D-Day: ‘The Longest Day’
D-Day 1944
In 1944, the plan to set on foot on French soil for the first time since defeat at Dunkirk in 1940 is closely guarded. Operation Neptune describes the landing plan, taking place over a 50-mile front divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. The land operations which followed were known as Operation Overlord.
British and American Airborne forces land in the dead of night on the 5th June at Ranville and St Mère Èglise respectively. They protect the flanks of the Allied invasion force from German counterattacks.
The initial invasion goes well, except at Omaha beach where American troops struggle against heavy German defences. Taken by surprise, the Germans are unable to adapt to the new threat. Combined with the bravery and determination of the Allied forces, a defensible area is established, and German forces are driven back.
Two Green Howard battalions took part in the invasion – the 6th and the 7th Battalions. The 6th Battalion land of Gold Beach, clearing their objectives and securing the beach in less than an hour. The 7th Battalion follows suit, and land two hours later.
The first day, known as ‘the longest day’, is a success.
“Lots of people think we were trained for D-Day. We didn’t train for D-Day. We did only our basic training, then learnt how to fire a rifle, a Sten gun, Tommy gun, a Bren gun, different weapons, you know. What would you say, ten minutes to look at each weapon, you know, and fire it, and that was all”
Ken Cooke
In the air
The 10th Battalion Green Howards converts to become parachute troops in June 1943 to become 12th (Yorkshire) Parachute Regiment. Many of these men had never been in an aeroplane before becoming trainee paratroopers. They dropped into France at Ranville late on 5th June.
Their task was to capture the bridge over the Orne Canal at Ranville. A successful German counterattack here, before the invasion force have chance to fight their way off the beaches, will jeopardise the entire plan.
Men of the 12th (Yorkshire) Parachute Regiment capture and hold the bridge at Ranville, denying the Germans the chance to challenge the invasion during this first critical and most vulnerable period.
Aerial photograph showing a section of beach between Saint-Come-de-Fresne and Asnelles, Saint-Come-de-Fresne is visible along the right hand side of the photograph, 30th April 1944, marked up with defences identified as of 14th May 1944
On the beach
The 6th Battalion Green Howards are tasked with clearing Gold Beach. The beach is covered in bunkers and pillboxes, as well as being protected by artillery and minefields on the ridge behind the beach. Men are weighed down with kit and are dropped into deep water, so tragedy strikes at the very moment of landing.
Once on the beach, the command structure remains strong despite casualties. Captain Freddie Honeyman leads A Company across the beach into the German positions despite his wounds.
Forty-eight minutes after boots first hit the sand, the Green Howards clear their beach objectives. Major Claude MacDonald radios London with the news. Hitler’s vaunted Atlantic Wall is breached.
The Mont Fleurey Battery above the Normandy beach, taken by the British on D-Day, June 6th 1944
Read Major Sandy Boyle's poem, written shortly after landing on Gold Beach
'Knowing the love of God, I fear not death'
If I should never see the moon again
Rising red gold across the harvest field,
Or feel the stinging of soft April rain
As the brown earth her hidden treasures yield.
If I should never taste the salt sea spray
As the ship beats her course against the breeze,
Or smell the dog rose and the new mown hay,
Or moss and primrose beneath the trees.
If I should never hear the thrushes wake
Long before the sunrise in the glittering dawn,
Or watch the huge Atlantic rollers break
Against the rugged cliffs in baffling scorn.
If I have said goodbye to stream and wood,
To the wide ocean and the green-clad hills,
I know that He who made this world so good
Has somewhere made a heaven better still.
This bear I witness with my latest breath
Knowing the love of God, I fear not death.
“Every time they started to run up, they put their feet in the sand and went straight back down again, it’s quite true, and the Sergeant Major and I found ourselves standing there walking along slowly towards the enemy line, and he said, ‘What we gonna do, Sir’, and I said, ‘I suppose we better go on until somebody fires’”
George Young
In the bocage
Taken by surprise by the landings on the Normandy coast, the Germans quickly organize stiff resistance. For centuries, the fields of Normandy have been bordered by high banks and hedgerows, known as bocage.
The Germans skillfully use these natural defences to slow the Allied advance, which is measured in yards rather than the larger distances hoped for. By holding the Allied advance back, the Germans buy time to reinforce better prepared defensive lines.
The Allied command knows that, if they break the German resistance in the Bocage, the road to Paris will be open.
CSM Stanley Hollis VC stood with Gold Beach behind him describing his actions on D-Day during a staff College battle tour, 1968
Painting of CSM Stanley Hollis by Jacob Kramer. Credit - Estate of John David Roberts. By permission of the Treasury Solicitor.
Company Sergeant Major Stanley Hollis VC
The only soldier awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry, for action on D-Day.
On 6th June, Stan, along with men of the 6th Battalion, climb into their landing craft and sail for Gold Beach. After landing on the beach, he and his company commander investigate two German pillboxes. Upon seeing them intact and occupied by the enemy, Stan rushes the pillbox, firing his Sten gun. He then jumps on top of the pillbox, throws a grenade inside and captures it. Two German soldiers are killed in the attack and Stan takes the remaining soldiers prisoner.
Later that day in the village of Crepon, Stan takes two men with him to investigate reports of a German field gun in the grounds of a farmhouse. Stan and his men attack the gun but are driven off. Stan gets away but realizes that the other two men are trapped. Without hesitation, he goes forward alone, distracting the German soldiers, who instead begin to fire at him. Under the cover of his diversion, the two
men are able to get to safety.
Stan was a natural leader who felt a great responsibility towards his men. His actions on the 6th June illustrate this. When asked why he did what he did, he simply replied ‘because I was Green Howard’. He was decorated with the Victoria Cross by King George VI at Buckingham Palace on 10th October 1944. In part, his citation reads:
“Wherever fighting was heaviest CSM Hollis appeared and in the course of a magnificent day’s work he displayed the utmost gallantry and on two separate occasions his courage and initiation prevent the enemy from holding up the advance at critical stages.
It was largely through his heroism and resource that the Company’s objectives were gained and casualties were not heavier and by his own bravery he saved the lives of many of his men”.
Breakout
On the 19th July 1944, Caen is finally captured. This, along with the American successes at Omaha beach, breaks German defences and the push to Paris and the Seine is on. Some days, the Green Howards move 15-20 miles unopposed. Other days the German rearguard use mines and roadblocks, making progress slow.
By August, the Americans from the west and the British and the Canadians from the north operate a pincer movement. The chance to cut off and capture large numbers of German troops, and their equipment, becomes a tantalizing prospect.
Harried by total air superiority and constant allied ground attacks, the German force is decimated. When the remnants of the two German armies stagger across the Seine, they have lost almost 500,000 men. The next stop will be Paris.
A soldier surveying the destruction of buildings in the village and a burnt out German tank at Lingrevres, D-Day + 9, June 1944
“By the time I left the 7th battalion in Normandy, it was quite a collection of men from all sorts of regiments and very little resemblance to what it must have looked like when it set out in 1940, but there were still great characters”
Don Warrener
Listen to the full interview with Ken Cooke about his experiences on D-Day
Discover the stories of the men who fought
Objects from the exhibition
Lifejacket with a belt that can be tied around the body and inflated. These were issued for sea voyages during the Second World War. They are of the type worn during the Normandy Campaign to land of Gold Beach.
9mm Sten Gun mark 2 sub machine gun carbine used by the British Army during the Second World War. This example has a second safety catch when the bolt is forward. There is a hole in the side of the barrel which the bolt handle can be pushed through.
Brown leather jerkin with a tear made by shrapnel on D-Day, with a plastic charm tied to one of the buttons. This particular jacket was worn by Colonel R. J. L. Jackson.
7 medals awarded to Captain Ronald Lofthouse during the Second World War, including Military Cross, 1939-1945 Star, Africa Star 1940-1943, Italy Star 1943-1945, France and Germany Star 1944-1945, Defence Medal 1939-1945 and War Medal 1939-1945.
Letter written by Ronald Lofthouse to his mother, father and sister, Elsie, dated 14th June 1944, informing them of the death of his friend, Freddie Honeyman.
Union flag carried by Major Donald Leslie when he landed on Gold Beach on the 6th June 1944 as part of the liberating forces.
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“Well, you must understand that I came from Middlesbrough, where everyone is connected to the Green Howards somewhere or another…the Green Howard is the be all and end all of the British Army and I was very proud to be a Green Howard. The best moment of my life, best moment of my life was when I was made a Sergeant Major…all these fellas were my mates, I’d lived with them…there wasn’t only me doing these things, there were other people doing them as well, and the things that I did, if I hadn’t done them, somebody else would have”
Stan Hollis