A midshipman remembers D-Day

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 539, 7 June 1994, Page 8

A midshipman remembers D-Day

Unlike many theatres of war this century, New Zealand did not have an official preserice at the Normandy beach head on 6 June 1 944. Only individuals serving with the RAF and RoyaHsiavy took part in that historic event called "D-Day", 50 years ago. The following is a personal account from one individual, Ohakune resident Dennis Beytagh, who was not only there in that greatest of invasion fleets, he was on what turned out to be one of the most important vessels of the fleet.

Continued from last week Every weapon on board HMS Versatile - guns, torpedo tubes, depth charges, anti-submarine mortars - was armed and ready for whatever awaited us off the French coast. I was assigned to the 4inch QF gun on 'X' turret where each member of the gun's crew, wearing asbes-tos-impregnated anti-flash gear, waited. We were in

continuous touch with the bridge where our Captain, Lieutenant-Commander G.C. Potter, RN, DSC, and Rear Admiral Tennant issued orders through Versatile' s intercom systems. The armada continued to plough steadily through the gentle swell of the previous night's storm in the Atlantic until, about halfway across the Channel, there was a huge flash and explosion directly ahead of us.

Our sister ship HMS Wrestler had hit a mine. As we closed to offer assistance we could just see that her whole bow section and fo'c'stle had disappeared ... but, thanks to her watertight compartments and damage control systems, she remained afloat. Home astern She signalled that there had been some loss of life but didn' t require assistance and intended to return to Portsmouth steaming astern to reduce the pressure on the watertight bulkheads below the bridge. She made it back to port but the damage was so extensive she was subsequently scrapped. The first light of dawn on Tuesday 6 June revealed

the low-lying coastline of occupied France. The big 16-inch, 15inch, 14-inch and 8-inch guns of the battleships and cruisers were the first to open fire on what seemed to be a sleepy countryside and, as the range got closer, the smaller 4-inch and 4.5inch guns aboard the destroyers, sloops and frigates joined in the rising crescendo of sound as salvo after salvo was fired at predetermined targets on the ground. Overhead, squadrons of fighter and bombers - among them my older brother in his Hurricane - roared towards the coast to attack the German coastal batteries.

Though initially taken by surprise (Field-Marshal Rommel was actually in Berlin!), the soon-to-be-heard whistle of shells and spouts of water throughout the invasion fleet indicated that the enemy defences were beginning to put up some resistance and several vessels were hit. HMS Versatile was not one of them. But it was sometimes difficult to tell which were hit or deliberately sunk because many older merchant vessels had been loaded with demolition charges and were being scuttled together with huge concrete caissons (which still litter the beach today) to form the breakwater for the Mulberry harbour.

The permanently-sited coastal batteries with their large calibre guns which had earlier been identified and pin-pointed by Allied photo reconnaissance were sooii put out of action - at least on the British and Canadian fronts - but it was the 88mm guns on the German Tiger tanks which, because of their mobility, began to do the damage as our troops and landing craft approached the beaches. Eyed the Tigers From HMS Versatile as we ranged back and forth only a few hundred yards from the coast we could see the Tiger tanks racing out of nearby woodlands and across the rolling countryside behind the small townships of Ouistreham, Courseulles and Arromanches to fire off a few rounds before retreating as the overwhelming firepower of the Allied navies found their range. One of the most effective and impressive shortrange weapons in the Allied armoury was a multiple rocket launcher which we had only seen previously on film from the Russian front. But where the Russian and German versions of this weapon launched up to a dozen or 20 projectiles from small mobile batteries, the British and American na-

vies had mounted up to 400 of the rocket mortars on specially adapted landing craft. The simultaneous launching of 400 proj ectiles from these rocket ships was a sight not easily forgotten ... the effect when they landed with a massive 'crump' was to completely saturate and obliterate the target area. While enemy gunfire from the shore was soon subdued as the ground battle moved inland casualties continued among the invasion fleet due, in the most part, to the German 'Oys- - ter' mines which were extremely difficult to detect and clear. Unlike the more familiar floating mine anchored in deep water they were 'sown' on the sea bed in shallow water. They were activated by the change in water pressure produced by the vessel above but they could be 'programmed' to explode not when the first vessel passed over them but only after several had passed unwittingly and harmlessly through the danger zone. For this reason they remained a potential threat along the entire beachhead for several weeks. It was just such a mine that accounted for the destroyer HMS Fury. Hit and in danger of sinking, HMS Continued on page 9

A midshipman remembers D-Day

Continued from page 8 Fury ' s captain headed for shore and ran her aground on the rocky beach below the steep cliffs at Arromanche where she was to lie for several months. About a dozen of us from Versatile took the ship' s whaler and rowed ashore to have a closer look at the damaged destroyer and it was while walking on the beach that I found a Luger pistol, abandoned by a German officer, which accompanied me until the end of the war. On that first 'longest day' we had expected attacks from the Luftwaffe as well as the E-boats, U-boats and German destroyers we knew to be based in Le Havre and Cherbourg once they had recovered from their initial surprise. But, thanks to the complete superiority of the Allied airforces over and around the beachhead, there was little or no enemy air or naval activity by day though the battle between ground forces on and behind the beaches was intense. British & Canadian progress It soon became apparent to us that the British and Canadian forces were making progress as the signs and sounds of battle moved inland but it was a different story in the American Omaha and Utah sectors. While the Sword, Juno and Gold beachheads comprised small seaside villages and cultivated farmland the Omaha beachhead consisted of steep cliffs to the east and tussock-covered sand dunes to the west while, further west - where the Americans in the Utah sector were trying to drive across the Carentan peninsula to cut off the main German garrison and naval base in Cherbourg - they encountered the low-lying coastal swamps and estuary of the River Rive. The German forces on the cliffs and high ground behind Omaha had a commanding view of the American Ranger battalions below and it was obvious to us aboard Versatile that, from the number of sunken vessels and abandoned equipment along the shoreline, the American hold on their beachheads was tenuous and their position precarious. In addition to patrolling the beachhead to check progress

on the Mulberry harbour we also made quick dashes back across the Channel to our base in Portsmouth - a 3 -hour trip at 30 knots - to refuel, replenish stores and ammunition and to enable the war correspondents aboard to file their stories and film. While enemy activity was almost non-existent by day it was a different story at night. In those northern latitudes it wouldn' t get dark until late but, from about midnight until dawn the Luftwaffe and German naval forces would occasionally venture out in small numbers under cover of darkness from Le Havre and Cherbourg to attack the eastern and western flanks of the invasion fleet. From the bridge of HMS Versatile we could see this nightly activity begin when flashes of distant gunfire followed by streams of coloured tracer and exploding antiaircraft shells and flares, at either end of this 40-mile long beachhead crammed with 5000 ships, would signal an attempted intrusion. The E-boats never penetrated deeply - perhaps thanks to the German-speaking telegraphist on board - but a single German fighter or bomber would sometimes attempt to fly over the invasion armada. Five thousand guns The sight and sound of anti-aircraft fire from more than 5,000 guns - including several of our own - was an unforgettable spectacle and one which, hopefully, will never be seen again. As the battle ashore continued and moved further inland - and therefore further out of the range of guns aboard the smaller naval vessels - it was left to the Allied navies ' capital ships to lay down a protecti ve curtain of fire ahead of the advancing ground forces. After about a week it was noted that the battleships were firing their 8,10 and 1 2-gun salvos at ever-increasing elevation and, some time later, they were pounding enemy positions in and around the city of Caen some 1 5-20 miles inland at maximu'm elevation. Anyone who has seen and heard, at close quarters as we did aboard Versatile, a 42,000 ton battleship firing a full salvo at maximum elevation cannot fail to be impressed as first the flash and roar of the guns is followed by a thunderlike rumble as up to a dozen projectiles tear through the different layers of air thousands of feet above the ground

to end with a dull thud a minute or so later as the salvo of 16-inch shells hit their distant and unseen target. In fact we soon learned to steer well clear of any capital ship preparing to fire a full salvo ... the blast and pressure waves alone would cause temporary deafness. We began to spend more and more time in 'commuting' between Normandy and Portsmouth as our passenger Admiral Tennanf s supervisory role over the now well-established Mulberry harbour eased and he could see that thousands of tons of supplies were getting ashore each day. It was while we were relaxing at our anchorage in the Solent one late June evening that we heard and saw for the first time a new and most unusual 'aircraft' . Continued next week.