JUNO BEACH.

Hi Everyone,
Not sure if I am reading something wrong but wondered if anyone has come across this.
I have been looking at the Queen's Own Rifles landing on Nan White and the tables state that A & B Companies are on J30 HMS Monowai and C & D are on the J32 Duke of Wellington & the J33 Isle of Guernsey

but in the war diary is says D Company boarded J30 HMS Monowai

is this a typo in the war diary? or did something go wrong on the day and had to change LSI? from what was planned?

 

I produced the first table you posted. This was from the War Diaires and I did NOT change anything from the original copy. You have to remember that this document was a “Planning Document” so its quite possible that items “changed” from the Planning to what actually happened on that day.

I’ll double check and see what my other resources say

 

Follow up…….below are screen shots of the Original Document. It was actually 1 Document, but in order for me to read it I had to make 6 screen shots in order to decipher. Their “could” by typo’s in my version, as some sections were very hard to read (even after enhancing the document). Other members have sent me corrections (to the original document, NOT what “actually happened” as I was attempting to reproduce the original document so everyone could read it)

 

Hi Temujin,
Thanks for the quick reply sorry for any infered error, presumed it was my understanding not your document.
Thanks,
Paul

 

No problem Paul….anything that is “re-typed” from an original document (especially documents that are 80 years old) can have typo’s…….so that’s what I initially thought, as other members have corrected me on some of the information I produced…..so anything you can point out is great, and I’ll go back and amend the document as necessary.

Cheers

 

You may be able to help me. My father, Capt/2nd lieut Charles Stroud ex of South Staffs Royal Artillery was seconded to the D day landings with the Canadian assault force on HMS Invicta.
Can you assist me in finding a list of the troops on board? I am not sure of his role upon landing but I think it may have been with the Beach master group.
Any information greatly appreciated.
Edward

 

Hi Paul,

Yes, this must be a typo (J30 instead of J33) in the War Diary, because the LCA carrying the Reserve Companies of QOR of C definitely came from J32 and J33. SS Isle of Guernsey did carry Serials 1457-1462.

May I ask where you found the War Diary?

Michel

 

Excellent Thanks Michel,
That's another bit of my jigsaw solved

QOR of C diary transcripts are here : Link
Images of diary's are here: Link
Thanks, Paul

 

Thanks Paul. The Op Order is also of much interest. I somehow already had the transcription of the 1944 War Diary but had not seen that the original pics were also on their website

The caption of the photos may lead to confusion:


As per the War Diary in your OP and the Landing Table, Maj WJ Weir, who was then the Adjutant Capt Weir, was in Serial J32 Duke of Wellington as part of the Alternate Battalion HQ. However, LCA 946 did not belong to Duke of Wellington's 506 Assault Flotilla but to 556 Assault Flotilla (Monowai), which did carry the assault companies of QOR but not the Alt BHQ. Which means that in the caption under the above photo, the "they" in "number plate of QOR landing craft they used on D-Day" should be read as referring to "QOR" and not to the three individuals on the photo...

LCA 946 still in (more or less) one piece on the beach at Bernières:


One mystery remains though: the Green List as of 5 Jun 44 gives only nine craft in 556 Flotilla, whereas we know it had ten craft on D Day, carrying Serials 1428 through 1437. The nine craft listed in the GL are:
LCA 565
LCA 728
LCA 729
LCA 851
LCA 918
LCA 919
LCA 946
LCA 948
LCA 1034

Which LCA would the tenth craft be?

Michel

 

According to the 3 May 44 Landing Table, the non-Canadian troops on board INVICTA were:

Serial 1161 to land on MIKE Sector via LCA or LCT in the 2nd Ferry Service:

16 men from 243 Pnr Coy
33 men from 59 Transit Camp
25 men from 582 Fd Coy​

Quoting Trux in his Post#121 above:

Control staffs for the Assembly Areas were under the command of 7 Beach Group and consisted of the Officer Commanding 59 Transit Camp plus personnel from the same plus small detachments of Movement Control and Traffic Control.​

Your father was therefore possibly part of 59 Transit Camp. The War Diary is there:
59 Camp | The National Archives
With some luck it may still include a Field Return of Officers where your father's name would be listed if he was part of this unit, and/or your father might be mentioned in the Diary itself.

His Service Record may also provide some more information.

Michel

 

ROYAL ARTILLERY.
(...)
Gnr. Charles Bickley STROUD (late Cadet Lce.-Corpl., Wellingborough Sch. Contgt., Jun. Div., O.T.C.) to be 2nd Lt. 29th July 1939.
Page 5204 | Issue 34649, 28 July 1939 | London Gaze...

TERRITORIAL ARMY RESERVE OF OFFICERS.
(...)
ROYAL REGIMENT OF ARTILLERY.
(...)
Lt. (Hon. Capt.) C. B. STROUD (94320) ceases to belong to the T.A. Res. of Offrs., 19th July 1950.
Page 3689 | Supplement 38969, 18 July 1950 | London...

War. Office, 3rd November, 1950.
The KING has been graciously pleased to confer the award of the " Territorial Efficiency Decoration " upon the following officers: —
R.A.
Lt.-Col. H. P. ELMES, M.B.E.
Capt. C. B. STROUD (94320).
Page 5485 | Supplement 39058, 3 November 1950 | Lon...

 

Many thanks Michel for such great detail.

I am now fairly sure my father was attached in some capacity to the 59 transit camp (I will get a copy of the record from the National Archives). He followed up the troops through Falaise eventually ending up supervising a transit camp in Calais (I have some aerial pictures of it).

This also corroborates his story of landing on MIKE beach and being involved in traffic movements.

Was the 2nd ferry service the LCA going back to INVICTA to pick up more personnel after delivering the assault wave?
I remember him mentioning entering an LCA down a scrambling net.

Your second email confirms all of his records which I have.

Thanks once again!

Edward

 

Dear Michel,
Following your post of 29th July, I have now received 2 records from the National Archives which confirm my father's record and that of 59 Transit Camp. He was one of 3 officers in charge of 'A' company of 59 Transit Camp which embarked on HMS Invicta (J15) on 1st June 1944 from Marshalling camp C8 near Eastleigh North of Southampton.(see first document attached).
The second document is a field return of the officers in 59 Transit Camp on 25th June 1944 which shows the camp was at Graye sur Mer MR955847 in STAR assembly area, South of Courseulles sir Mer, and was part of the 102 Beach Sub Area. (see second document attached)

I hope this fills in some more gaps for you..

Regards

Edward

 

MR955847 is the square outlined in red on the map below. It is located in a small orchard at the southwestern edge of the village of Graye-sur-Mer.


Just above it is one of the Personnel Transit Areas (marked "PTA" on the First Key Plan below, but obscured by the red lines I added):


'STAR' is the code name for the Beach Maintenance Area handled by 102 Beach Sub Area (JUNO Assault Area). BMA 'MOON' (101 Beach Sub Area) was in Area SWORD and BMA 'SUN' (104 Beach Sub Area) was in Area GOLD:


Michel

 

My sister discovered a newsletter from 1993 of the 59th Staffordshire division in which my father gave his account of his D Day landing as below:-

CAPTAIN CHARLES STROUD, TD, 61ST FIELD REGT, R.A.

Being considerably older than his contemporaries in 61st Field Regiment, he was posted away to 59th Transit Camp, the “powers that be” obviously thinking it would be a more restful life than in a Field Regiment in action. How wrong they were, as he finished up on a Normandy beach on D Day well ahead of his old Regiment.

Charles’s account is as follows: “I was posted to 59 Transit Camp at Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh, near Southampton, arriving by taxi and finding them in a wood. A Canadian R.S.M., realising I was a somewhat lost soul, took charge and directed me to where I had to go and, after a night’s sleep in a strange billet, woke up with the question from the man in the next bed asking “Who the hell are you?” This turned out to be the Colonel!.

I later found another Gunner Officer called Sutcliffe who told me he was an old friend of Mike Bladen, at that time Adjutant of the 61st who, of course, I knew well.

After a few days in this camp, we were kitted up, about 60lb of it, and then went to the quayside at Southampton and embarked on the ‘Invicta’. O.C. Troops on board was Captain Paddy Wenger, originally in the 5th North Staffords and whose father commanded the 6th North towards the end of the First World War. I was able to share his cabin with him.

Soon we had to practice disembarkation drill and while so doing, a launch sailed past containing Winston Churchill, McKenzie King (P.M. Canada) and General Smuts to the accompaniment of cheers from the surrounding ships’ companies.

Early on D Day morning we sailed and then stopped some way from a beach in Normandy, where we went over the side into and LCT which was heaving up and down about 5 feet. After a time, we grounded some 150 yards from the shore where I ordered the men nearest to me to undo their shoulder straps so they could jettison their kit if they fell down in the water. Failure to do so, almost inevitably, meant being dragged down and drowned, as happened to several men in a nearby craft who jumped out into a hole.

The objective was Mike Beach, Juno landing, where, fortunately, as we waded ashore, the water was only 2-3 feet deep.

At about 10.30 am, we saw the only enemy plane which was a captured Hurricane, which was shot at.

We assembled, crossed a stream on top of the turret of a tank sunk in it, then up a road, mined on each side, and with only about two shells landing in a field on our left, we were lucky, unlike the poor Canadians who had preceded us whose many bodies lay around and who had really “caught it” in the initial assault.

We dug in in an orchard where it was extremely noisy that night but, after crouching in my slit trench for some two minutes, I decided I was less scared standing in a nearby open cart-shed!

While this was happening, a driver whose 3 tonner, loaded with cans of petrol, parked nearby, was ordered to mount and drive away, as he did so the lot went up with a dramatic sheet of flame and it remained a beacon for some time.

Monty’s HQ was about one mile up the road. He went up and down between his HQ and the beach many times during our first day.

Nothing but Canadian vehicles arrived on our beach for quite some time and which we had to direct onwards.

After about 3 weeks, I learnt that an Anti-tank Regiment was passing through an adjoining area, so I visited them on my motor-bike and there found Sergeant Major Fish who had been our Sergeant PT Instructor in the 61st.

While we were talking, and ammunition dump about five miles away blew up. It was quite a bang!”


Charles, in due course, moved to Calais where he was Captain QM of the Transit Camp.

This account corroborates your information that his location after landing was in an orchard to the south of Graye-sur-Mer and that his responsibility was in directing traffic landing on beaches in the STAR area.

I am now waiting for the copies of the 59 Transit Camp war diaries from June-Dec 1944 to trace their movements through northern France to Calais.

Kind regards

Edward

 

This is a nice find. Planned times were as follows:

INVICTA to load at 37 Berth [Southampton] starting 1730 D Minus 3 [2 Jun]; to pass Spithead Gate at H-9 h 15 m [2220 hours 5 Jun], then her route was to be:
"F" Buoy H-7 h 40 m [2355 hrs 5 Jun]
Point "AA"
Point "BB" = H-5 h 20 m [0215 hrs 6 Jun]
Point "CC"
Point "DD" = H-4 h 20 m [0315 hrs]
Point "EE"
Point "QQ" [Lowering Position, MIKE Sector] = H-1 h 30 m [0605 hrs]

H Hour for INVICTA's Group was initially planned at 0735 hours.

"We assembled, crossed a stream on top of the turret of a tank sunk in it"
This is AVRE 1C of 26 Assault Squadron RE which during the initial assault sank in a culvert and on top of which an SBG Assault Bridge was lowered to enable vehicles and troops to pass the water gap.

"Monty’s HQ was about one mile up the road. He went up and down between his HQ and the beach many times during our first day."

Monty indeed landed at the same location in the morning of 7 June, which was your father's first full day in Normandy. His Tactical Headquarters were at the Château de Creully, about 4 miles SW of MR955847.

Michel

 

Thank you once again for such detail filling in the gaps. Do you have the location of the road exits from Mike Red beach and the location of the AVRE/ culvert?
Kind regards
Edward

 

Source of aerial photograph = D Day Then & Now page 467

 

Thank you so much Michel. That's brilliant!
I have looked up the diaries of 26 Assault Squadron which give the detailed account of AVRE-1C One Charlie. I think my father probably crossed over it between 9 and 10am.
Kind regards
Edward

 

This vessel is sat in South Wales I believe just rotting away near to Port Talbot