Artillery FOOs embedded with the Infantry on D-Day

Hi there. I have done virtually nothing on my research since this thread so coming back to it today I was thrilled to see your post and Captain Foreman's letter. Some of what he says about his experiences later in the War are fascinating. The delay he experienced on D-Day prevented him joining up with the 47th RM Comandos on their assault on Port-En-Bessin, and eventually one of his Troop, Lt Irwin fulfilled the FOO role with them before getting wounded. Of course he then went on to serve with distinction alongside the 4/7th Dragoon Guards as did my Father a signaller to the other FOO with the Dragoon Guards, Captain Munro, the D Troop Commander.
There is a picture of Captain Foreman, with his tank, in the official 4/7th Dragoon Guards history, The First & the Last

Do you have any other personal testimonies/correspondence from that source? Thanks Ian

 

Yes, Capt. Foreman MC was my grandfather. Some letters recounting his experiences and an informal war-diary recently re-surfaced amongst his personal papers. It mostly covers the period of Nov '44 and Jan '45 (Operation Clipper) but some notes from Normandy are there.

Feel free to PM me.

 

Andy Hi
Sorry its been so long to respond to your post but I have had to set aside my research for about a year. The loading table came courtesy of General (Tony) Richardson's widow, now in the EY Association archive. Tony was the GPO of D Troop on D-Day
I have also followed up your subsequent posts and pictures which are fantastic. IMG_102 looks like the vehicles lining up before the Regiment's ceremonial march past before General Dempsey in Hanover 8th June. If the Troop in the picture is D Troop then my father is in it (its impossible to confirm as it is from a distance and its blurred). He was the OP Signaller in D Troop Commander's Ken Munro's Sherman which would have been on the left of the picture I presume, the next Sherman belonging to Tony Richardson, GPO.
I am working on a "book" for my father's war so am following the fortunes of D Troop from 1939 onwards; presently picking up D-Day + 2 so a long way to go!
Ian

 

Hello everyone, I am new in this thread !

Does anyone have a clear list of names of the officers who served as FOBs and FOOs for each battalion of the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division and the 56th (Independent) Infantry Brigade, as well as their assigned ships and artillery units?

Cheers

 

Hi Quentin,

May I ask the purpose of this list you request, so that we can adjust the level of detail to your needs?

For example, 147 Fd Regt RA had the following officers acting as FOOs for 231 Inf Bde on D Day:

with 2 DEVON - Captain Culley
with 1 HAMPS - Captains Munro & Taylor, Lieutenants Ridley & Van Hasselt
with 1 DORSET - Captain Lyon​

Michel

 

Hello Michel,

I am currently working on a project about Gold Beach, specifically focusing on the list of Forward Observation Officers (FOOs) and Forward Observation Bombardment (FOB) officers who were attached to the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division on D-Day.

Here is the list that I have so far for the FOB officers. However, I don't have much information at the moment regarding the FOOs. I still need some of their names, assistant officers, attached ships, batteries, etc.



Cheers.

 

Please find attached some additional detail from ONEAST/G.

I also have:

FOB 57 = Capt Geoffrey CUTHBERT BROWN, RA (140759)
FOB 62 = Capt J. HOWLAND, RA
FOB 62(a) = Capt A (or HA?) TODD, RA (possibly Alastair TODD (187189))
FOB number unknown = Capt K. RIMMER, RA (possibly Kenneth RIMMER (233331))​

Michel

 

Thank you very much for sharing this. Which report are those pages from? Are they from NARA?

I see no information about F.O.B. 61. Is that normal? By the way, I am wondering which unit the document is referring to for F.O.B. 57. Is it the 86th (East Anglian) 'Hertfordshire Yeomanry' Field Regiment (Royal Artillery) attached to the 231st 'Malta' Infantry Brigade?

I also heard that each company of each battalion had a F.O.O. Are their names displayed somewhere? It would be very interesting to have them. I am also wondering if each Brigade Headquarters had a FOB and FOO attached.

According to a reply on another thread, F.O.B. 62(a) was scheduled to land at 08:55 (H+90 mins) but actually landed at approximately 20:25 (H+13 hrs). Is that correct?

Quentin

 

Lieutenant John Irwin, a Forward Observation Officer with No. 47 (Royal Marine) Commando who was wounded on 7 June, seems to have replaced a FOO lost earlier that day. Does anyone have his identity?



Quentin

 

Orders, not a report. ONEAST/G (Force "G" Orders for Operation "NEPTUNE"), as per the documents. Originally on fold3, now also on NARA:
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/83520084?objectPage=1330
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/83520084?objectPage=1329
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/83520084?objectPage=1326

Apparently FOB 61 was not allocated.

The doc specifies "Notts.Yeo.". What do you not understand?

No, not all of them.

One has to dig into the War Diaries of the arty units supporting the Infantry units.

Clearly not so. See ONEAST doc.

Yes. See Royal Navy on Omaha Beach
Except you took H Hour for GOLD Area (0725), instead of H Hour for OMAHA Area (0630). Times should therefore be H+90 (0800) and H+13hrs (1930).

 

Because the image resolution wasn't very good, I misquoted 'Notts Yeo' as 'Herts'. I remember that FOB 57 was with the 2nd Bn. 'South Wales Borderers' later on June 6.

 

I believe Ian's post #181 above answers your question?

 

Knowing that there was a Forward Observation Officer attached to the 16th Infantry Regiment, was there an American FOO, or were there several attached to the 50th Infantry Division on D-Day?

 

This is a little complicated as 50th Division, with 56 Infantry and 8th Armoured Brigade under command had sixteen infantry, armoured and commando units under command, but only five artillery regiments with fifteen batteries in direct support.

Two of the regiments 74 and 124 were equipped with towed field guns which did not land on D Day, although their BC and FOO parties did. On D Day itself only 90 SP field (from, 50 div) and two army regiments 86 and 147 SP landed and supported the operations.

There were several regroupings during D Day as the formation achieved different objectives.

 

Here is a summary of the artillery operations on Gold Beach

Baldwin, Frank. D-Day Gunners: Firepower on the British Beaches and Landing Grounds (pp. 178-179). Pen & Sword Books. Kindle Edition.

 

Lieutenant Thomas Irwin was an officer of 74th Field Regiment. His image was captured in a pre D Day painting
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/11620

 

Hi,
Don’t know if they are of use but below are some screen grabs of notes I made in 2015 on FOB and FOO.

There is some information on FOB 60 and FOB 61 in there.

Regards

Danny

 

Interesting documents. What were your sources for the notes?