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Title: Sword Beach: 3rd British Infantry Division's Battle for the Normandy Beachhead: 6 June-10 June 1944 (Battleground Europe) by Tim Kilvert-Jones ISBN: 0-85052-673-6 Publisher: Casemate Pub. Date: 01 March, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)
Rating: 5
Summary: Too Many Missions
Comment: Sword Beach is easily the best of the Battleground Europe series on the 1944 Normandy landings, even better than the same author's previous volume on Omaha Beach. This volume meticulously details the landings of the British 3rd Infantry Division and 27th Armored Brigade on the easternmost sector of the Allied invasion of France on D-Day. Tim Kilvert-Jones, a Sandhurst graduate and retired officer, uses all his professional acumen to deliver a fresh and incisive account that sheds much new light on one of the most neglected aspects of D-Day. Sword Beach is written with military students uppermost in mind and it provides far more narrative depth and insight than the standard Battleground Europe "tour guide" approach, although the volume is well written for staff rides. Since Field Marshall Montgomery had planned to take the city of Caen on the first day of the invasion, the British troops landing at Sword have often been accused of sluggish advancement inland toward Caen. In fact, Tim Kilvert-Jones aptly describes, the 3rd Division was tasked with too many competing missions and thus, could not fulfill all of them.
Sword Beach consists of seven chapters, beginning with two chapters that paint the strategic picture from both the German and Allied perspectives. The 24 pages of the third chapter discuss the Overlord Assault Plan for Sword Beach and Caen in great detail, including German defenses in the Sword sector, the 3rd Division assault plan, an excellent summary of each brigades' assigned tasks and composition and an aerial photograph of the invasion beach. The author is to be greatly applauded for including this sort of detail - which may seem tedious to some civilian readers - because proper historical evaluation requires knowledge of what was planned versus what occurred. The fourth chapter covers the assault landings in forty pages and includes several more excellent aerial photographs of German defensive positions and a 1:50,000 scale map that depicts the operational movements of the 3rd Division on D-Day. The fifth chapter is also excellent and covers the eight-hour struggle for the Hillman position and the German armored counterattack on Periers Ridge. The fifth chapter covers the consolidation of the bridgehead between June 7-17, 1944 but without the same level of detail as in previous chapters. The final chapter is rather weak and consists primarily of a strategic re-cap of the D-Day landings. A complete order of battle for the British combat units that landed on Sword is provided in an appendix.
Normally, the landings on Sword don't get much coverage in other D-Day narratives and for that reason alone, Sword Beach is well worth having. The author even includes unique information, such as the role of the British 3rd Division's artillery on D-Day. Unlike most British divisions which used towed 25-pounder howitzers, the 3rd Division had acquired three battalions of US-made 105mm M7 "Priests" for the landing, and trained to fire from landing craft. During the assault, the British artillery was firing battalion volleys while embarked on landing craft and heading in to the beach. Probably not very accurate, but probably the only occasion in history that a Divisional artillery group fired while moving onto to the objective. Unlike the Americans, who landed a great deal of infantry in the first waves, the British landed only four companies of infantry on Sword Beach in the first two waves. Instead, the British relied on combat multipliers to aid the initial assault and landed a great deal of amphibious tanks, armored engineer vehicles and even frogmen. The landing was not a cakewalk - which some glib American accounts suggest - since the South Lancashire Battalion suffered heavy casualties before the German "Cod" position was overrun. Overall, the British landing was a well-rehearsed, well-executed operation that rapidly overcame a prepared defense.
Unfortunately, the British difficulties began with the problem in getting masses of men and vehicles through the handful of narrow breaches through the beach obstacle belt. The congestion was terrible for several hours and ruined any attempt to adhere to the planned schedule. After clearing the beach defenses, the 3rd Division had four primary missions: to link-up with the British 6th Airborne troops at Pegasus bridge, to send a reinforced brigade to seize Caen, to secure the western flank against counterattack and to eliminate the remaining German strong points in sector. Unfortunately, this was just too many missions for even a reinforced division and with the advance inland falling rapidly behind schedule, the division and corps commanders had to make choices. Priority was given to link-up with the airborne and securing the western flank, both missions which were achieved on D-Day; Lord Lovat's commando brigade reached Pegasus Bridge six hours after H-Hour and in the west, an efficient British anti-tank screen defeated the 21st Panzer Division's hasty counterattack and destroyed 16 German tanks. Third priority was given to eliminating German strong points, which while successful, was time consuming. The German position known as "Hillman," which had about 150 troops inside, held up the bulk of a British brigade for eight hours in a long-drawn out fight. British infantry seemed incapable of simply bypassing resistance nests and thus, the British also succeeded in this mission but at great cost in terms of time and resources spent. The fourth mission, to seize Caen, was a failure. Few resources were left after all the other missions were allotted forces and only a company was left to probe toward Caen. This one company reached the city outskirts but prudently turned back once the extent of German forces in the area became apparent. Something had to give, and it was Caen. Tim Kilvert-Jones makes a very good case that while other commanders or units might have advanced more rapidly that day, that the 3rd Division commander made the right choice that day. Sword Beach vividly demonstrates the tough nature of command in combat, where leaders must choose between allocating resources against competing tasks.
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Title: Juno - Battleground Europe: 3rd Canadian Division, 79th British Armoured Division and 48 Commando Rm (Battleground Europe - Normandy) by Tim Saunders ISBN: 1844150283 Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Gold Beach Jig: Jig Sector and West June 1944 (Battleground Europe. Normandy) by Tim Saunders ISBN: 0850528666 Publisher: Casemate Publishers and Book Distributors Pub. Date: 01 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Utah Beach : Normandy (Battleground Europe Series) by Carl Shilleto ISBN: 0850527368 Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Pub. Date: July, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Hill 112: Battles of the Odon (Battleground Europe) by Tim Saunders ISBN: 1580970567 Publisher: Combined Publishing Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Normandy Omaha Beach: V Corps Battle for the Beachead (Battleground Europe Series) by Tim Kilvert-Jones ISBN: 085052671X Publisher: Cooper Pub. Date: 01 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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