STORY OF ASSAULT PHASE OF NORMANDY LANDINGS

Chronicle (Levin), 9 January 1948, Page 6

STORY OF ASSAULT PHASE OF NORMANDY LANDINGS

The story of the assault phase of the Normandy landings in 1944, as told by the late Admiral Sir Ber- i tram H. Ramsay, Allie'd Naval Com- , mander-in-Chief, Expeditionary Force, in a dispatch to the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, was contained in a supple- ; ment to the London Gazette. The naveil problem was, firstly, to break the strong initial crust of the coast defences by assault, together with the landing of the Army formations; and, secondly, to commence and continue for five or six weeks their reinforcement at as high a rat'e as possible, says the dispatch. The first requirement called for the co-ordinated movement of all ships, landing craft and air craft; and the second requirement demanded the co-ordin-ation of the activities of hundreds of thousands of men and women, in the United Kingdom and off the French coast, marshalling, loading, sailing, unloading and returning at least eight ship convoys a day m addition to 10 or 12 landing craft groups. Admiral Ramsay wrote that no weapon the enemy might have employed caused him more anxiety than that of mine-laying. Minelaying was intensified prior to Dday, but no interruption was caused to our rehearsals, nor to the assembly of our forces. There was an air of unrcality during the passage of the assault forces on D-day, and as the forces approached the French coast "without a murmur from the enemy," the realisation that almost complete tactical surprise. had been achieved slowly dawned. -Losses of ships and landing craft were much lower than had been expected, but damage to. L.C.T. and smaller craft was higher than had been allowed for. The build-up of supplies in France was r planned to commence on D plus 1,

with the arrival of eight ship convoys on that day. The convoys arrived to tirne but unloading was severely restricted because of the unfavourable weather. The first convoy of 45 blockships arrived on June 7 and the sinking of these ships was carried through according to plan. Froni p.m. D plus 1 until D plus 8, better weather en-r abled the rate of build-up to'be improved, and by D plus 9 half a -million men and 77,000 vehicles had been landed ih Ffance. " From June 14 onwards theweath-. er deteriorated steadily. On- June 19 a north-easterly gale stopped all unloading on the beaches, and 'in the following days large riutnbers of f erry craft were stranded by "the onshore wind, - and the "artificial harhours were damagefl. When rne gale eased, energetic measures were taken to salve all damaged • craft, and new equipment and blockships were sent over for the harhours. About 600 stranded craft and a few coasters were temporarily repaired and refloated on July 8 and a further 100 on the spring tides a fortnight later. By about June 24 casualties to our ships due to mines were becoming serious, but special measures were taken and casualties were 1 greatly reduced, By July 3 nearly 590 mines had been accounted for by our minesweepers..