Hill 112_The Battle of the Odon Read online

  There are several options available for visitors to find and visit individual graves. The easiest is through the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Head Office, whose address is at the end of this chapter. Those with access to the Internet, can visit the CWGC web site at http:/yard.ccta.gov.uk/cwgc. The web site can be a great help in finding Hill 112 casualties as it has, amongst other features, a date based search capability. This combined with use of the Order of Battle, see page 189, will enable the visitor to make a list of JUPITER graves to visit. Regimental Headquarters and military museums are good sources of information and advice but, unless the visitor lives near by and is prepared to personally look things up, it is recommended, that you avoid sending queries to them. Regimental Headquarters, have over the years, been heavily cut and are, consequently, understaffed. They normally have to request a donation of £10 – £15 for their services. Copies of CWGC registers, detailing all graves in individual cemeteries are, however, to be found in the metal-fronted register box at each cemetery.

  Banneville-la-Campagne CWGC Cemetery.

  This cemetery contains the remains of many soldiers who died in areas of the battlefield that remained as either No Man’s Land or were held by the Germans on or shortly after 10 July 1944. When Maltot and Hill 112 were taken in late July and early August 1944 respectively, many bodies were not fit for immediate recovery and were buried as nearby. Sergeant Geoff Cleal was the 4/Dorsets’ Battalion Orderly Room Sergeant and the sight, after two weeks of lying unburied in the sun, of the blackened, rotting corpses of his comrades was shocking. His unenviable task was to identify the bodies from his battalions of ‘missing’. Few men who entered the stinking ruins of Maltot will ever forget the experience.

  Banneville-la-Campagne lies eight kilometres to the east of Caen on the N174 and should not be confused with the Canadian cemetery with a similar name further south towards Falaise. From the centre of Caen find the station (Gare SNCF) and follow the Autres Directions to the Périphérique. Turn onto the N175 and head towards Liseux and Sannerville. The cemetery is on the right-hand side, about a kilometre from the village of Sannerville. It is recommended that the visitor avoids the A13 / E46 as an unnecessary toll is payable on exit and matters are complicated by the Sannerville/Troan junction having only entry and exits to and from the eastbound carriageway.

  The cemetery lies one hundred metres south of the N175. Access is via a beautiful curving and well-maintained grass path, lined with shrubs. For the most part the cemetery contains graves dating from the Normandy campaign’s Jupiter period up to the closure of the Falaise gap at the end of August 1944. There are now 2,175 Allied graves in the Banneville Cemetery alone. The founding principles, design and layout are of the style typical of most CWGC cemeteries established since the Great War. The overall look and feel is one of a quiet English garden. The main features of Banneville (and most other CWGC cemeteries) are the Cross of Sacrifice and the altar-like Stone of Remembrance, built in Portland stone, with the inscription THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE’. The gravestones, also of the same white stone, are surrounded by plants from the British Isles. One of the most touching features of the British War Cemeteries is the principle of equality of treatment. Officers lie alongside ordinary soldiers with exactly the same style of gravestone.

  Some details of a few of the graves from the fighting on Hill 112 are listed below.

  The Commanding Officer of 5/DCLI, Lieutenant Colonel Dick James lies in Plot X, Row G, grave 15. He was shot out of a tree on the morning of 11 July 1944 while directing the artillery fire that was so important in maintaining his battalion’s position on Hill 112. The visitor will notice that the regimental badge on his gravestone is that of the Somerset Light Infantry. This is not a mistake. Officers and those serving with other units, such as commandos, have the badge of their parent regiment, which is not necessarily the one with which they were serving when they were killed. In this case, Dick James had been commissioned in the Somerset Light Infantry and had only taken command of 5/DCLI a few days before his death in action on Hill 112.

  Saint Manvieu CWGC Cemetery, Cheux

  Of the graves dating from 10 July 1944 in this cemetery, most were killed in the frontline or on spots that were taken during JUPITER. During the battle covered by this book, forward dressing stations were established along the Caen to Villers Bocage road, with one of the brigade’s field ambulance units being based at Chateau Mouen. The more seriously wounded were passed back to units where life saving surgery could be performed. These were in the area of Cheux. In Saint Manvieu, there are 2,183 graves dating from the period between mid-June and mid-July 1944. Included are four plots totalling 556 German graves, many of whom would have been prisoners who died of wounds while in Allied care. Given that the majority of the German formations fighting to the west of Caen were from I and IISS Panzer Corps, it is reasonable to conclude that many were SS soldiers. The usual practice of converting Waffen SS ranks to their Wehrmacht equivalent has been followed here.

  Quite a few of the graves in St Manvieu belong to the Royal Tank Regiment. That of Second Lieutenant George Hendrie, commander of 1 Troop A Squadron 9/RTR, is to be found in plot VIII, rowE, grave 13. He was killed by an armour-piercing shot that just missed his tank Impudent’s turret but decapitated him as he advanced towards Maltot in support of 7/Hampshires.

  Another casualty of the fighting in 130 Brigade’s area was Captain Paul Cash of 112 (Wessex) Field Regiment RA, aged twenty-six years. He was the fourth Forward Observation Officer of 220 Battery to be killed. He died of wounds on 13 July 1944, when a shell exploded above his trench in the area of Chateau de Fontaine. He had been slightly wounded in the face during the first day of JUPITER. He was awarded a Military Cross for coolly and accurately supporting 7/Hampshire and 4/Dorsets in Maltot. He left a son named William, whom he never met. This son is now a senior backbench Westminster MP.

  Lieutenant Colonel WD Blacker DSO, another gunner, also lies at rest at Saint Manvieu. He was killed at Chateau de Fontaine on 11 July 1944 when a Nebelwerfer bomb landed in the back of his White half-track OP and Tactical CP vehicle. The lightly armoured sides of the vehicle gave protection against shell splinters and small arms fire but its canvas roof offered no protection at all. Colonel Blacker was the third commanding officer in the Wessex Division to be killed during Operation JUPITER

  Bayeux War Cemetery and Memorial

  Located on the Bayeux ring road (originally created by the Royal Engineers to avoid the city’s narrow streets) to the south of the city are Normandy’s main British cemetery and the memorial to the missing. Both were designed by the noted CWGC architect, Phillip Hepworth. The dead (4,648) who lie in the cemetery come from actions fought all over Normandy and are largely but not exclusively, those who died of wounds. The area to the south-west of the city was where the majority of the field hospitals were located in the Second Army’s Rear Maintenance Area. Serious casualties were tended until they were stabilized and fit to be flown or taken by ship to the UK. Sadly, however, a significant proportion died. The majority of the graves (3,935) are British. However, no less than ten other nationalities are represented among the dead, including four hundred and sixty-six Germans, who were mainly wounded prisoners of war. There is only one soldier listed as Unknown. This is a reflection of the fact that most soldiers who lie in Bayeux died of wounds and were not moved here from battlefield cemeteries, where wounds and time frequently removed traces of individuals’ identity.

  Across the road is the memorial to those who are missing and consequently have no known grave. It lists 1,805 names of Commonwealth soldiers who lost their lives between the D-Day assault on the Normandy beaches and the crossing of the Seine. The Latin inscription is translated as ‘We, once conquered by William, have now set free the Conqueror’s native land’

  German War Cemetery Saint Desir-de-Lisieux

  This is one of six German War Graves Welfare Organization cemeteries in the invasion area of Normandy. It is four kilometres we
st of Lisieux on the N13. Buried here are 3,735 soldiers, making this by far the smallest German cemetery in Normandy. As with the British dead from the fighting at Hill 112, the bodies have ended up scattered across the various cemeteries but a high proportion of those at Saint Desir date from the 10 July period. The contrast between Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries and those of the Germans is marked. The mass nature of the burials and the representative style of grave marking, beside the differences in style and layout, are the most obvious variations.

  Order of Battle HILL 112

  43 WESSEX DIVISION

  HQ 43rd (WESSEX) INFANTRY DIVISION

  43rd (Wessex) Divisional Signals Regiment (-)

  HQ 129th INFANTRY BRIGADE

  4th Battalion, The Somerset Light Infantry

  4th Battalion, The Wiltshire Regiment

  5th Battalion, The Wiltshire Regiment

  94th (Dorset and Hampshire) Field Regiment RA

  235th Anti-Tank Battery

  206th Field Company Royal Engineers

  A (Machinegun) Company 8th Middlesex (including

  a Heavy Mortar Platoon)

  129th Field Ambulance

  Support Troop 360th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery

  30th Independent Anti-Aircraft Troop

  2nd Company Divisional Signal Regiment

  504th Company Royal Army Service Corps

  HQ 130th INFANTRY BRIGADE

  7th Battalion, The Hampshire Regiment

  4th Battalion, The Dorsetshire Regiment

  5th Battalion, The Dorsetshire Regiment

  112th (Wessex) Field Regiment Royal Artillery

  233rd Anti-Tank Battery

  553rd Field Company Royal Engineers

  B (Machinegun) Company 8th Middlesex (including

  a Heavy Mortar Platoon)

  130th Field Ambulance

  Support Troop 362nd Light Anti-Aircraft Battery

  32nd Independent Anti-Aircraft Troop

  3rd Company 43rd Divisional Signals Regiment

  505th Company Royal Army Service Corps

  HQ 214th INFANTRY BRIGADE

  7th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry

  1st Battalion The Worcestershire Regiment

  5th Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

  179th Field Regiment Royal Artillery

  333rd Anti-Tank Battery Royal Artillery

  204th Field Company Royal Engineers

  C (Machinegun) Company 8th Middlesex (including

  a Heavy Mortar Platoon)

  213th Field Ambulance

  Support Troop 361st Light Anti-Aircraft Battery

  31st Independent Anti-Aircraft Troop

  4th Company 43rd Divisional Signal Regiment

  54th Company Royal Army Service Corps

  43rd WESSEX DIVISIONAL TROOPS

  43rd Recconnisance Regiment (Not in action)

  HQ 59th Anti-Tank Regiment Royal Artillery

  (Gloucesters) and 236th Battery

  HQ 110th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment RA (7th

  Dorsets), 360th Battery (-), 361st Battery (-) and

  362nd Battery (-)

  HQ 43rd Division Engineers Regiment, 207th Field

  Park Company and 43rd Divisional Postal Unit

  HQ 8th (Machinegun) Battalion, The Middlesex Regt

  Royal Army Service Corps HQ 43rd Division RASC

  Battalion and 506th Company RASC

  Royal Army Medical Corps 14th Field Dressing

  Section, 15th Field Dressing Section and 38th Field

  Hygiene Section

  Royal Army Ordnance Corps 43rd Division Ordnance

  Field Park and 306th Mobile Bath Unit

  Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers 129th

  Infantry Brigade Workshop, 130th Infantry Brigade

  Workshop and 214th Infantry Brigade Workshop

  Military Police 43rd Division Company Royal Corps

  of Military Police

  Intelligence Corps 57th Field Security Section

  4th ARMOURED BRIGADE

  The Royal Scots Greys

  3rd County of London Yeomanry (The

  Sharpshooters)

  44th Royal Tank Regiment

  2nd Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps

  4th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery

  144th (Self Propelled) Anti-Tank Battery RA

  31st TANK BRIGADE

  7th Royal Tank Regiment

  9th Royal Tank Regiment

  31st Armoured Brigade Signal Squadron

  XII CORPS TROOPS

  86th Anti-Tank Regiment RA (5th Prince of Wales’s)

  128th Battery, 129th Battery (M10), 130th Battery

  and 340th Battery (M10)

  21st ARMY GROUP TROOPS

  3rd Army Groups Royal Artillery

  8th Army Groups Royal Artillery

  79th ARMOURED DIVISION TROOPS

  141st Regiment RAC (Crocodiles)

  SS Ranks and their British and US equivalents