any German footage of D-Day taken in Ouistreham it may suggest our Cine operator caught a lift down river.

    ___________________

    Welcome thoughts on how wildly off I am!

    BR
    SH
     
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  9. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    SH,

    I like some of your ideas for the gunboats movements but needless to say without documentation to backup your claims it is all just speculation. Having said that I likewise occasionally indulge in unfounded theories to fill in the blanks and spice up a story ... :)

    Hopefully someday other photos and anecdotes of the gunboats turn up.

    Regards ...
     
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  10. PRADELLES

    PRADELLES Well-Known Member

    Hi all,
    On my side, always the same questions :
    Were the allies aware of the presence of this flotilla ? And if so, what was the plan to liquidate this threat ?
    Remembered, the 45 RM could have cross the canal near Lt Parrish position. With gunboats on the canal ???
    Regards,
    Xavier P
     
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  11. brithm

    brithm Senior Member

    Rommel on a gunboat in Normandy before the invasion
    upload_2023-9-22_11-17-33.png

    upload_2023-9-22_11-17-55.png
     
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  12. S Hayward

    S Hayward Well-Known Member

    If the aircraft and date stenciled on the pilothouse are correct we might be able to use it to help trace which boat this is.

    Accident Lockheed Ventura Mk I AE734, has an entry for 07/11/1942 detailing a Lockheed Ventura that was shot down in a coastal engagement at Vlissingen, Zeeland (not near Normandy).

    There is also the less likely Vickers Wellington III (X3422 GT-) on a mission to Genoa on 1942-11-08 which details a Wellington that has never been found and was also downed that day, although eyewitnesses suggest it probably crashed in the alps.

    Back to the Boats
    The Hedwig, Kehrwieder and Fuhrertreu are listed in the following links as at Le Havre during the time period in question.

    Luftwaffe-zur-See.de
    Luftwaffe-zur-See.de
    Luftwaffe-zur-See.de

    Below is a 1920's post card of Le Havre
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/76-Le_Havre-Quai_de_Southampton-années_20.jpg

    None of the links above match perfectly which doesn't necessarily rule anything out, but does give us a few more leads to look into.

    Additionally Thanks for those photos!

    Edit:
    Checked the wrecks database, the Vlissingen LH Ventura is not listed, and neither are any V Wellingtons in the Le Havre area although there are a large number of wrecks of unknown type and identity in both locations.

    Edit 2:
    I need to look at this in more detail but could be another possible (correct area) Squadron Number: 263 Records of Events: Y | The National Archives

    Following finding that record a search turned up more information: Flight of Whirlwind I P7043 and Pilot Officer D R Gill on 1942-11-07

    Edit 3 - more possible info on the Pilot.
    Donald Ross Gill - The Canadian Virtual War Memorial - Veterans Affairs Canada

    BR,
    SH
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2023
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  13. S Hayward

    S Hayward Well-Known Member

    Hi Everyone,

    I did some more research following post 71 (directly) above, and found another record which I believe is much more likely to be related to the boat pictured, this has also given a possible lead on the name for that boat.

    Details and sources are posted in this thread: F/O Donald Ross Gill and Westland Whirlwind P7043.

    Summary:
    Whirlwind P7043 and Pilot D.R. Gill were lost on 07/11/1942 near Cherbourg, one of the 3 Patrol boats listed above was in use as a maritime patrol and sea rescue boat for Cherbourg Harbor at the time. The boat in question is the largest of the 3 requisitioned fishing boats, the Kehrwieder, and was later listed as sunk by an Aerial Bomb in or near Ouistreham.

    BR,
    SH

    Edit: Autumn 2023 - More to post when I have time but for the short-term, I think Post 52 of this thread, compared with the pictures above and the aerial photographs for that same landing stage at Ouistreham contain the answer to which boats were present on D-Day and what happened to them. The 3rd landing stage down from the key seems to be specifically for boats of the type we are looking at.

    Edit 2 Edgar Brearley - The Canadian Virtual War Memorial - Veterans Affairs Canada (possible on the 2nd stencil - another missing Westland whirlwind with an unusual story).
     
    Last edited: Jan 11, 2024
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