201406

D-Day 70 HMS Satyr sinks U-987

U-277 sunk by Swordfish from HMS Fencer HMS Milne sinks U-289 RN operations off Norway

2nd and 5th Escort Groups sink U-473 and U-765 Convoy HX286 arrives HMS Indomitable sea trials

HMS Blackfly and HMS Kilmarnock sink U-731 Allied warships sink U-371

RN destroyers sink U-767 Allies land French troops on Elba HMS Sickle lost on patrol HMS Sportsman sinks supply ship RAF station at Sulur transferred to FAA

U-453 sunk by RN destroyers

HMS Taurus and HMS Sea Rover

Strike on Port Blair

HMS Telemachus sinks I-166 Sabang strike Allied MTBs sink troop barges Surubaya strike

Convoy RA59 arrives HMS Bulldog sinks U-719

Exercise Fabius Exercise Tiger

Op Neptune

Op Tunnel RN carriers escorted to Gibraltar

This map is a depiction of many, though not all, of the Royal Navy’s actions over the period leading up to and immediately after Operation Neptune

FLEET FOCUS 1944 RN activity at the time of Operation Neptune ALTHOUGH a massive effort was directed towards the execution of Operation Neptune, the Royal Navy – in 1944 as 70 years later – had a global presence. The weeks before and after D-Day saw RN ships, submarines and aircraft patrolling and striking locations from the Atlantic to the Far East.

Convoy activity continued on many routes, with Atlantic convoy HX286 reaching the safety of Halifax, Nova Scotia, on April 29 and Arctic convoy RA59 from the Kola Inlet reaching Loch Ewe in Scotland on May 6.

Swordfish of 842 Naval Air Squadron, embarked in carrier HMS Fencer as part of RA59, sank three U-boats in two days enroute – U-277 on May 1, U-674 and U-959 the following day.

Destroyer HMS Milne also killed a U-boat in icy waters north of Norway; U-289 went down with all hands on May 31 off Bear Island.

The coast of Norway was also the focus of attention for a number of Royal Navy anti-shipping operations in the month of May, including Op Croquet (May 3-7), Op Hoops (May 7-8), Op Brawn (May 12-16) – originally meant to attack the Tirpitz but retasked because of poor weather – and Op Potluck (May 14-16).

Completing the picture in the Arctic theatre, submarine HMS Satyr sank U-987 off Narvik on June 5.

The grim cull of the U-boat matrosen continued unabated in other seas during the invasion period.

On May 4 four Allied warships, including Hunt-class destroyer HMS Blankney, sank U-371 off the coast of Algeria.

Two days later two U-boats were caught in the North Atlantic by ruthless Escort Groups.

U-473 had the misfortune of coming to the attention of Capt Johnnie Walker, and was destroyed by HM ships Starling, Wild Goose and Wren, with 30 survivors of its 53-man crew, while just 11 of 48 survived the sinking of U-765 by Swordfish of 825 NAS embarked in HMS Vindex and attacks by frigates HM ships Bickerton, Bligh and Aylmer.

All 54 hands were lost when U-731 succumbed to an attack by patrol vessel HMS Kilmarnock and armed trawler HMS Blackfly close to Gibraltar on May 15.

Less than a week later, on May 21, all but one of the German crew survived when U-453 was caught by destroyers HM Ships Termagent, Tenacious and Liddesdale in the Ionian Sea. On June 18 there was one survivor from 50 when U-767 was sunk in the vicinity of Guernsey by destroyers HM ships Fame, Inconstant and Havelock, while all 52 men died when destroyer HMS Bulldog sank U-719 north of Ireland eight days later.

Axis shipping was not spared either. On April 28 submarine HMS Sportsman sank the German-controlled SS Constantinos Louloudis, carrying munitions from Piraeus to Crete.

Further afield, Royal Navy ships, including the carrier HMS Illustrious and battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth carried out strikes against Japanese targets at Surubaya in Java on May 17, and the same group hit Sabang in Sumatra on April 19 and July 25.

Four escort warships were withdrawn from Op Neptune duties on June 11 to escort carriers HM ships Victorious and Indomitable to Gibraltar – the latter having been on sea trials off the east coast of the USA just weeks earlier – while submarine HMS Sickle, failed to return to Malta from an Aegean patrol on June 14, and was presumed lost with all hands.

On June 17 RN and US warships landed French troops on Elba, while a month later submarine HMS Telemachus, part of the Ceylon-based force strangling the Japanese supply line to Burma, sank Japanese submarine I-166 in the Malacca Strait.

Exercises Tiger and Fabius, dress rehearsals for D-Day, took place weeks before D-Day, between which an Allied flotilla that included cruiser HMS Black Prince and destroyer HMS Ashanti, engaged on a standing Operation Tunnel security sweep, attacked German torpedo boats off the north coast of Brittany, sinking one and damaging the others, on April 26. www.navynews.co.uk

Barrage from the sea THE value of a heavy, accurate barrage of artillery was a lesson learned by both sides in the Great War. And both sides appreciated that if an invasion of Normandy was to succeed, there would need to be a first-rate performance by Naval gunners until land-based artillery could be established.

Fortunately for the Allies a force of more than 100 warships from seven nations (Britain, USA, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Poland and Norway), ranging from veteran battleships to destroyers and gunboats, proved more than capable.

The bombarding ships gathered at pre-arranged locations off the assault area, newly swept free of mines, in the early hours of D-Day. The first phase saw ships pound German defences and gun batteries, only lifting their sights inland at H-5 (five minutes before the landings) to avoid their own troops.

Further fortifications inland, and access routes, were then targeted by guns more powerful than anything the armies could field.

Spotters in the upper sections of the warships, ashore with troops and aloft with the Air Spotting Pool (see p25) assessed where the shells were falling and relayed the information back to the ships, which adjusted their sights accordingly.

Many German strongholds and gun batteries had survived pre-invasion bombing raids – partly because the raids had to be spread along the entire Channel coast of Europe so as to avoid giving defenders clues as to the invasion site.

Battleships and cruisers, some of which had already supported Allied landings in the Mediterranean, were assigned specific targets at each beach, moving on to targets over the horizon as the beachhead was established.

Groups of destroyers and smaller warships supported the troops on the beaches themselves, while others either attacked targets on the flanks of the invasion area or were held in reserve for specific requests

l HMS Warspite pounds German defences on the Normandy coast for gunfire support – a skill still practiced by Royal Navy ships in the 21st Century.

Ernie Penny was an AB in battleship HMS Ramillies when she sailed for the French coast on June 5 1944.

The sailor recalls how a destroyer laid a smokescreen in front of Ramillies, battleship HMS Warspite and monitor HMS Roberts as the trio prepared to let rip with their 15in guns, first in support of the landings, then to target specific German shore batteries, including those at Houlgate and Benerville.

“At about 5.30am the landings started with the landing craft going past us,” said Ernie.

“I have never seen so many small boats, carrying the troops on to the shore, and by this time we saw the planes towing the gliders overhead.

“I was on look-out duty on top of the bridge on the first day so I had a good view of it all – all hell seemed to have been let loose,” recalled Ernie.

E-boats fired torpedoes at the battleship – but a lucky charm picked up on a visit to New Zealand early in the war paid off.

The ship was already manoeuvring, and was head-on when the tinfish reached her, passing down either side.

The luck came courtesy of a Maori grass skirt which had been presented to the ship, guaranteeing no harm would come to her or her ship’s company.

The CO was seen to be wearing it over his uniform as the

bombardment proceeded, much to the relief of his ship’s company.

“The crew had lots of faith in this grass skirt,” said Ernie.

Not so lucky was Norwegian destroyer Svenner, which was struck and quickly sank, her screws still turning, as Ernie watched in horror.

A/PO Jack Hall, on board HMS Warspite, felt a wrong was being righted as the veteran battleship hurled shells at the German defences.

“I had been at Dunkirk four years previously. These scenes of ‘putting them back’ were and remain of great satisfaction and pride,” he said.

A spectacular element of the bombardment was that provided by landing craft adapted to carry racks of rocket launchers.

These could saturate the beaches with over 1,000 60lb rockets in one fiery salvo, plastering the shoreline with explosives and alarming defending Germans.

Tanks coming ashore in landing craft could also be called upon to provide covering fire before they had even hit the beach, adding to the general onslaught and confusion amongst the defending troops.

Ernest Routh was a radio operator on the Isles-class minesweeping trawler HMS Texada, one of a flotilla of six ships patrolling the fringes of the beachhead to detect and destroy enemy frogmen, human torpedoes and parachute mines, deployed against the bombardment force.

Picture: © IWM (A 23916)

“I was well aware of the potential [of the bombardment force] when we lay within half a mile of Warspite, when to get a closer look at the activity I poked my head out of the wireless cabin port as she let loose a salvo,” said Ernest.

“For whatever reason, on D-Day +6, the skipper allowed us ashore on the understanding that we kept strictly out of the way of the whole gambit of modern warfare being pushed swiftly ashore from Mulberry.

“This we did successfully, and made our way inland to the first village down the road – Bernières-sur-Mer. “There was a straggle of cottages forming the main street, and these were mainly intact.

“The local church dominated the skyline, made much more dramatic when we could see that a well-aimed shell had blown a perfectly round hole through what had been a very handsome steeple.

“We had been told to seek any fresh food we could muster, and toward this end we had continually practised our two words of French – pain and œufs.

“In the village shops we were able to convince the patron of our needs, and whilst fresh bread was not possible we did manage four fresh eggs.”

Allied chiefs commended the accuracy of the bombardment, with Admiral Ramsay noting that the shooting was “uniformly good” and that the advance of ground forces was “helped in no small measure” by the onslaught.

JUNE 2014 : 31