The easternmost beach of the Normandy landings, Sword Beach, was between Juno Beach and the Orne River. The British 3rd Infantry Division was the main force to secure the beach, along with British Commandos and a detachment of Free French soldiers. Their objectives were to secure a beach-head, link up with the British paratroopers at the Orne and Caen Canal bridges, and capture the city of Caen.
The Germans offered relatively weak resistance; the British were inland by 0800. By 1300, the British had linked up with the paratroopers at the Orne River and were on their way to Caen.
The opening of the armour plated door won’t be a piece of cake. The first charge of six pounds of dynamite on the hinges of the upper half-door will have very few effects. Bob ORRELL and his men will then try to unhang the door with the help of a sledgehammer and a mine bar without success. They used another charge of ten pounds of high explosives, which pushed the door toward the inside of the Bunker. It will be necessary to penetrate the Bunker.
But yet will they have another surprise! As they will get inside the filter room with their oil lamps, they stumbled over two boxes of hand grenades, left there by the germans. They also discovered a massive arsenal stocked in this room. Suddenly, a voice told them in a perfect english : “it’s alright tommy, you can come up.” Sceptic, BOB ORRELL answered :”bugger off, you come down!”. This is how 51 german soldiers and two officers surrendered to one british officer and three of his men.
Yet was Ouistreham fully liberated.GERMAN D-DAY COUNTERATTACKS: Field Marshal Rommel had always insisted that if the Allies attacked, the only way to defeat them was with a mobile counterattack within the first 48 hours. However, prior to D-DAY he had returned to southern Germany for his wifes birthday which was June 6. If he was in Normandy, it is believed a more coordinated counterattack would have taken place. Instead, only two major counterattacks occurred, one by Kampfgruppe Meyer under the LXXXIV Corps was ordered back and forth from Omaha to Gold Beach, eventually overwhelmed during an attack on the British 69th Brigade fromThe easternmost beach of the Normandy landings, Sword Beach, was between Juno Beach and the Orne River. The British 3rd Infantry Division was the main force to secure the beach, along with British Commandos and a detachment of Free French soldiers. Their objectives were to secure a beach-head, link up with the British paratroopers at the Orne and Caen Canal bridges, and capture the city of Caen.
The Germans offered relatively weak resistance; the British were inland by 0800. By 1300, the British had linked up with the paratroopers at the Orne River and were on their way to Caen.
