Hello folks, we're at Sword Beach,
the easternmost beach of the five in the Allied plan.
Let's see how the landing happened here,
and why it's main objective, taking over Caen, failed.
The area code-named Sword Beach includes 5 mi (8 km) of coastline
between the towns of Saint-Aubin and Ouistreham.
Like the rest of the Norman coast,
the Allies divided the area in sections name-coded by alphabetical order
in this case: Oboe,
Peter,
Queen and Roger.
The unit in charge of taking over the beach
was the British 3rd Infantry Division,
its 8th Brigade, to be exact;
which took part in the Dunkerque evacuation in May, 1940,
and four years later would have its rematch.
Though Sword Beach included the coastline in between the towns
of Lion-sur-Mer and Ouistreham,
the landing happened here, at the beaches of Hermanville and Colleville.
The 8th Brigade's Infantry landed at 07:25 hrs,
with the support of tanks
The 8th Infantry Brigade,
made out of three battalions,
was organized as follows:
the 1st Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment landed on the Queen White sector,
while the 2nd Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment landed on the Queen Red.
The last unit, the 1st Battalion, Suffolk Regiment,
was on reserve and would go into action once the beach was secured.
This would be possible, like in the Anglo-Canadian beaches,
partly due to the use of Hobart's Funnies
and also thanks to the engineers that jointly opened up the beach's exits.
Besides the infantry,
commando units landed throughout the morning of D-Day.
The 1st Special Service Brigade was led by Scottish General Simon Fraser,
better known by his nobility title: Lord Lovat.
He made sure that the landing of the Green Berets
wouldn't go unnoticed by the Germans.
One of the most memorable chapters in Sword Beach
is represented in this statue.
It's Bill Millin, who landed while playing the bagpipe, as ordered
by his commander, Lord Lovat.
By Millin's own account, he said that the Germans didn't shoot him
because they thought he had gone mad.
While the infantry tried to advance towards Caen,
Sword Beach's main objective,
commando units were to accomplish a series of secondary objectives
but vital, on both flanks.
On the west, the 4th Brigade headed towards Lion-sur-Mer
to try to meet up with the Canadian troops at Juno Beach.
On the east, Lord Lovat's Green Berets attacked Ouistreham.
There were 177 French commandos among its ranks
led by Captain Philippe Kieffer.
First, they attacked the German position over the casino's ruins
of Rivabella, which had been destroyed by the Germans.
At the time, only the foundation was standing.
Today, it's a place of remembrance.
If you saw the movie The Longest Day,
you'll remember the combat scene amid the casino.
But in reality, the building was destroyed
to get a better view of the coast.
It's foundation did house a German fortification,
but not like the one showed in the movie.
By the way, this classic movie was filmed almost entirely
in the same locations in Normandy.
But this scene was recreated in Port-en-Bessin.
If you look closely at this building,
you can still see remains of the posters making it seem that it's Ouistreham.
Let's go back to 1944.
After taking Ouistreham, the commandos went southeast
to make contact with the British 6th Airborne Division,
which had taken the bridges over the river and the Caen Canal.
When they were about to reach Pegasus Bridge,
to avoid being mistaken for enemies, Lord Lovat came up with the idea
to, once again, make an entrance to the tune of Millin's bagpipe.
This is what happened on both ends of Sword Beach,
but its main objective, taking Caen,
was being delayed.
At the beaches, due to the tides rising,
vehicles and soldiers were often stuck;
in addition to a strong German resistance inland.
Like what happened to the 1st Battalion, Suffolk Regiment,
on reserve until that moment.
Soon after going into action
it was stopped at the German fortifications at Hill 61.
Baptized by the British as Hillman Site.
It was the 736th Grenadier Regiment's command post.
Located over a small elevation
and with most of the bunkers buried,
which allowed for the control of the area.
In the Sword Beach zone, this and other German fortifications
were re-baptized with British automotive companies names,
like Morris or as it happens, Hillman.
It was from here that the sector's batteries were coordinated.
In the interior of their positions, geographical references
of the German zone still remained.
With the buried bunkers
they managed to stop the Allied advance throughout D-Day.
Like with this dome, armed with a machine gun
that had three openings to cover the whole zone
and had a well protected interior.
In fact, the British couldn't take control
until the morning of June 7th.
The delay in capturing Hillman Site,
allowed the Germans to set up a solid defense around Caen.
Another thing that could've been fatal for the Allies,
has to do with German tanks.
Because on D-Day the German High Command considered
that the Allied invasion could be just a decoy
for the real landing at another place in Europe
the tanks remained on reserve for a long time.
The only counterattack with tanks launched by the Germans
on June 6th was made at the Sword Beach sector.
The 21st Panzer Division was in charge
and did so in two directions:
one at Pegasus Bridge, repelled by British paratroopers;
and another to the west
where the tanks did manage to break Allied lines
arriving at the coast of Lion-sur-Mer and thus stopping
the union of Juno Beach and Sword Beach.
The advantage didn't last long for the Germans
being surrounded, they ended up leaving.
By nightfall of D-Day, the British accomplished
most of their objectives.
They had control over almost all the coast.
To the Southeast, they had made contact with the paratroopers,
and it wouldn't take long before they did the same on the west, with the Canadians.
But the main objective of the sector, to take Caen,
hadn't been done yet.
The city would remain under German occupation until mid-July.
British casualties at Sword Beach numbered
between 600 to 700, including the dead and wounded.
The landing here was only the first phase.
The Battle of Normandy had just begun.
Until the next episode!
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