Have been reading the war diaries from Kew, of 5th Camerons, and found that the D+7 Party, which left England 13th June, were unable to land until 24th June, because of the bad weather. They arrived off the coast of Normandy at 20.30 hrs on 18th June, and kept on board because of rough seas. 21st June states;"weather still very rough, enemy doing quite a lot of shelling, one of which hit the ship, One casualty (killed) & buried at sea". I can now understand why the rifle companies were reduced to approx 60 men, for St Honorine, as half the battalion were not there. D+7 party joined the battalion 25th and D+14 Party joined June 30th. So how long was the Beach/Coast under German artillery fire?
That's a good question. As you may know several of the infantry battalions that were used in Beach Groups on D Day after 6th June were used as a beach security with several of them not moving from the area of those beaches until the Breakout. One of them (I think, Royal Berks) was still recording shell strikes on Sword into August. When you think of the positions on the Eastern Flank that's not surprising. But I suspect Gold and Juno ceased being under direct shell fire once Caen fell?
Not sure...I can't think of recalling a specific date in 'D-Day'. But it does mention that shelling was still be ordered from ships after the Allies were in Caen- I think. I guess the best way to work it out is find out the range of 105's and 155's and look at the distance inland to the furthest area and you should be able to calculate the date by when the Allies reached that point, if that makes sence
Sword Beach for all intents and purposes was abandoned as a resupply beach. The enemy continued to Shell the beach from the Le Havre area. Though there was still a good deal of supplies in the area inland from the beach. We went back to get supplies, and were attacked by a German fighter, But it was easy to avoid as there was a huge stack of matting stacked up, and we just walked around the other side. out the way the plane came diving in. Though they did get the petrol store. But we were not there when that happened. Sapper
So in theory then, as Le Havre did not surrender till September 12th, the Beach and its approaches could still be shelled.
