Osprey Publishing Ltd, ISBN 1-84176-368-3, 96 pages
This is the second book of the set, and no, I don’t know why they aren’t numbered in order of publication. Here you get the usual Campaign opening chapter with notes on the origins of the battle, the opposing commanders, their armies and their plans. In this case the Allied side was British and Canadian – the British 50th Infantry Division making the assault landing on Gold beach and the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division on Juno, with more units following up in successive waves.
As seems almost inevitable in an amphibious assault there was some confusion on the run-in, with battalions ending up in the wrong places, but the main problem was the emplaced German artillery. Cleverly designed concrete emplacements provided enfilade fire across the beaches, and were largely impervious to the naval gunfire support since they had no openings facing seaward. They were taken out by determined infantry attacks supported by the famous DD swimming tanks – which were either launched closer to shore than originally intended or in some cases taken right onto the beach by their landing craft.
With the initial lodgement successful, the follow-up units pushed inland but for a variety of reasons did not get as far as their hoped-for target of Caen. Whether reaching that city would really have let the Commonwealth armour break out into the open as intended can be disputed, in my opinion – German armour was already approaching and would have fought bitterly. Anyway, it didn’t happen and the result was the effective pinning, intended or otherwise, of the main German armour strength and therefore less armour opposition for the American landings and breakout. Has anyone ever wargamed the result of taking Caen on June 6 1944?
This is an excellent book for anyone interested in D-Day. The text is supported by a good selection of photographs of the beachhead; the men, tanks and ships, and Kevin Lyles’ plates are excellent.
