D-Day Royal Marines

They Were Everywhere And In Everything

The previous page was: "Commando"

On that never-to-be-forgotten day of 6th June 1944, more Royal Marines went into action together than on any previous occasion in the long history of the Corps.

Twenty-thousand were eventually engaged in the operations in Western Europe. Ten-thousand took part in the D-Day assault itself. Their deeds belong to the history of the Allied Expeditionary Force, historians will still be busy when the sons and grandsons of men who fought on D-Day have passed away.

The story of Royal Marines cannot be told as a single adventure, for they were everywhere and in everything, forming valuable links in that long chain that stretched from shore base to the battle front. Each link performed its part resolutely in the face of adversity.

Commando

They Left Their Mark

They Earned Their Share Of The Final Triumph

Some idea of the immense variety of tasks assigned to the Royal Marine Corps during the invasion can be obtained from the number of units formed, wholly or in part, of Marines.

They included the vast armada of landing craft of all sorts and descriptions, the R.M. Armoured Support Group (still in existence today), the Landing Craft Obstruction Clearance Units, the Royal Marine Engineers.

Fleet Marines manned their usual gun-turrets in the larger ships of battle whose terrific bombardments, combined with hell from the air, was the prelude to the landings.

Ashore five Royal Marine Commando Units, Nos. 41, 45, 46, 47, and 48, took part in the assault. In addition, several hundred Marines were employed in the Navy's land organisation in the Assault Area as signallers, drivers, provosts and guards.

Men In The Little Ships went In First

At least two thirds of the great fleet of Landing Craft Assault (LCA) that carried the infantry to the beaches were manned by Royal Marines.

It was in a very real sense a test of individual skill, for, however small it may be, a craft at sea is a command and its crew a team, share its tasks with other craft, but always facing its own troubles and dangers. And the troubles and dangers of warfare were great.

The high seas, which had already caused the postponement of D-Day for twenty-four hours, had not subsided, and many of the troops were sea-sick. As they drew near to the beaches, the assault craft had to dodge the mines, the sharp stakes, and other obstacles with which an ingenious enemy had sought to block the approaches.

Two Illustrated Incidents

These illustrations show the spirit with which the Marines assured the fulfilment of their heavy responsibilities. Of the many individual exploits of the men in the assault craft the performance of Corporal George Tandy, coxswain of L.C.A. 786, and at the time he was only nineteen, is surely unique.

His part in the invasion was to act for four hours as a human rudder. While his landing craft was being lowered from its parent ship in a heavy sea, its steering wheel got carried away. There were thirty-two soldiers in that craft.

It was the sacred duty of the crew to land them, and in such a sea there was only one way to do it. So, slipping over the stern, George Tandy stood with one foot on the rudder guard and guided the rudder with the other.

The beach was seven miles away; but Tandy stuck to his self appointed task and, steering his craft through a forrest of mines, brought her under fire into the beach and landed his troops punctually at the precise spot.

Having taken his chance and kept his time, the Marine corporal turned his craft and, acting again as a human rudder, made the seven mile run back to his parent ship, this time against wind and sea.

Numb and bruised, but still game, still protesting that he had done no more than his comrades would have done, he was carried much against his will to the sick bay.

So Typical Of Many

The other incident reveals the amphibian qualities of the Royal Marine. Sergeant Cecil Hunter, whose L.C.A. had been damaged, was compelled to take to the beaches with his crew.

At once he appointed himslf messenger between the captain of a Sherman tank and a Canadian sergeant-major. Only thirty yards of beach separated the sergeant-major from the tank.

But it was open beach, yet not open, for it was drenched with the fire of guns and mortars and snipers rifles. Across the death-trap Sergeant Hunter crawled four times to deliver messages, and survived to receive the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.

From those same shores in 1740 the French attempted an invasion of England.

Its Hard To Imagine The Scene

The preliminary air and naval bombardments helped materially to ensure the success of the landings, but the defences on the beaches themselves were not destroyed as completely as had been hoped.

Perhaps the general picture can best be realised from the detailed description of a single Landing Craft assault which, while trying to avoid a mine, was rammed by a Landing Craft Tank below the water-line.

Bungs had been prepared for such an emergency, but the hole was so jagged the water poured in fast and the craft started listing. The Marine coxswain called for full speed ahead on both engines,only to be told that the starboard engine was burnt out.

At this moment another craft coming off the crowded beach, collided with the damaged L.C.A. and knocked it broadside on. At last the hapless craft righted herself and drove in close to the beach.

The troops leapt out into three feet of water and, as they struggled ashore, the surf swept the lightened craft against a mine. Miraculously no one was killed, and, keeping low as snipers' bullets whistled over them, the crew waded ashore to find more work.

After helping to tend the wounded and to erect beach signs to guide other craft still to come, they were ordered to board any outgoing craft that they could find.

Eventually they went in one carrying wounded, and until they reached the ship the coxswain was still carrying on with what he called: "a bit of first aid".

Multiply these incidents by a hundred others, and you will have some idea of the difficulties encountered by the assault craft in their task of landing the Allied Expeditionary Force.

Behind The L.C.A.s Came The Small Craft

Their task was to bring in the supplies for the Normandy bridge-head. These craft were manned entirely by Marines, and were amongst the smallest to cross the hundred miles of Channel under their own power for the D-day landings.

They included scores of Landing Craft Vehicle, flat-nosed and under thirty-seven feet in length, and Landing Craft Mechanised, which were larger but equally flattened vessels.

For such frail craft the crossing in a high sea was not only a perilous but a most uncomfortable adventure, but their crews were sustained by the thought; that in the orchards of Normandy Royal Marines of the Commandos were struggling for a foothold, and, as a Marine officer in an L.C.V. put it, they delivered the goods the men needed to the correct places.

When the crossing was completed, the L.C.M.s and L.C.V.s began their task of working the ferry service off and onto the beach. Taxi-work the Marines called it, and for weeks they worked their sea-taxis in the worst possible conditions of weather, discomfort and with exposure to attack.

The powerful fleet of Landing Craft Gun, Landing Craft Flak and Landing Craft Support not only had Royal Marine crews; all of the large guns were manned by Royal Marines, they gave invaluable protection to the landings.

In General Eisenhower's Official Report

The lightness of our losses at sea and in the anchorages compared with the number of ships involved is the best measure of the success with which the Allied navies held the enemy at bay from the invasion area.

But the greatest credit belongs to the men of the little ships, and of that credit a large share falls to the Royal Marines who manned many of them and provided the gun-crews for so many others.

Before Battle Could Commence

First came the Landing Craft Obstruction Clearance Units they were among the first men to set foot on the beaches. These units were composed partly of naval personnel and partly of Marines of the Royal Marine Engineer Commando, and their task was to clear the beaches for the waves of landing craft.

It was a difficult and highly dangerous job, for it was at this time that German fire on the beaches was at its worst. It was also carried out with remarkable speed and efficiency and with great success.

Artillery And Gunners

Equally important was the D-Day contribution of the Royal Marine Armoured Support Group. Like most of the Royal Marine formations, it was an improvised creation, perhaps the largest required of the Corps during the war.

Formed from the artillery of the disbanded R.M. Division, it began its life as the Royal Marine Support Craft Regiment and was given the task of manning the guns of Landing Craft Tank, an improvised craft in which were mounted Centaur tanks with 95-mm, gun-howitzers.

The role assigned to the Regiment was to fire its guns on the run-in, then to beach and from the gun platform provided by the beached landing craft to supply artillery support in the earliest stage of the landings before the normal field and self-propelld regiments of the Royal Artillery could be expected ashore.

In February 1944 The Plan Was Altered

It was then decided that the tanks should remain mobile. This meant that the Marines should drive them ashore and operate them as self propelled artillery.

With commendable speed, for time was uncomfortably short, the Regiment was re-organised as the Armoured Support Group, and at H-hour on D-day two regiments and an independent battery, with Lieutenant-Colonel J. Harvey as their senior officer, went into action.

They were the first Royal Marine formation ever to fight in tanks and their job was to break the crust of the enemy's defences. Intended solely for preliminary support, they were instructed to limit their action to a week ashore and not to advance more than one mile from the beach.

So useful was the support given by the tank guns that the Armoured Support Group remained ashore for fifteen days, and operated up to ten-miles inland.

The Marines of the Armoured Support Group were highly commended for their work, but the greatest satisfaction was the timely and invaluable support which they gave to their comrades in the Royal Marines Commandos during the street fighting in the coastal towns and villages.

Royal Marine Engineers

Although their work belongs to a later period than D-Day, the R.M. Engineers did a splended job in restoring with remarkable rapidity the captured ports along the Normandy coast.

In this task their previuos experience in rehabilitating demolished harbours in North Africa and Italy and in creating order out of incredible chaos was of the greatest value.

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The Prime Minister's Visit

Between D-day and the capture of Le Havre on 12th September 1944, some 2,200,000 men, approximately 4,000,000 tons of stores and more than 450,000 vehicles were landed in France, and of this vast total a large proportion passed through the Arromanches using the Mulberry harbour.

The Mulberries were prefabricated ports composed of huge concrete blockships and floating piers. They were made in Britain and towed over to the beaches of Arromanches-les-Bains; they made a huge landing platform that went out into the deeper-waters of the Channel, and, gave the protection of a harbour.

There were other Marines besides the ferry service men at Arromanches. The Mulberry run by the Navy had its Naval Port Party, and seventy-five per cent, of it were Royal Marines.

When Winston Churchill came over from England to inspect the Mulberry, Captain J.P. Kelly, R.M., the commanding officer of the Port Party, had the honour of escorting him.

The Prime Minister refused to ride in the staff car which had been provided for him. "Haven't you got a jeep?" he asked. So conjuring up a jeep with Marine magic, Captain Kelly drove the Prime Minister over the floating pontoons.

For once Mr Churchill was not smoking, and when they drove passed some Marines one shouted to him; "Winnie, Where's your cigar?" Relaxing with a broad smile, he gave the "V" sign amid tremendous cheers. The Royal Marines had good reason to love him for he loved them.

It is the peculiar virtue of courage that in its purest form it is accompanied by humaness and kindness; and in a very high degree the Royal Marines possess all three qualities.

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