Graham Walker

For the last two weeks two members of the CI Veteran’s Association have written articles highlighting a few key points about the Second World War as they affected so many millions of people.

This is a reprint of an article that was erroneously attributed to Lt. Col. Larry Rotchell. It was actually an account given by Veteran Graham Walker.

In 1944 the Second World War had been raging for a long time. For the British since September 1939 and for the Americans since December 1941. Over the years German forces had been rebuffed in North Africa and the allied forces were moving slowly northwards in Italy. However, it was necessary for landings be made on the coast of France.

The allied leadership well knew the maxim – never attack anyone unless you know you are going to win. The plan was to land over two million soldiers successfully on French soil with tanks, guns and all of the paraphernalia that would be needed to support them as well. Almost total control of the air would be necessary to safeguard the largest collection of warships of every conceivable description that would land.

You can easily google to get the main story of how Operation Overlord, code name D-Day, was planned, so perhaps a few insights might make a difference to your understanding and encourage you to do so.

The allied armies were British, Canadian and American with a few other nationalities for good measure. There were five main landing zones adjacent to each other on the Normandy coast. Opposing them was a heavily fortified defence network called the Atlantic Wall set in place by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, a much-respected soldier. Respected by the British as well as by the Germans. The overall German commander was Field Marshall Rundstedt. On the allied side was British General Montgomery with American General Eisenhower as overall commander.

Deception is the name of the game in war. It was imperative that the Germans should believe that the landing would be on the Pas de Calais. This was only a short distance from the English coast rather than was the case in Normandy. All manner of deception was used including the dropping of small pieces of kitchen foil, code named Window, from the air in a precisely laid slowly moving pattern across the sea to fool the German radar into thinking that thousands of ships were heading towards the Pas de Calais.

The first soldiers on French soil were British gliders and paratroopers dropped to capture and hold the Orne River bridges as these would be needed by the allies when they advanced. This attack was successful.

At dawn the landing craft started to come ashore with cruisers and battleships shelling the German defences. Most of the landings were difficult and there were heavy casualties. On one of the American beaches the level of casualties was terribly high, up to ten per cent.

Over the period of the next few weeks the invading forces managed to break out and slowly head in towards Belgium, Holland and eventually Germany itself.

We often hear the words these days of collateral damage. This refers to innocent people being injured or killed. In 1944 the word was “Tough”. Soon after the landing a German heavy tank division was found to be located in the French town of Caen. The Royal Air Force went in and reeked havoc on the tanks, but at the same time killing very large numbers of French civilians. Up to twenty thousand lost their lives.

In 1957, the writer was in Caen and without knowing the dangers, he was in British Army uniform but with a Royal Air Force tunic. (It was one of those units!). He was chased out of town and if he had been caught would not be writing this article.

How do you go about supporting such a large invasion force with inadequate local harbour and dock facilities?

The answer was to take your own harbour with you! How?

Build one hundred and forty hollow concrete blocks each two hundred feet long, fifty feet wide and equally high. Make them totally waterproof, but with valves in the bottom. Tow them across the English Channel, put them in position and open the seacocks. Let them settle on the sea floor, link them together and you now have a Mulberry harbour. Two of these were put in place. One was severely damaged in a storm two weeks later. One was in place twenty years later, but at the time of the invasion it allowed cargo ships to offload essential war material.

In the late fifties the British Army Staff College re-enacted the invasion, but obviously on a smaller scale. The purpose was to teach student staff officers some of the problems they might face in their subsequent careers. The writer’s unit was ordered to give these students flights at low level over each of the battle areas. We actually had to make it realistic for ourselves by going ashore from a tank landing craft (LCT) on the beach! OK, we only had to take trucks and light aircraft ashore and there werre no enemy guns firing at us. It was interesting especially when a staff car slid off the ramp and into the sea. The danger was not from the car falling, but from the very angry Commanding Officer.

On one flight the college student, a major, was telling the pilot I was with that an attack in 1944 came from this direction, pointing to his map. “No,” said the Staff Sergeant pilot, “it was from over there”. “Are you arguing with me?” said the major. “Yes, “ said the pilot, “In 1944 I was down there on the xxxx ground and in the thick of it”.

The casualties were terrible on both sides, but there was a lot of respect given to opposing combatants. The following story may explain this further. The writer was leading a party of soldiers and airmen in a remote part of north Germany in the late fifties, twelve years after the war. We had been out for days longer that we had expected and had little money left. We pooled it together and found we had enough for a beer each at a pleasant looking gasthaus. These beers were ordered and a girl came with a tray of glasses. That was the end of the money. A few minutes later she was back with another tray of drinks. “Nein, wir haben kein geld”. She smiled and pointed to an old man against the wall. The old man smiled and raised his glass. He was called over and he explained he did not often see English soldiers in that area, he hadn’t seen many since the war. Then, he said, they had been in his gun sight. His machine gun had taken the lives of many Englishmen. “Were you or any of your comrades injured?” He smiled and took off his cap and there on the back of his head was an indentation big enough to put a golf ball. “Damn English hand grenade,” he said. He smiled again and raised his glass and said, “Prost!”

It is hoped that these different segments will help you to build up an understanding of war and the sacrifices that were made by men and women in those days. To them we owe our freedom that enables us today to choose how we live. Thank your good fortune that we live in a democracy and not under the rule of a dictatorship. Think of a country run as a dictatorship.

Would you care to live there?

Treat your good fortune with reverence; a high price was paid for it.