How Many British and Commonwealth Troops Landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day?
Because of a lack of reliable, original documentation and, to a lesser extent, personal memoirs which occasionally did not agree with one another, the number of personnel who actually crossed the Channel on D-Day as part of Mobile Radar Unit GCI 15082 and its attached subsidiary units has only ever been a matter of informed guesswork rather than a reliably accurate fact.
In an effort to try to arrive at a sensible figure, the following data is presented in the hope that it will enable us to arrive at a reasonably accurate figure.
An early photograph of a group of officers/airmen which shows their trades is offered as a basis from which to start and it is stressed that these figures show only what is considered to have been the bare minimum and also offers a bit of an insight into the various Trades:
On 15 February 1944, the minutes of a meeting which was held at 10.30 a.m. in Room 18 of Highmaster’s House, part of St Paul’s School, Hammersmith, gave an early indication of the numbers of personnel plus vehicles that would make up the first echelon of No. 21 Base Defence Wing due to land on the first high tide of D-Day.
It should be considered that the figures in the second table superseded the original numbers in the first table which showed a total of 55 men. It is likely that the second set of figures, totalling 70, is nearer the final figure since official accounts state that 30 vehicles were landed.
Along with the 85 Group GCI, (GCI 15082) there were a number of Mobile Signals Units as follows:
* It seems that this MSU did not go but was replaced by MRU 5006H which numbered 21 men.
We are aware that there were some late additions to the first echelons, namely:
- Squadron Leader Norman Best, Radar Specialist attached from 60 Group.
- Flight Lieutenant Edward (Ned) Hitchcock, Signals Specialist, attached from 60 Group.
- Flight Lieutenant Rycroft, Medical Officer.
- Squadron Leader (Reverend) Harding, Padre.
- In addition, we know from the official Operations Record Book that there were a number of British soldiers attached from the Royal Engineers who were part of No. 16 Air Formation Signals. There was at least one officer, a Lieutenant, and we know that 5 of this Unit were killed in action on landing.
- As well as this Unit we know from a personal memoir of one other unit, No 313 Supply and Transport Column, where at least 7 men of this Unit also landed together with a Corporal Middleton who was killed on landing and shown as belonging to No. 6205 BDS
Taking all of the above information and compiling a simple tally, the best assessment of British and Commonwealth personnel involved in the Omaha landing on 6th June 1944 is as follows:
Note: The last three entries in the above table, marked with an asterisk, are the minimum number and there could well have been more in each of these three Units.
There may also have been other Units who were not mentioned, such as the RAF Regiment, which would have increased the numbers involved, not to mention last minute additions which were alluded to but not clarified in accounts.