Gunners in Normandy E-Book

Major Frank Baldwin

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1385

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

The official account of the Royal Artillery's activities in the Normandy campaign, this volume breaks down the historic achievements of the Regiment, integrating newly published research with a detailed account of their activities, logistics and equipment in the offensive. Essential for currently serving members of the Royal Artillery, Gunners in Normandy includes mention of every regiment that served, a Roll of Honour, and a list of the dead by unit. This book presents the definitive record of events, assembled from interviews with veterans, papers and documents from the Firepower Archives, terrain studies, personal memoirs, war diaries and other official documents. Serious students of the battle for Normandy should find this essential reading, with comprehensive coverage of the role of the Royal Artillery, and much material not published anywhere else, including orders of battle, the details of targets engaged by the guns and their effectiveness.

Leseprobe

GUNNERS IN NORMANDY

Front Cover: The 9th (Irish) Battery firing the run-in shoot by David Rowlands.

First published 2020

This paperback edition first published 2025

The History Press

97 St George’s Place, Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Will Townend and Frank Baldwin, 2020, 2025

The right of Will Townend and Frank Baldwin to be identified as the Authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

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ISBN 978 0 75099 179 7

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Contents

List of Images and Extracts

Foreword by Sir Andrew Richard Gregory

Preface

1 Background to Overlord

2 The Men of the Gunners

3 Artillery Equipment and Organisations

4 The Gunners in 1944 – Artillery Tactics

5 Training for D-Day

6 Preparation for Overlord

7 The D-Day Plan

8 D-Day and D+1

9 Consolidating the Bridgehead

10 Rebuff Operation Perch and Operation Smock

11 Operation Epsom 19 June–1 July 1944

12 The Fall of Caen 4–11 July 1944

13 Operations Jupiter and Maori

14 The Anti-Aircraft Battle

15 The 12th and 30th Corps Keep the Pot Boiling

16 Operations Goodwood and Atlantic

17 Operations Spring and Cobra

18 Operation Bluecoat

19 Operations Totalize and Tractable

20 Squeezing the Pocket

21 The Advance Over the Seine

22 The Counter-Battery and Depth Fire Battle

23 The Soldier’s Experience

24 Other Gunners

25 The Gunner Contribution to Operation Overlord

Appendix A Artillery Commanders

Appendix B Roll of Honour

Appendix C Glossary

Notes

Bibliography

List of Images and Extracts

Selection of Operations Planned or Executed 1942–44

Operation Chariot Sketch Map

Operation Jubilee – Dieppe 19 August 1942

New Hats…

Soldier’s Clothing and Equipment

UK Ranges and Establishments

How to Raise a Regiment

Artillery of the BEF in 1940 compared to that of the 21st Army group in 1944

Example of Barrage Plans

Artillery in the Corps Battle

A Divisional Artillery in Home Forces 3rd Infantry Division 1940–44

Operation Overload

Waterproofing Vehicles

AA Beachhead Layout

Parnham’s Prediction

SP Gun Troop on a LCT 4 (Landing Craft Tank Mk IV)

Bogus Maps

The Allocation of Naval Units to Bombard Coastal Batteries on D-Day

Air Defences Orne Bridges from D+1

Battle of Bréville

Anti-Tank Gunners at Saint-Pierre

The Perils of an OP Signaller

Operation Martlet

25th Field Regiment at ‘Sniper’s Corner’

Anti-Tank Guns at Rauray

Operation Windsor

Operation Jupiter

‘Planning Defensive Fires: What a BC did in Battle’

Diagrammatic Layout of 83 or 84 Group TAF

Anti-Aircraft Control Definitions

Anti-Aircraft Deployment Plan

Two Light AA D-Day Heroes

AA Brigade

AA Defence of Mulberry at Arromanches June 1944

Operation Cobra

The Counter-Mortar Battle

Bocage Country

Sketch Map of Action at Maisoncelles 3 August 1944

Drumfire on the River Orne

Payback for Knightsbridge

Aunay-sur-Odon had also been liberated

Roger Fox – an AOP

The Cost of Victory

Black-and-white plates

1. Major General O.M. Lund

2. Major General F.E. Morgan

3. Major General M.E. Denis

4. Major Pat Porteous VC

5. Maintenance work on an M7 Priest of a 3rd Division Field Regiment

6. Gun Positions and Carrier, Wales September 1943, by Lawren P. Harris

7. 25-pounders passing Stonehenge, painted by Canadian artist Lawren P. Harris

8. How we thought we would fight, how we did fight and walking out dress (History of 59th Heavy Regiment)

9. Makee-learner Gunners – cartoon

10. Sexton SP 25-Pounder of the 147th (Essex Yeomanry) Field Regiment: Gold Beach, 6 June 1944

11. Crowded Gold Beach with AA Guns

12. An M10 of the 20th Anti-Tank Regiment on D-Day

13. Gun position of a self-propelled Field Battery near Hermanville on D-Day

14. Command post dugout of the 90th Field Regiment

15. Six-pounder anti-tank gun and carrier tractor near Bayeux

16. A British 4.5in gun of the 211th Battery, 64th Medium Regiment

17. Bofors SP Gun of the 393rd Light AA Battery, at Le Hamel

18. Flash spotters of the 10th Survey Regiment

19. A 3.7in heavy AA gun and detachment from the 86th (HAC) Heavy AA Regiment

20. Carriers and transport of the 179th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery

21. Panoramas drawn by Brigadier H.J. Parham, BRA 2nd Army

22. Sexton self-propelled gun of the 5th RHA

23. 17-pounder anti-tank gun and ‘Quad’ artillery tractor burning

24. 3.7in gun being towed by an AEC matador lorry through the ruins of Caen

25. Carriers from the anti-tank regiment and OP tanks approaching the River Orne

26. A 25-pounder field gun of D Battery, 3rd Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery

27. Brigadier John Currie, DSO and two bars, MC

28. Lieutenant Colonel Mervyn Foster, CO 76th Field Regiment

29. Lieutenant Colonel William Blacker, DSO

30. A great anti-tank gunner, Sergeant Hall, DCM

31. Auster Mk. IV AOP aircraft of No. 652 Squadron

32. Captain David Ramsey of the 79th (Scottish Horse) Medium Regiment

33. Brigadier D.C.M. Sanders, OBE, AFC, TD

34. Seawolf, a Centaur of S Troop, 2nd RM Armoured Support Group

Colour plates

1. The 9th (Irish) Battery firing the run-in shoot, Queen Beach, 6 June 1944, by David Rowlands

2. On the Way Across, John Ensor

3. Officers of the 124th Field Regiment, RA. Watercolour by Anthony Gross, 1944

4. NCOs of 74th Field Regiment sketched. Watercolour by Anthony Gross, 1944

5. T.L. Plewman of Dublin and Bdr O. Seman of London, of the 53rd Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery, at the plotting table in their dugout, July 1944

6. Gun-Team Firing in the Rain, Normandy, June 1944, by T.B. Hennell

7. Artillery observation post on Mount Pinçon. Watercolour by Anthony Gross, 1944

8. Sketch of fire support for the 69th Infantry Brigade

9. Map of Second Army Fire plan superimposed on German defences

10. Map of Artillery Deployment D-Day (Chapter 8)

11. Map of Operations 8–12 June (Chapter 9)

12. Map of Operations Perch and Smock (Chapter 10)

13. Map of Op Epsom (Chapter 11)

14. Map of the Fall of Caen 4–11 July (Chapter 12)

15. Map of Operation Charnwood Fire plan phases 1 & 3

16. Map of Operations Jupiter and Maori 10–15 July (Chapter 13)

17. Map of Operations Greenline and Pomegranate 15–18 July (Chapter 15)

18. RA 12 Corps defensive fires trace overprint 22 July

19. AA defences XII Corps Trace overprint 22 July

20. 12th Corps Anti-tank trace overprint 22 July

21. Map of Operations Goodwood and Atlantic 18–22 July 9 (Chapter 16)

22. RA 8 Corps Operation Goodwood fire plan targets and schedule

23. RA 8 Corps Operation Goodwood fire plan trace 18 July

24. Map of Operation Spring 25–26 July (Chapter 17)

25. Map of Operation Bluecoat 29 July–8 August (Chapter 18)

26. Operation Bluecoat Fireplan

27. Map of Operation Totalize 8–11 August (Chapter 19)

28. Map of Operation Tractable 13–16 August (Chapter 19)

29. Map – Squeezing the Falaise Pocket (Chapter 20)

30 Map of the Pursuit across the river Seine 16–31 August

31. Key to map symbols

32. Map of the British Assault Area

33. Map of the Normandy Battlefield

34. Map of the Odon Battlefield

35. Map of the area Saint-Lô–Falaise

Foreword

Having just promulgated the first Royal Artillery Heritage Strategy, which highlights the fact that ‘Gunner Heritage is the value the Royal Regiment of Artillery gains from its past now and in the future’, the importance of capturing significant events from our history has been reinforced yet again. And this is particularly relevant because, true to our battle honour of ‘Ubique – Everywhere’, Gunners have served in every campaign, so our fundamental contribution to these events can be lost in the background of the actions of the infantry battalions and armoured regiments. As the authors argue in this book, while there is a general acceptance that firepower was decisive in the Normandy campaign of 1944, it could be said that the Gunner contribution, if not overlooked, has perhaps been taken for granted.

Our Heritage Strategy states that the benefits of articulating our heritage include: enhancing professional effectiveness; fostering identity and esprit de corps; attracting recruits; building support from families; acting as a conduit for engagement with veterans; and sustaining public and wider military support. The Gunner story in Normandy certainly holds lessons for the modern Regiment. The Normandy campaign is studied in the classroom and on the ground, and there are role models at all levels. We are also still fortunate to have a small number of individuals with us who served in our units and whose personal knowledge brings the words on the pages to life.

This book is therefore a welcome addition to the Blue Book series of histories of the Royal Regiment started by General Sir Martin Farndale in the 1990s. Lieutenant Colonel Will Townend, a man who was project officer for the Firepower, Museum Secretary of our Historical Society and had a passion for the Regiment’s history, undertook the initial work and writing but sadly died in 2010 before he could complete it. His co-author, Frank Baldwin, who served in the Regiment in the 1980s, agreed to finish what Will started; while it is not easy to pick up someone else’s creation, he has more than done justice to Will’s research.

I am therefore delighted to commend Frank’s work to you. It is a most important aspect of the story of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. But it also has a personal significance for me. My father, who landed on Sword Beach on D-Day morning, was a forward observation officer in 9 Irish Battery within 7th Field Regiment; as is mentioned in the book, he was badly wounded that evening. Like many others, he never complained about the constant pain that he lived with until his death in 2010. I am very proud of him and all those who served alongside him. This is their story.

Lieutenant-General Sir Andrew Richard Gregory, KBE, CBMaster Gunner, St James’s Park2019

Preface

The story of the Gunners on D-Day is not well reported or understood and deserves to be better known.

– Lt Col W.A.H. Townend: Letter to Britain at War magazine, 2009

The purpose of this book is to tell the story of the Royal Artillery in the Normandy campaign. There has not been a book on this subject since the end of the Second World War, when the Royal Artillery (RA) Memorial Book included chapters on the operation.

There are three main reasons why this book is needed now. First, our understanding of the Second World War has developed over the past decades. The story of the Gunner contribution to the Normandy campaign will add something to the mature view of that campaign, as part of the discipline of military history. Second, the modern regiment deserves to have a proper record of the Gunner contribution to the Normandy campaign. The deeds and contribution of the Gunners in Normandy should be an inspiration and role model for the modern regiment. Hundreds of awards were made to Gunners for gallantry or distinguished service. These stories deserve to be told. Third, there is an obligation to the wider Gunner family; the relatives of those who served in the Second World War. These far outnumber the serving regiment. One bond between the serving and wider Gunner family is the common commitment that we make with every act of remembrance. We promise that ‘We will remember them’. But to remember we need to understand what these men did and why.

This book has its genesis in the work of the late Lieutenant Colonel Will Townend on the Gunners on D-Day. He lectured on this topic and was an active battlefield guide for school and military groups travelling to the Normandy beaches and landing zones. This was expanded as an opportunity to fill one of the gaps in the Blue Book regimental history series started by Sir Martin Farndale in the 1990s. Sadly, he died in 2010 before the work could be completed. By the time of his death, Will had planned the chapters and written drafts for the middle twelve chapters, which broadly covered the historic narrative from D-Day to the closing of the Falaise Pocket.

With the approval of Helen Townend, I was asked to complete the work. This involved checking and editing Will’s drafts, writing the chapters that Will had not started, as well as assembling the maps and illustrations. In addition, the scope was increased to cover Home Forces from mid-1941, when Farndale’s Years of Defeat ends. The completed work retains Will’s chapter structure and as far as possible his words. I knew Will for many years and we shared views on the historic role of the Gunners in Normandy. I hope the work does justice to his intentions.

One of the reasons that it is necessary to write a Gunner version of the Normandy campaign is to correct some of the distortions that have emerged as the history of the Normandy campaign has evolved.

It is widely recognised that while Allied firepower was the key to success, the ubiquity of the Gunners has resulted in their story being taken for granted. Their contribution is anonymous, if not invisible.

The Royal Artillery is largely absent from popular media portrayals of D-Day and Normandy. Two Hollywood feature films and a TV mini-series have been made about D-Day. However, there is no individual gunner of any Allied nationality portrayed in The Longest Day, Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers. Popular computer games set in the Normandy campaign almost invariably set the player as an infantryman of some sort.

The dominant images from the newsreels are of air power and tanks, the iconic weapons of the Second World War. Artillery is more associated with the First World War. There are few, if any, publicly available images of many key Gunner activities or equipment. There are more photographs of the interior of Bletchley Park than of heavy AA guns, anti-aircraft early warning or gun-laying radars in Normandy. Nor are there photographs of sound-ranging units or surveyors at work. There are few photographs of Crusader SP 20mm AA guns or gun tractors, and none of several types of radar in use in 1944. Field artillery command posts, artillery signallers, observers and artillery commanders rarely caught the photographer’s eye.

Some of these omissions are understandable. Photographs of the latest radar would contain sensitive information. There would have been practical problems photographing forward observers. Small parties of Gunners carrying out technical work may not have caught the photographers’ eye. Much Gunner work is technical rather than warlike and does not excite the same interest. It is easy to understand why video game players are not faced with scenarios that invite them to calculate firing data, establish radio nets or lay out a survey scheme.

Much of the historic debate has been on the Allies’ decision making, equipment and doctrine. The poor wartime interpersonal relationships and diverging national and service interests proved fertile ground for arguments championing or criticising the senior commanders. Personalising the British Army methods as ‘Montgomery’s Colossal Cracks’ underplays the part played by service institutions and establishments in shaping these techniques. Interest in equipment is disproportionately concerned with tanks and small arms. In contrast, German success holding superior numbers backed by overwhelming firepower has attracted considerable interest and study in pursuit of the doctrinal benefits of Mission Command.

Military historiography of the Normandy campaign has also tended to distort the role of the Gunners. The official history echoes Montgomery’s summary: ‘the Gunners were magnificent’. It is a fine tribute, but one that reinforces the perception of a ubiquitous machine. Not until the last decades have historians such as Terry Copp pointed out the limitations of Allied artillery, drawing on operations research from the war.

Will Townend collected some of the main source material on which the work is based. These include war diaries and official documents, including orders, reports, maps, photographs and medal citations. The RA Commemorative book and the RA Journal contain articles by veterans. A few regiments published their own unit history. Most of these were territorial rather than regular units. Some contain little more than an itinerary and roll of honour. Others are a treasure trove of detail and insight into the soldiers’ experience. The history of 112th Field Regiment is particularly informative. The histories of 15th (Manx) Light AA, 92nd (7th Loyals) Light AA, 103 Heavy AA and 86 (HAC) HAA are some of the few sources on life within the anti-aircraft units. Larkhill Locators and Z Locating are about the only source for the work of the survey units.

As this is a regimental history, primacy has been given to official sources, supplemented by the recollections of members of the regiment and the official history. We have not attempted to reconcile the wartime understanding of events against post-war interpretation, for example cross-referencing the claims in medal citations with accounts from other arms or the Germans. This history is an advocate, not a judge of the part individual Gunners played. However, it is proper to put forward an objective case for the part that the Gunners played in the outcome of the campaign. To that end the reports of wartime operational research teams as well as German documents and memoirs have been invaluable. The transcriptions of post-war interviews made by the US Army have been particularly useful.

There are a selection of individual memoirs, which have been the main sources for the everyday experiences. The best-written and most informative of these is Guns of Normandy, by George Blackburn, a journalist serving in 4th Canadian Field Regiment. Other officer memoirs include Robert Kiln’s With the Hertfordshire Gunners from D-Day to Arnhem, Robin Dunn’s memoir Wig and Sword: Memoir of a Chief Justice, Charles Schwab’s Field of Fire, Peter Gorle’s study of his father Richmond Gorle The Quiet Gunner, and Peter Pettit’s Battles of a Gunner Officer: Tunisia, Sicily, Normandy, and the Long Road to Germany. John Hall’s A Soldier of the Second World War is a well-observed account from the perspective of an anti-tank troop commander.

Ernest Powdrill’s In the Face of the Enemy is the memoir of a sergeant major in battle. Dennis Falvey’s A Well-Known Excellence is part memoir, part regimental history of the 64th Medium Regiment.

Several OP signallers and assistants have left memoirs. These include John Mercer’s Mike Target, Wallace Bereton’s A Salford Boy Goes to War, W.A. Reynolds’s Aldershot to Kiel: A Gunner’s Story and Peter Ryder’s fictionalised Guns Have Eyes. Ian Astley’s Tank Alert is the story of an anti-tank gunner. The book draws on anthologies and interviews quoted in works by Patrick Delaforce, himself a Normandy Gunner veteran of 13th RHA, and Alexander McKee. The Imperial War Museum sound archive has a number of audio files of interviews with gunners.

These have been supplemented by interviews with surviving veterans. I am indebted to Major General Tony Richardson, Brigadier David Baines, Ivan Spall, Wally Harris and Myer Malin, who filled in some of the gaps, and to my research team of interviewers George Baldwin and George Irving-Sisk.

Almost eighty years have passed since these events. Many readers will be unfamiliar with matters commonplace in mid-twentieth-century military service; as the wartime generation passes, there is no longer anyone to ask about ‘blanco’, drill boots or the NAAFI. It is for this audience that this volume includes some explanations of basic gunnery and a roll of honour. If it is no longer possible to ask about a relative’s old comrades, it should be possible to understand who they might have been remembering.

In the interests of clarity, only the minimum of detail has been included in the tactical maps, but we have supported them with topographical maps from the official history. These don’t have gridlines, which are invaluable for anyone seeking to make sense of the locations in war diaries and other official documents. As a compromise, the tactical maps include the wartime grid.

Without Helen Townend’s permission to use Will’s material, and her generosity in assigning the copyright to the Royal Artillary Instritute (RAI), the book would not have been possible, nor without the patient professionalism of The History Press staff Michael Leventhal and Chrissie McMorris.

Many people helped with the research. I am grateful to Mark Smith and Paul Evans from the now closed Firepower. They were extremely helpful locating archive items. I am indebted to the Badley Library for their generosity, and to Siân Mogridge and the volunteers at the RA Archive.

The work would not have progressed without the support and effort of Nick Quarelle and James Gower, who managed the project for the RAI. They kindly proofed the copy and demonstrated to all concerned my shortcomings in staff duties.

Several people have read through part of all of the drafts. I particularly appreciate the time and constructive criticism from General Jonathan Bailey; Dr Spencer Jones, who read through the draft, and to Christopher Newbould, Philip Jobson and the internet elves on WW2talk.com, who all provided feedback on parts of the work. Nigel Evans very kindly offered the support and information from his website on British Artillery in the Second World War*. Tim ‘Bertie’ Morris very kindly read through the draft in detail, matching up references and asking critical questions of the narrative. His assistance has been invaluable in tracking down some of the more elusive regimental histories and in allowing the use of photographs from his own extensive library.

I am very grateful to everyone who has offered images; many are from the RA Commemorative book. The cover image has been made available by David Rowlands, who painted the original for 24th (Irish) Battery in 1986. The sketches of 90th Field Regiment were made by Lance Bombardier Herbert and appear by permission of his relatives.

I would like to thank The History Press’ Fenton Coulthurst for overseeing the editing and production of this book and Martin Latham for the cover design. For the second edition of this book I am deeply indebted to my wife, Helen Perry, not only for her patient tolerance of my idiosyncrasies over many decades, but also kindly proofread this edition and identified grammatical errors that crept into the first edition.

Frank Baldwin

__________

*nigelef.tripod.com/directory.html

1

Background to Overlord

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.1

– Winston Churchill, 4 June 1940

The Beginnings

The campaign to liberate Europe can be traced back to June 1940, and the period when Britain, its Empire, and Dominions stood alone. For the next four years the Western Front was defined by the Channel and North Sea, which offered no scope for other than anti-aircraft or coastal artillery units to see action. However, individual Gunners played a significant role in the events that led to D-Day and the Normandy campaign.

With seventy years of hindsight, the success of Operation Overlord may appear inevitable. Yet it was very a risky operation. The English Channel is a formidable obstacle. Some of the most powerful armies of all time have baulked at making an opposed Channel crossing. Throughout British military history, British expeditionary forces typically entered the continent through friendly ports. British expeditions to an occupied shore usually failed dismally, as at La Rochelle, Saint-Malo, Walcheren and Bergen op Zoom in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The twentieth-century experiences of Gallipoli, Dar es Salaam and Diego Suarez (now Antsiranana) were hardly encouraging. The development of the plans that lead to the success of Operation Overlord were in the hands of two senior gunner officers. General Sir Alan Brooke (the future Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke), as the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), was Churchill’s senior military advisor and shaped the timing and command of D-Day. Lieutenant General F.E. Morgan, as the Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (Designate) (COSSAC), would play a key role in determining that D-Day would take place in Normandy, and the plans for this most complex and successful operation.

Winston Churchill, the embodiment of British national spirit and bloody mindedness, was determined that British troops should strike back at the Germans. On 4 June 1940, the day after the last British soldier left Dunkirk, Churchill sent a memo instructing the Defence Secretary to the War Cabinet thus: ‘It is of the highest consequence to keep the largest numbers of German forces all along the coasts of the countries they have conquered, and we should immediately set to work to organise raiding forces on these coasts.’ Ten days later, Chiefs of Staff created the post of ‘Commander of Raiding Operations on Coasts in Enemy Occupation, and Adviser to the Chiefs of Staff on Combined Operations’. This post headed an organisation that would ultimately become Combined Operations, headed by Sir Roger Keyes and then Lord Mountbatten. The raids on the coast of Europe had a profound impact on the Germans and resulted in their maldeployment in 1944.

Commando Gunners

On the evening of 23 June 1940, soldiers from No. 11 Independent Company, a volunteer force raised for the Norway Campaign, carried out Operation Collar, a raid on the coast between Boulogne and Le Touquet, which killed two German soldiers. The only British casualty was Lieutenant Colonel D.W. Clarke RA, whose ear was grazed by a bullet. Clarke, an observer on the raid, was military assistant to Sir John Dill, the Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff (VCIGS). In May 1940, following the evacuation from Dunkirk, he had submitted a proposal to General Dill for small raiding units, called commandos, inspired by childhood recollections of similar Boer forces.

During the winter of 1940–41 Combined Operations developed commando and other raiding forces. Although little of this activity would require artillery, many gunners joined the commandos. One of the most influential was Captain J. Durnford-Slater, who volunteered to join a ‘raiding force’ in June 1940, while adjutant of 23rd anti-aircraft (AA) and Heavy Training Regiment. Promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel, he raised the first Army Commando unit, No. 3 Commando, in June 1940. He led this unit on its first raid on Guernsey in July 1940, Operation Ambassador, and would be the Deputy Commander of Commandos on D-Day. Captain G.H. March-Phillipps was another gunner officer who raised a commando force from volunteers. As a major, he commanded Small-Scale Raiding Force, or No. 62 Commando, initially in support of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the secret service, and later responsible for raiding the Channel coast, resulting in the award of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). This small organisation carried out some spectacular operations out of proportion to its size and would become part of the Special Air Service.

Rebuilding an Expeditionary Force

The offensive raids across the Channel were only a minor activity of the Army and the Royal Artillery in 1940. The main task of the Army was to defend the British Isles from attack. After Dunkirk, Home Forces had been rearmed and equipped to repel the expected German invasion. During 1941, Home Forces, which was Brooke’s command, practised mobile operations against an invader. At the same time, the Army tried to apply the lessons that had emerged from the debacle in France and from other fronts. Some of these had significant implications for the Royal Artillery. The story of the RA over this time is covered in the companion volume The Years of Defeat: 1939–41. From 1942 the Home Army would be the basis for expeditionary forces. The training and doctrine would be under the direction of the Major General Royal Artillery (MGRA), Home Forces Major General O.M. Lund.

After Dunkirk, there was much soul-searching about the reasons for German success. One obvious conclusion was that to face an armoured enemy supported by aircraft, a higher proportion of anti-tank and anti-aircraft gunners would be needed. Infantry divisions received a light anti-aircraft (LAA) regiment and a divisional anti-tank regiment, while each corps would have a corps anti-tank regiment and LAA regiment. The Bartholomew Commission challenged whether the division was too large a formation to operate in mobile warfare. There were calls to restructure formations around all-arms brigade or even battalion groups. These structures were tried in the Western Desert during 1941–42 and the Gunner side of this story is told in other volumes of this history. With this came pressure to devolve command of artillery to brigades and dispense with artillery commanders at divisional and corps level. These were argued to be cumbersome and unresponsive relics of positional warfare of 1914–18, and irrelevant to the mechanised warfare faced in 1940.

The rise of Lieutenant General B.L. Montgomery, initially of 5th Corps and then South East Command, under the patronage of Brooke, was key to restoring the divisional and corps levels of command. He led the development of the tactical methods that characterised the British Army in the second half of the war and became known as ‘Montgomery’s Colossal Cracks’.2 Montgomery emphasised fighting battles using the co-ordination of all arms at a divisional level, using artillery centralised at the highest level.

This would not have been as easy had not techniques been developed harnessing wireless communications to control the fire of many batteries of guns. These were initially demonstrated by Brigadier H.J. Parham, as Commander Royal Artillery (CRA) of 38th Division, but based on his experience in the 1940 campaign as CO 9th Field Regiment. His initial demonstration took place in 1941 and was followed by demonstrations in spring 1942. There were flaws in the methods used to calculate corrections, which resulted in rounds falling among VIP spectators. However, the audience was sufficiently impressed, not least with the speed with which the offending batteries were stopped,3 and the techniques, after modification by the Royal School of Artillery (RSA), were adopted and became those used across the field artillery.

German successes also highlighted the value of close air support to land operations. The story of the development of close air support by the Allied air forces lies mainly outside the scope of this history. One key tactical role of aircraft was for artillery reconnaissance and artillery observation. The RAF–Army co-operation squadrons had suffered heavy losses in France in the face of German fighter aircraft and anti-aircraft guns. Furthermore, while the Home Army was not in contact with the enemy, the RAF was, and army co-operation became a low priority for the service. The development of Air Observation Posts (air OP) with artillery officer pilots started in 1940, initially by Captain H.C. Bazeley, and championed by Brigadier Parham, a pilot himself. The logic was that it was easier to train an artillery officer to fly than train an RAF pilot to understand the tactical situation. This development was not wholly welcomed or supported by the RAF, but the Operation Torch expeditionary force to North Africa in November 1942 was accompanied by an experimental air OP Flight, with Gunner pilots flying aircraft provided and maintained by the RAF. The demonstrable success resulted in the adoption of air OPs across the Army. Besides the air OP squadrons, there was development of joint procedures for RAF and artillery co-operation, including the adoption of common methods for spotting the fall of shot and applying corrections.

With the entry of the USA into the war the priority for the Home Army changed from defeating an invasion to forming an expeditionary force. The evolution of Allied strategy towards North Africa and Sicily resulted in the departure of two corps and six divisions for the Mediterranean theatre.

Unusually, the British Army could prepare for its major campaign from home soil. The Gunners could draw on resources of the RSA, whose role is covered in more detail in Chapter 3. General Lund, MGRA Home Forces, instigated six-monthly Gunner conferences at Larkhill, attended by all available senior officers. The agenda for these covered any matter of interest to the gunners from the deployment of artillery to support a corps to the design of shoulder titles. These conferences, along with Royal Artillery Notes (RA Notes), provided a mechanism for promulgating consistent policies and procedures. The old cliché ‘ten gunners and eleven opinions’ was put to rest.4 This would become important when artillery needed to be regrouped frequently and operate with consistent procedures.

The defence batteries formed to support local defenders against invasion were converted to field artillery or transferred to the coastal artillery. An expeditionary role was considered for the batteries of super heavy rail guns deployed in the south-east. This was later abandoned as heavy bombers took on the roles envisaged for long-range heavy artillery. The 11th Survey Regiment, established to locate German cross-Channel artillery through flash spotting and sound ranging, eventually became a key organisation, plotting the launch of the V1 and V2 weapons.

Throughout 1942–43 the Army continued to experiment with its divisional organisation, based on the results from formation exercises and reports from overseas. Armoured divisions were initially very tank-heavy, with two armoured brigades, each of three armoured regiments and divisional ‘support group’ with a single infantry battalion and a regiment each of field and mixed anti-tank and LAA artillery. By 1944 the armoured division was formed of a more balanced force of four armoured regiments (one of which was designated armoured reconnaissance) and four infantry battalions, one of which was mounted on armoured carriers and half-tracks. These were organised into two brigades and supported by four artillery regiments (two field, one anti-tank and one LAA). In 1942–43 mixed divisions were formed each of two infantry brigades, each of three battalions and one armoured brigade of three regiments. However, this was dropped in favour of infantry divisions of nine-battalion infantry divisions supported by independent armoured and tank brigades. Training exercises and the experience from North Africa had shown that both armoured and infantry formations needed a higher proportion of infantry. One consequence of the reorganisation was the disbandment of the 42nd Armoured Division, and re-equipment of the 79th Armoured Division with armoured engineer vehicles left several artillery units surplus. These included the 53rd and 55th Anti-Tank Regiments, 142nd, 147th, 150th and 191st Field Regiments and the 93rd and 119th LAA Regiments.

During 1943 those units of Home Forces units destined to join the 21st Army Group were identified. The MGRA Home Forces, Major General O. Lund, became MGRA 21st Army Group, while Brigadier J.R. Barry became Brigadier Royal Artillery (BRA) Home Forces for those artillery units not assigned an expeditionary role. Those that remained were used to run the transit and holding camps in the UK. Rolls of individual officers were maintained by RA 21st Army Group as replacements and a policy agreed that vacant posts within 21st Army Group would be filled from this list, rather than internal promotion.

Eventually the remaining units in Home Forces were depleted by drafts for gunner and infantry units in 21st Army Group. Units that had once been in the forefront of the expected battle of the beaches of Britain developed into holding and training units with regret, for the general good, which deserved the highest praise. The 6th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery (RHA), 171st (Dorset Yeomanry) Field Regiment and 92nd (Gordons) Anti-Tank Regiment, to mention a few, would have no battle honours for this war, but they helped to win it as surely as others that may have fought from the Nile to the Baltic.5

Saint-Nazaire: Operation Chariot

After the armistice was signed with the French on 23 June 1940, the Germans retained control of northern France and the Atlantic coast. The north coast was important as a base for air operations against Britain and any invasion. One of the objectives of the German invasion of France in 1940 had been to occupy its Atlantic coast to wage submarine warfare against Britain. The ports of Brest, Lorient, Saint-Nazaire and the Gironde estuary became submarine bases, with concrete submarine pens built to protect U-boats from air attack.

Selection of Operations Planned or Executed 1942–44

1 Chariot. Raid on Saint-Nazaire, 28 March 1942.

2 Rutter/Jubilee. Raid on Dieppe, 19 August 1942.

3 Sledgehammer. Proposed cross-channel operation, mid-1942.

4 Torch. Invasion of North Africa, November 1942.

5 Husky. Invasion of Sicily, July 1943.

6 Round-up. Proposed cross-Channel operation, 1943.

7 Rankin. Planned operation in the event of German collapse, 1943.

8 Starkey. Feint across Dover straits, September 1943.

9 Overlord. Cross-channel operation, June 1944.

10 Jupiter. Alternative to Overlord proposed by Churchill in the event of compromise.

11 Fortitude North. Deception plan to threaten attack on Norway, 1944.

12 Fortitude South. Deception plan to threaten attack on Pas-de-Calais, summer 1944.

13 Anvil/Dragoon. Invasion of southern France planned to be simultaneous with Overlord, but postponed to August 1944.

14 Bolero. Build-up of US forces in the UK.

On 14 December 1941, one week after the entry of the US into the war, Hitler ordered the construction of a new West Wall covering the Atlantic coast. On 23 March 1942, Hitler Directive No. 40 expanded on the command of coastal defence. This directive emphasised the danger of landings, gave the highest priority to naval installations and urged vigilance. Later the same week, on 28 March 1942, a British Combined Operations raid, Operation Chariot, demonstrated German vulnerability by sailing into the port of Saint-Nazaire and destroying the docks. These included the only dry dock capable of accommodating the German battleship Tirpitz on the Bay of Biscay. Its destruction would make it difficult for the Tirpitz to carry out commerce raids.

Lance Sergeant Arthur Dockerill from Ely in Cambridgeshire was a member of No. 1 Army Commando. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his gallantry at Saint-Nazaire.

On 28 March 1942, during the commando raid on Saint-Nazaire, Lance Sergeant Dockerill, as a member of the demolition party under Lieutenant S. Chant’s command, assisted his officer, who had been wounded, and other members of the party, to climb from the wrecked bows of the destroyer HMS Campbeltown, on the way to the dockside. Dockerill, carrying Lieutenant S. Chant’s equipment, a 60lb rucksack, then assisted him to their objective, the pumping station of the dry dock. This was done under enemy fire.

Lance Sergeant Dockerill again assisted Lieutenant S. Chant in descending to the pumping chamber 40ft below ground. His work in the pumping room was magnificent. He stayed with the officer while the latter fired the charges, and although the fuses were only set for a minute and a half, he waited to assist him to climb the stairs to the ground floor, a difficult feat as the officer could only move slowly and it was completely dark. He got Lieutenant S. Chant out with a few seconds left before the explosives blew up.

When the force attempted to fight out of the town and docks, heavy opposition was encountered. Lance Sergeant Dockerill, as a forward scout, armed with only a Colt automatic and grenades, assisted in leading the force through the streets in quick time. When he ran out of ammunition and grenades he used his fighting knife and inflicted many casualties on the enemy.

HMS Campbeltown, an old destroyer packed with 4.5 tons of explosive, rammed the dry dock gates, with a delayed fuse detonating the following day. At the same time, a force of commandos carried on the destroyer and by a flotilla of light patrol boats raided the docks, destroying key installations. The operation was successful, but at a heavy cost. Of the 622 men in the landing force only 228 returned with the flotilla; 169 were killed and a further 225 became prisoners of war. Five Victoria Crosses were awarded for gallantry. Several Gunners serving with the commandos distinguished themselves in Operation Chariot.

The attack on Saint-Nazaire made the Germans sit up and think. A surprise raid by British forces in small wooden landing craft had penetrated the port and demolished its harbour facilities. The German defence was poorly organised and had not stood up to the test.6 The German 7th Army, with responsibility for Brittany and Lower Normandy, had already made protecting the Atlantic ports and U-boat bases their main effort. Operation Chariot therefore had the fortuitous side-effect of diverting even more effort into fortifying the ports, and away from what eventually became Operation Overlord’s landing beaches.

Dieppe: Operation Jubilee

On 9 July 1942 Hitler ordered that the defences of the west should be strengthened. He believed there was an imminent risk of an Allied landing in France. The Germans had noticed the build-up of craft on the south coast and spotted what they interpreted to be as an ominous pause in RAF operations. Hitler identified the areas under threat as the coast of Normandy and the area between Dieppe and Le Havre. He ordered the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler and SS Reich Divisions and two bomber gruppen with about forty bombers to be transferred from the Eastern Front to France, along with a parachute division.7

The purpose of Operation Jubilee was to assault, capture and occupy for a limited period the port town of Dieppe. It was a small-scale rehearsal for the major cross-Channel operation that would eventually have to be undertaken, and a trial of the form of attack anticipated by the plans for the Operation Roundup cross-Channel assault that year. Dieppe was chosen because the beaches were favourable, the port was not thought to be heavily defended and it was not one of the places visualised as a target for a major operation.8 The raid had originally been scheduled for June as Operation Rutter, but was delayed and revised for a variety of reasons, including concerns among Army commanders about the risks and value to be gained from it.

The town of Dieppe lies in the low ground of the valley of the River Arques, with high headlands to the east and west. The port had been organised as an independent strong point, a Stützpunkt, by the Germans. It was defended by two battalions, one on each of the headlands. The defenders were well supported by artillery with eight batteries in the area.

The plan called for four simultaneous flank attacks to land at 4.50 a.m. The outermost two, each of British Army commandos, targeted flanking coastal artillery batteries. The inner two attacks were battalions of Canadian soldiers attacking the high ground adjacent to the port itself. Thirty minutes later, three further Canadian battalions, supported by a Canadian armoured regiment, would attack the seafront of Dieppe itself. Engineers would clear routes for the tanks to breach the sea wall and the tanks would suppress defenders. A total of more than 6,000 soldiers would land at Dieppe.

The landing would be preceded by a bombardment from a small force of eight Hunt class destroyers, each with four 4in guns. The RAF hoped to entice the Luftwaffe into a major air battle. Fifty squadrons of Spitfire fighters would patrol the skies over Dieppe. However, the numbers of aircraft assigned to directly support the landings were much lower. Five squadrons of light bombers, roughly sixty aircraft, would lay smoke to hamper observation of the ships from coastal batteries. A further five squadrons of Hurricane fighters were assigned to close air support, of which only two squadrons would be equipped with bombs.

The two attacks west of the town were the most successful part of the raid. No. 4 Commando took its objectives, with losses. Major P.A. Porteous RA would be awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry under fire.

The attack on the easternmost beach was disrupted by a chance encounter with a small German convoy offshore, which scattered the flotilla carrying No. 3 Commando. Small parties did land with varying fortunes; the most successful being a party of twenty men who sniped the Battery near Berneval-le-Grand. The beach at Puys and the gully leading from it was narrow and dominated by cliffs. The attack here would need surprise to get inland. This was not achieved as the landing was late and the small force of defenders was ready for the attackers. Few Canadian soldiers got further inland than the sea wall.

Captain, Acting Major Patrick Anthony Porteous, Victoria Cross

Patrick Porteous was commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Artillery in 1937. On 19 August 1942, he was 24 years old and a temporary captain attached to No. 4 Commando when he did the deed for which he was awarded the VC. The citation was published in a supplement to the London Gazette of 2 October 1942 and reads:

At Dieppe on the 19th August, 1942, Major Porteous was detailed to act as Liaison Officer between the two detachments whose task was to assault the heavy coast defence guns.

In the initial assault Major Porteous, working with the smaller of the two detachments, was shot at close range through the hand, the bullet passing through his palm and entering his upper arm. Undaunted, Major Porteous closed with his assailant, succeeded in disarming him and killed him with his own bayonet, thereby saving the life of a British Sergeant on whom the German had turned his aim.

In the meantime the larger detachment was held up, and the officer leading this detachment was killed and the Troop Sergeant-Major fell seriously wounded. Almost immediately afterwards the only other officer of the detachment was also killed.

Major Porteous, without hesitation and in the face of a withering fire, dashed across the open ground to take over the command of this detachment. Rallying them, he led them in a charge which carried the German position at the point of the bayonet, and was severely wounded for the second time. Though shot through the thigh he continued to the final objective where he eventually collapsed from loss of blood after the last of the guns had been destroyed.

Major Porteous’s most gallant conduct, his brilliant leadership and tenacious devotion to a duty which was supplementary to the role originally assigned to him, was an inspiration to the whole detachment.

The frontal attack on Dieppe itself began thirty minutes after the flanking attacks and got off to a bad start. The landing craft containing the tanks were late, the bombardment by the naval ships was insufficient to neutralise the defenders, and the attack by squadrons of cannon-firing Hurricane fighter aircraft was very brief. The infantry barely got off the beach, while the engineers were unable to clear obstacles that would allow the tanks to get over the sea wall.

Five artillery forward observer parties landed with the main attack on the Dieppe beach, to direct the fire of the destroyers. Four out of the five were able to establish communications, but three were put out of action on the beach. All were in exposed positions and were pinned down. However, at least one observer was able to establish communications and contribute effectively to the battle. HMS Albrighton later reported, ‘It is clear that this ship working in close touch with her forward observation officer (FOO) achieved most during the operation. Targets of importance were pointed out by the FOO and the ship’s response was both quick and accurate.’9

Other elements of 2nd Canadian Divisional Artillery landing included Bren gun teams from 3rd Canadian Light AA Regiment to provide low-level air defence and a party of field gunners to man captured German guns. This latter mission was doomed by the failure of the assault to take the enemy positions. The Germans had become aware of the attack and were awaiting the arrival of their enemy, armed and ready for battle. The Royal Canadian Artillery (RCA) suffered thirteen casualties.

The local German commanders recognised that Dieppe was a raid and not a serious invasion attempt, having captured orders that clearly indicated a time limit.10 Dieppe was played up by the German propagandists, and there arose at Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW – HQ German armed Forces, i.e. Hitler’s HQ) a ‘fairy tale of defensive success against a major landing attempt’, leading to complacent confidence in the Atlantic Wall.11 This was to have important consequences for D-Day in 1944.

Operation Jubilee was at that point the largest assault landing in the Second World War. Combined Operations HQ issued a report on the key lessons from Dieppe.12 The paramount lesson was ‘the need for overwhelming fire support, including close support, during the initial stages of the attack’. This, it was recommended, should be provided ‘by heavy and medium naval bombardment, by air action, by special vessels or craft working close inshore, and by using the firepower of the assaulting troops while still seaborne’.13

Before Dieppe it was assumed that timing and surprise could enable an assault landing to succeed without fire support, as it had in the raid on Vaagso and at Saint-Nazaire. Dieppe shows that it would not work for a large-scale landing. Too much could go wrong to rely on surprise and precision timing. New techniques would be needed. The Deputy Commander of Combined Operations expressed the nub of the firepower problem thus: ‘The three Services are mutually at their most helpless at the moment the assault goes in … Yet, at the same time, the Army needs intense close support, just as it needs it on land. At El Alamein, there was one 25-pounder per 17 yards. How are you going to reproduce that degree of support in a landing from the sea?’

In the following months these problems were addressed. By May 1943 Combined Operations HQ was promulgating the tactical methods that would be used on D-Day. By June 1943 both the British and US Forces had a doctrine for assaulting a heavily defended coast. Some of the ideas would be implemented in the landings in the Mediterranean: on Sicily in July 1943, at Salerno in September 1943 and at Anzio in January 1944. However, none of these operations would attempt to assault a coastline as heavily defended as northern France. Much of the technology and techniques would remain a secret to maintain surprise.

After Dieppe, Combined Operations was ordered to focus on preparing the Allied forces for the forthcoming invasion and did not undertake more raids. The task of maintaining pressure on the Germans fell to Major March-Phillipps’s small-scale raiding force. This organisation, around sixty strong, launched its operations from a motor torpedo boat. They mounted a series of small raids aimed at capturing sentries and isolated posts on the Channel Islands and the Normandy coast. However, on 12 September 1942 a navigational error led to the force landing in front of a German position close to Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer in Normandy. The majority of the raiding force was captured, and March-Phillipps and two of his men were killed. They became the first Allied casualties on a stretch of sand that would become known as Omaha Beach.

Combined Chiefs of Staff – The Evolution of a Plan

After the French Armistice in July 1940, defeating the anticipated German invasion was the priority. While the defences against Operation Sea Lion, the German invasion of Britain, were never put to the test, British commanders did have the opportunity to consider the problem of a cross-Channel assault from the defenders’ point of view. The man with this responsibility was General Sir Alan Brooke, knighted in July for his service in France, initially Commander Southern Command and then Commander Home Forces from July 1940. He would later be described as ‘the most important British Officer in the Second World War’,14 while his biographer described him as ‘a man of great clarity of perception. Quick-witted, he got through many men’s work. He did not expect to say things twice. His dynamism was felt throughout the army. He was quick, abrupt and impatient with failure.’15

Brooke now had to decide how to deploy his troops and prioritise their time. Should the defences be based on the coast or further inland? What was the balance between manning defences and having troops available to counter-attack? Was it more important to prepare defences or to train inexperienced troops to operate together?

Brooke played a big part in rebuilding the British Army after the defeats of 1940. His preferred anti-invasion plans, based on mobile reserves, created the kind of army well suited to forming an expeditionary force. Brooke had reservations about the stamina of his troops; his solution was intensive and rigorous physical training. The increasing scale and complexity of exercises ensured that British commanders became proficient in operations with massed formations and developed ways to use paratroops and armoured formations. He had a keen interest in new uses of technology, such as using 3.7in and 3in 20cwt AA guns to counter the threat of German tanks.16

Brooke also shaped the leadership of the British Army that would command for the second half of the war. He started a weeding out process, culling those deemed inefficient or too old, tempered by the limited number of experienced officers available: ‘Half of our corps and divisional commanders are totally unfit for their appointments, and yet if I were to sack them I could find no better!’17 Those that rose to the top during the war were those that demonstrated their competence to Brooke. Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery had impressed Brooke before the war, and proved himself as a divisional commander in France and shone in command of a corps on the south coast.

Brooke was appointed as Chief of the Imperial General Staff in place of Sir John Dill on 1 December 1941. This was the start of one of the great working partnerships of the Second World War. Winston Churchill was a great political leader, but was a very difficult man to work for. He was imaginative, impetuous and opportunistic. As an ex-soldier with experience at Cabinet level in the Great War, he had strong strategic opinions of his own. He applied his rhetorical skills, passion and intellect to wear down his opposition. While Brooke found Churchill’s lifestyle and the hours exhausting, he was not worn down by them:

He [Brooke] was not only an experienced soldier; he knew what he was talking about and possessed the moral courage to stick to his convictions in the face of Churchill’s anger at being contradicted. And while he never liked being overruled, Churchill recognised Brooke’s professionalism and respected his willingness to oppose ideas and schemes he deemed wrong.18

Brooke’s major contributions to the war include the battles not fought, and the invasions that never happened. A 1942 invasion of France would have almost certainly met the same fate as the Dieppe Raid, and one in 1943 conducted by raw, ill-trained troops would have been highly risky. Brooke, the most eminent gunner of the war, would ensure that the battle for Normandy took place at the right time and that the British Army was led by the right commanders with the appropriate training and preparation.

Brooke, as the Chair of the British Chiefs of Staff, led the British professional delegation in negotiations with their American opposite numbers in formulating Allied strategy. The US Army, led by its professional head General George C. Marshall, was mobilising a large field army to fight in Europe. Having championed the ‘Germany First’ strategy adopted by the Allies, Marshall was a keen advocate of an early and direct re-entry to Europe. In his initial visit to London in April 1942 Marshall tried to press Brooke into agreeing to an assault in 1942, to relieve the pressure on the struggling Red Army. Churchill and Brooke were repelled by American enthusiasm for a risky expedition likely to result in heavy British casualties and the probable loss of Britain’s last field army in Europe.

Brooke felt that Marshall’s strategic limitations were exposed by the lack of a plan for continued operations after a landing had been achieved. However, by the time Marshall returned to America there was harmony. He reported back to the US Chiefs of Staff that the views of the British Chiefs of Staff regarding operations proposed for 1943 were almost in complete accord with his own. By the end of the US Chiefs of Staff’ visit to London in July 1942 the matter was decided. ‘All agreed to give up an immediate attack on the continent in 1942, to prepare plans for an attack on North Africa to be carried out if re-entry into Europe was impossible next year.’19 Any doubts over the wisdom of this decision were dispelled by the Dieppe Raid.

At the Casablanca Conference in January 1943 the American and British war leaders and their staffs made the decision to assemble troops in the UK and establish an organisation to provide for a range of operations including the following:

(a) Small-scale amphibious operations, such as the progressive reoccupation of the Channel Islands. (Note: Raids are already adequately taken care of by the existing organisation.)

(b) The need to re-enter the continent with all available forces at the shortest possible notice in the event of a sudden and unexpected collapse of German resistance. The aim would be to seize critical political and military centres in Germany in the shortest possible time.

(c) Operations to seize a bridgehead late in 1943, leading up to a rapid exploitation, or

(d) An invasion in force in 1944.20

COSSAC

The planning process was started in earnest on 1 April 1943, with the appointment of British Lieutenant General F.E. Morgan21 as Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (Designate), a title soon shortened to COSSAC, with the American Major General Ray Barker as his deputy. This would be a joint Anglo–American staff reporting to the Allies’ Combined Chiefs of Staff, but through the British Chiefs of Staff.

Frederick Morgan had commissioned into the Gunners in 1913, had served on the Western Front in the Great War and was twice mentioned in dispatches. A brigadier in 1939, he commanded the Support Group of the 1st Armoured Division during its brief campaign in France in June 1940. He next served as Brigadier General Staff for 2nd Corps and then formed the Devon and Cornwall Division. He commanded the 55th Division before being appointed to command of the 1st British Corps in 1942.22

His initial instructions in March 1943 were to propose a brief for the Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander. Morgan had the unique experience of forming the combined staff for a Supreme Allied Commander who would report to the Combined Chiefs of Staff.

In the twenty-first century, international institutions dominate the world and post-war NATO armies take for granted the standardisation of terminology and working methods across armies. This was novel in 1943. Co-operation between the different British services was considered sufficiently difficult and avant garde for Combined Operations to be given its own organisation and a seat in the Chiefs of Staff Committee. Bringing together people from different backgrounds, cultures and organisations is a considerable challenge. Yet Morgan built a team from scratch against extremely tight deadlines and delivered some of the most important thinking in the war.

One of the first actions of the COSSAC team was to collect information about the enemy coast. Much of this work had been undertaken by Combined Operations, although with a different and more limited objective. Within three months COSSAC had collected so much information about the nature of the German defences that delegates at the US Army’s European Theatre Assault Conference were invited to visit models to familiarise themselves with the defences that formed part of the Atlantic Wall.

COSSAC’s initial directive in April 1943 from the British Chiefs of Staff was to prepare three plans for scrutiny in July and to be presented at the August Inter-Allied Conference in Quebec.

Operation Starkey was a feint to encourage the Germans to reinforce the west at the expense of the Eastern Front, and entice the Luftwaffe to battle. At daybreak on 9 September 1943, after a bombing campaign to simulate a pre-invasion bombardment, a mini armada of 355 ships sailed. The weather was bad and the Germans did not react.