The American sector
New releases, new junctions
West of Carentan, surrounded by the marshes of the Douve and Gorges, the village of Baupte was liberated in the early morning by the 508th Parachute Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, which had managed to cross the Douve River at Beuzeuville-au-Plain during the night. In the evening, the 82nd Airborne Division made one of the junctions with elements of the 101st Airborne Division at Baupte. For their part, by liberating the village of Montmartin-en-Graignes on the left bank of the Vire River, the paratroopers of the 327th Regiment (101st Airborne) made another junction with infantrymen of the 29th Infantry Division from Omaha. In the Carentan sector, these two junctions further consolidated the reunion of the two American bridgeheads.
The liberation of Caumont-L'éventé
The 2nd Infantry Division captured Trévières during the night of the 9th to the 10th before advancing into the Cerisy Forest, which had been cleared during the day. On June 10th, the road was almost clear for the GIs of the 1st and 2nd American Infantry Divisions between Elle and Tilly-sur-Seulles. On the Saint-Lô/Villers-Bocage line stood the village of Caumont-L'Evente. The 1st Division, which had suffered greatly on June 6th on Omaha Beach, rushed into the breach and entered Caumont-L'Eventé, 30 km inland. Since June 6th, this was the strongest Allied advance made in a week on the Normandy front.
The fall of the Ozeville battery
East of Montebourg, a strongpoint was built by the Germans at Ozeville. This battery had been resisting assaults by the 9th Infantry Division since June 4. To capture this position, General Barton formed a combat group with the 22nd Infantry Regiment and two tank battalions. The assault was launched on June 10, but the Kiel combat group, which was defending the pillboxes, gave nothing away, even benefiting from the support of the guns of the Crisbecq battery. The next day's attack was again a failure. Finally, the third attempt was successful on June 3. The assault was launched after an artillery and air bombardment. The village and the pillboxes were captured around noon. An American officer, who came to present himself to the German garrison to discuss the terms of surrender, was shot dead. In retaliation, the American infantrymen took no prisoners that day at Ozeville.
Distinguished visitors off the coast of Omaha
On June 12, an American destroyer, the USS Thompson DD-627, arrived off the coast of Omaha around 10:00 a.m. On board, a delegation of top-ranking American military leaders prepared to disembark. Behind SHAEF Commander General Eisenhower were General Marshall, Chairman of the General Staff; General Arnold, Commander of the US Air Force; and Admiral King, Commander of the US Navy. Disembarking at Le Ruquet on Omaha Beach, and greeted by General Bradley, among others, the delegation boarded staff vehicles for a tour of the sector along the coast toward Isigny-sur-Mer. After a stop at the A1 airfield in Saint-Pierre du Mont, the convoy went to the forward headquarters of the 1st US Army for lunch, before going to discover the famous Pointe du Hoc cannons found in an orchard. The convoy then passes through ruined Isigny and Formigny before returning to Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer and Omaha Beach. Behind Eisenhower, the delegation leaves around 17:00 p.m. aboard the USS Thompson for a return to Plymouth that evening.
The Anglo-Canadian sector
A new British division on the front
Having fought in Norway in 1940 and then in Iceland, the British 49th Infantry Division returned to Great Britain for a period of intensive training. The unit landed in Normandy on June 12 under the command of Major General Baker. The next day, it was sent to the Cristot sector, deep in the Normandy bocage, in the Tilly-sur-Seulles sector. To break through the firmly held German resistance lines there, it entered the fray alongside the 50th Infantry Division from June 16.
Winston Churchill in Normandy
On the eve of D-Day, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had decided to take his place aboard the D-Day armada. Dissuaded by the king himself, he postponed his plan and embarked on June 12th aboard the destroyer HMS Kelvin, crossed the Channel, and arrived off Courseulles in the middle of the morning. Transferred to a Duckw (amphibious truck), he disembarked at the breach of Graye-sur-mer before being welcomed ashore by Field Marshal Montgomery himself, accompanied by General Smuts and Sir Alan Brooke. He then went to his host at the Château de Creullet, met General Dempsey, before inspecting the coast aboard a barge with Admiral Vian. Churchill would later admit that he wanted to be as close as possible to the fighting.
New attack on Bréville
On the front held by British paratroopers in front of Bréville, the 5th Black Watch of the 51st Division had encountered fierce German opposition the day before. The 12th Parachute Battalion of General Gale's 6th Airborne was called in to take over and attempt to break this dangerous salient. For this attack, the battalion was reinforced with a few tanks from the 13th/18th Royal Hussars. During the assault launched from Amfreville in the evening, Company D of the Devonshire Battalion suffered terrible losses, with 162 paratroopers, including Colonel Johnson, being killed. The Germans were pushed back, but the village, which would be liberated the next day, was nothing more than a pile of ruins, completely ravaged by armored fire, artillery fire, and naval shells from the cruiser Arethusa. On the German side, 78 grenadiers of the 857th regiment were killed in these battles.
The 48th RMC retakes Sallenelles
On the eastern bank of the Orne estuary, the 45th Royal Marine Commando (Lord Lovat's 1st Commando Brigade) captured Sallenelles on the evening of June 6 but had to withdraw from the village on the 7th to position itself further south towards L'Ecarde. Located north of the 6th Airborne Division's drop zone, Sallenelles was recaptured during the night of June 12-13 by the 48th Royal Marine Commando, which, with reinforcements from the 47th RMC, had just seized the heights of La Perruque. Deserted by the Germans, the village of Sallenelles changed hands several times before its final liberation on August 16, 1944, by the Belgian soldiers of the Piron Brigade.
German forces
German Tigers in Normandy
45 Tiger tanks appeared on the Normandy front on June 12. They belonged to Colonel von Westerhagen's 101st SS Heavy Tank Battalion, which had just arrived from Beauvais, where the unit had been put on alert upon the announcement of the D-Day landings. Before being deployed the next day in the Villers-Bocage sector, the Tiger tank already enjoyed a fine reputation acquired during the fighting in Tunisia during the Desert War against the British. At the same time, the first elements of the vanguard of the 2nd Panzer Division, which left Amiens on June 9, took up positions between Caumont-L'Eventé and Villers-Bocage.
New SS divisions for Normandy
Directed to the Eastern Front in March 1944, General Bittrich's 9th SS Panzer Division was recalled to the West as soon as the D-Day landings were announced. Its objective in Normandy was to counterattack the British and drive them back into the sea. Having been severely tested by the fighting in Poland, the 21-strong division with 000 tanks set out on June 170. It would take more than two weeks to cross France. It would take its first combat on June 12 in the Battle of the Odon to counter Operation Epsom. At the same time, Field Marshal Rommel had secured the return from Poland, where it had been fighting since March 26, of General Harmel's 1944th SS Panzer Division. The unit set out on June 10. It will be integrated with the 12th SS Panzer into the 9nd SS Panzer Corps to fight during the Battle of the Odon.
The Death of General Marcks
One of the few German army commanders to realize that the Allied landings in Normandy were not a diversion, General Erich Marcks, who lost an eye during the First World War and had a leg amputated during Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, had commanded the 1943th Army Corps from his command post in Saint-Lô since August 84. Since June 6, Marcks had made a habit of inspecting his troops as close to the fighting as possible. That day, near Hébécrevon, he was mortally wounded by gunfire from an American fighter-bomber while driving in his car on the road between Saint-Lô and Périers. Before being replaced at his post by von Choltitz, General Fahrmbacher, who had arrived in haste from Brittany, temporarily took over as head of the 84th Corps.
Civilians in war
Aunay-sur-Odon, a village wiped off the map
By deciding to bypass the defenses of Tilly-sur-Seulles and pass through Villers-Bocage to reach Caen, the Allies placed the village of Aunay-sur-Odon in their combat sector. This peaceful village constitutes an important road junction in a hilly, wooded region. As part of the destruction of road junctions, Montgomery therefore decided to bomb Aunay-sur-Odon by Royal Air Force planes. Aunay was bombed for the first time on June 12th at 6:30 a.m. The center of the village was completely destroyed. Around a hundred civilian victims perished under the bombs. A second wave completed the destruction of the village during the night of June 14th to 15th, 1944. A total of 200 civilians lost their lives in Aunay-sur-Odon.
Caen, still under bombs and shells
Since the D-Day landings, there has been no respite for the people of Caen, who are at the heart of the battle. Bombing raids on the city are daily, sometimes several a day. On June 12, shortly before midnight, 348 Halifaxes and 285 Lancasters guided by about thirty Mosquitos appeared in the skies above Caen, targeting the bridges over the Orne. Around a hundred bombs fell on the city. The city center was hit again, while incendiary bombs started several fires in the city. Two hours later, naval artillery took over. HMS Nelson and HMS Ramillies fired their 380 and 406mm shells from the open sea, 22km from Caen. Civilians were buried in the quarries of the Fossés Saint-Julien, while the Lefebvre Barracks within the castle walls was pulverized. That day, 77 people from Caen were killed or missing.
