- Batterie De Merville
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The Merville battery is a formidable fortification of the German army on the eastern flank of the Allied landings on June 6, 1944. Bombarded several times, without result, it was neutralized by the 9th battalion of British paratroopers after a heroic assault. |
A fully preserved historic site covering several hectares, with an educational trail explaining how the battery worked, the role of each bunker, and how the battery was captured at dawn on 6th June 1944.
According to the aerial photographs made during the preparation of Operation Overlord, the Allies realised that the guns located there would crush any landings on the beaches below and that they would need to be silenced before British and French soldiers begin landing on D-Day.
Throughout the spring of 1944, the Allies bombarded Merville’s battery hoping this would avoid a ground attack, but the bombs had no effect on the 2m thick bunkers covered with sand and clay.
The German garrison was made up of 160 soldiers (80 artillerymen belonging to the first battery of 1716. Artillery Regiment and 50 sappers). On 6 March 1944, exactly three months before the landing, Feldmarschall Rommel visited the site and ordered the acceleration of the work which ended in May 1944: in addition to the casemates, the battery included a 20 mm anti-aircraft gun, fifteen machine-gun positions, a 91-meter wide minefield, an anti-tank ditch and a 1.5-meter-wide, 4.6-meter high barbed wire.
General Eisenhower’s staff took the following decision: a British parachutist commando will silence the battery on the night of D-Day a few hours before the landing on the beaches.
Lieutenant-Colonel Terence Otway was chosen to lead a parachutist commando attack on the Battery with a 700-strong force, belonging to the 9th Parachute Battalion of the 6th Airborne Division. Aware of the difficulty of this mission and the high likelihood that officers in charge will be killed before or during the assault, he asked his subordinates to understand the smallest details of the mission. During the months leading up to D-Day, British airborne and glider troops continually performed parachuting (day and night) and the battery complex was even fully rebuilt in England at Walbury Hill according to aerial photographs.
Shortly before one o’clock in the morning of Tuesday, June 6, 1944, pathfinders led by Major George Smith jumped over Normandy and reached their rendezvous points, while Lancaster bombers launched an important raid on the battery. However, the Eureka radio transmitters used by the pathfinders were mostly damaged during the jump and pathfinders were unable to communicate with the C-47s in charge of parachuting the 9th Para Battalion. In addition, smoke from the bombardment was hiding all visibility for pilots who could not clearly detect the drop zone.
Nevertheless, as of one o’clock in the morning, 600 British paratroopers were dropped over Normandy, on the drop zone V between Varaville and the battery. Despite such thorough training, the operation did not run to plan: like their American comrades, the British were victims of a large dispersion once in the ground. Otway was parachuted more than 370 meters from his planned drop-off point in a farmhouse used as a command post by the Germans: after a quick skirmish he managed to reach his rallying point at 01:30. By 2:50 in the morning, only 150 men out of 600 engaged were at the right location and the majority of his equipment did not arrive. He only had one Vickers heavy machine gun and some bangalore torpedoes. Despite this Otway decided to continue his mission with the men and equipment he had.
Shortly after 4 o’clock in the morning, he reached the village of Gonneville-sur-Merville in the south-east of the battery where he found a dozen scouts and sappers (Major Smith) who made four breaches of the perimeter. Otway divided his troops into four groups: three had to lead the main attack from east to west while another group had to carry out a diversion attack from the north.
At 04:30 am, three Horsa gliders filled with explosives and fifty soldiers were supposed to land at the very heart of the battery just before the attack to produce an effect of surprise: two aircraft were shot down by the German antiaircraft guns land too far from the battery to support the British assault (one more than three kilometers away, the other near a minefield where the crew had to fight against adverse elements who were to reinforce the Merville complex), while the third landed in England shortly after take-off, having encountered problems with the tow rope.
Lieutenant-colonel Otway launched the attack: the paratroopers engaged a short but violent assault against the hundred Germans who defended themselves. The German heavy machine guns shot many of the first soldiers who penetrated the minefield. Because of the aerial bombardments, the armoured doors of the casemates were left open by the Germans in order to ventilate the shooting stations: the paratroopers took advantage of this situation to fire their phosphorous grenades. They also used the ventilation pipes into which they threw several grenades. Only four paras arrived at the fourth casemate but succeeded in seizing it, the others being pinned down or busy silencing the rest of the complex.
Twenty minutes later, the British managed to capture the battery but they suffered heavy losses (70 British officers and soldiers were killed or wounded). 22 Germans were killed and as many soldiers were made prisoners, while the rest of the garrison managed to escape.
According to the aerial photographs made during the preparation of Operation Overlord, the Allies realised that the guns located there would crush any landings on the beaches below and that they would need to be silenced before British and French soldiers begin landing on D-Day.
Throughout the spring of 1944, the Allies bombarded Merville’s battery hoping this would avoid a ground attack, but the bombs had no effect on the 2m thick bunkers covered with sand and clay.
The German garrison was made up of 160 soldiers (80 artillerymen belonging to the first battery of 1716. Artillery Regiment and 50 sappers). On 6 March 1944, exactly three months before the landing, Feldmarschall Rommel visited the site and ordered the acceleration of the work which ended in May 1944: in addition to the casemates, the battery included a 20 mm anti-aircraft gun, fifteen machine-gun positions, a 91-meter wide minefield, an anti-tank ditch and a 1.5-meter-wide, 4.6-meter high barbed wire.
General Eisenhower’s staff took the following decision: a British parachutist commando will silence the battery on the night of D-Day a few hours before the landing on the beaches.
Lieutenant-Colonel Terence Otway was chosen to lead a parachutist commando attack on the Battery with a 700-strong force, belonging to the 9th Parachute Battalion of the 6th Airborne Division. Aware of the difficulty of this mission and the high likelihood that officers in charge will be killed before or during the assault, he asked his subordinates to understand the smallest details of the mission. During the months leading up to D-Day, British airborne and glider troops continually performed parachuting (day and night) and the battery complex was even fully rebuilt in England at Walbury Hill according to aerial photographs.
Shortly before one o’clock in the morning of Tuesday, June 6, 1944, pathfinders led by Major George Smith jumped over Normandy and reached their rendezvous points, while Lancaster bombers launched an important raid on the battery. However, the Eureka radio transmitters used by the pathfinders were mostly damaged during the jump and pathfinders were unable to communicate with the C-47s in charge of parachuting the 9th Para Battalion. In addition, smoke from the bombardment was hiding all visibility for pilots who could not clearly detect the drop zone.
Nevertheless, as of one o’clock in the morning, 600 British paratroopers were dropped over Normandy, on the drop zone V between Varaville and the battery. Despite such thorough training, the operation did not run to plan: like their American comrades, the British were victims of a large dispersion once in the ground. Otway was parachuted more than 370 meters from his planned drop-off point in a farmhouse used as a command post by the Germans: after a quick skirmish he managed to reach his rallying point at 01:30. By 2:50 in the morning, only 150 men out of 600 engaged were at the right location and the majority of his equipment did not arrive. He only had one Vickers heavy machine gun and some bangalore torpedoes. Despite this Otway decided to continue his mission with the men and equipment he had.
Shortly after 4 o’clock in the morning, he reached the village of Gonneville-sur-Merville in the south-east of the battery where he found a dozen scouts and sappers (Major Smith) who made four breaches of the perimeter. Otway divided his troops into four groups: three had to lead the main attack from east to west while another group had to carry out a diversion attack from the north.
At 04:30 am, three Horsa gliders filled with explosives and fifty soldiers were supposed to land at the very heart of the battery just before the attack to produce an effect of surprise: two aircraft were shot down by the German antiaircraft guns land too far from the battery to support the British assault (one more than three kilometers away, the other near a minefield where the crew had to fight against adverse elements who were to reinforce the Merville complex), while the third landed in England shortly after take-off, having encountered problems with the tow rope.
Lieutenant-colonel Otway launched the attack: the paratroopers engaged a short but violent assault against the hundred Germans who defended themselves. The German heavy machine guns shot many of the first soldiers who penetrated the minefield. Because of the aerial bombardments, the armoured doors of the casemates were left open by the Germans in order to ventilate the shooting stations: the paratroopers took advantage of this situation to fire their phosphorous grenades. They also used the ventilation pipes into which they threw several grenades. Only four paras arrived at the fourth casemate but succeeded in seizing it, the others being pinned down or busy silencing the rest of the complex.
Twenty minutes later, the British managed to capture the battery but they suffered heavy losses (70 British officers and soldiers were killed or wounded). 22 Germans were killed and as many soldiers were made prisoners, while the rest of the garrison managed to escape.
