Detailed timeline from D-Day to D-Day+3

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Radar Group Bulletin): 24 hours later sighted the French coast.  Their assigned beach was Omaha Red (Dog Red?).

(Dog Red beach was to the west of Easy Green beach and the two abutted approximately where the ‘draw’ through Les Moulins left the beach.  Later reports state that their intended landing beach was to be opposite St Laurent-sur-Mer which was inland on the dividing lines between Easy Green and Easy Red beaches to the east of Dog Red which abutted Easy Green.)

Squadron Leader (Reverend) Harding: He woke up on the morning of D-Day off Omaha beach. 

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: Was advised at the final briefing in Portland that his LCT (No 649), would lead the four others onto Omaha beach at 0900 on D-Day.  This landing, actually around 1100, was called off after the run-in had started because of the shambles on the beach.

(LCT 649 is the only craft which was identified).

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Memoir): 0930 Tried to land. Attempt called off and lay off-shore till 1700.

Archie Ratcliff: He claims to have been in the first LCT to go in at around 1100 to 1130 hours and they were dropped 100 yards from the shore.  His vehicle was apparently loaded with line poles and there was a concern that these might cause the truck to float.  They did make the beach, the shoreline of which he stated was 400 to 600 yards from the top of the beach.

He also stated that they were on the beach during the morning – “Several times during the morning we went out to get the wounded under these bluffs for attention by the medics”.

(Was this the same LCT, i.e. 649, mentioned above as being the lead LCT by F/Sgt Muir Adair?  He also claims to have been on the beach during the morning which would definitely rule out his being with LCT 649.  When he states that he was dropped 100 yards from the shore, did he mean the shoreline at the time he was dropped off or the high water mark?)

Corporal Eric John Heathcote: The 1st landing attempt was made at 1130 on D-Day but it was aborted until 1700.  During this period, considerable shelling of the cliffs was being carried out by the (Allied) Navy.

Squadron Leader (Reverend) Harding: The CO of the RAF Unit was very seasick and asked the Padre to take his place on the first truck while he, the Wing Commander, retired to the fourth or the fifth vehicle.

Corporal Bill Firby: All of the Type 13 equipment was on the same LCT.  On the first run in to the beach which was abandoned, he recalls a US Patrol Boat which came alongside and a US man told them to “Get the hell out of here”!

LAC John Cubitt: His vehicle was a Crossley, 3-ton vehicle containing the radar transmitter.  States he heard a loud-hailer message ‘men are urgently needed on the beach’.  In response to that message, “someone” told his Australian skipper that they could be useful and they moved in.  States that they must have been 3 or 4 hours late as the tide was well out.  States that they were nearly a quarter of a mile out when the ramp was dropped approaching St Laurent-sur-Mer.  At the front of his LCT was a Diamond-T breakdown truck which had their Jeep tied to it so that it did not float away.  He drove his Crossley around the Diamond-T while the Jeep attached to it was being untied.  He was now leading the column off his LCT and had, as his passenger, the Unit Medical Officer, Flt/Lt Rycroft).

(Once again does Cubitt mean that they were ¼ mile from the waterline at low tide or the high water line?).

Corporal Bill Firby: He was ordered to leave the LCT on foot and make his way ashore to join up with the rest of the 21 Sector Unit.  On leaving the LCT as ordered, he started to walk towards the shore but it got deeper and he began to be pulled along the beach by the tide.  In order to stay above water, he lost some of his equipment.  He states that he drifted eastwards on the tide and was at least 200 yards east of where his LCT beached.  He records that all the vehicles in his LCT went under water and were lost.  He landed with another man from his Unit who he thinks was called Love.  The two of them sheltered in a crater some yards from the shingle wall.  They then set out to walk towards where they could see some trucks of GCI 15082 on the beach.  They eventually encountered the Padre, (S/Ldr (Rev) Harding), who called out to them and guided them through a gap in the barbed wire.  The Padre was very calm and assured.

(Reports do state that the drift was eastwards.  The Padre reported that they landed under the cliffs where the US cemetery would be established after the War and this identifies the beach as Easy Red so he would have drifted along onto Fox Green beach.)

Squadron Leader (Reverend) Harding: The Padre gives the time of the landing at about 1830 on the evening of D-Day.  His LCT was landed ‘a fairly long way from the shore in fairly deep water.’  His vehicle went into a deep hole, and he and his driver had to wade ashore.

Flight Lieutenant Edward (Ned) Hitchcock: He states that his LCT went in as the lead LCT at about 0900 with the other 4 LCTs following.  He made mention of a recce party in the third (LCT?)

He states that his LCT had a US observer with them who had had experience of landings at Pantellaria (an Italian island in the Strait of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea) and it was he who decided that the morning landing was a bad idea and called it off until later that day.

He saw the clock tower on Vierville church destroyed by naval artillery, as it was suspected of housing an artillery observer able to call down all the deadly artillery being experienced on the beach.  He stated it was in the sector east of them where the Americans had been carried by strong tidal currents.

He also mentioned General Omar Bradley debating whether to abandon the Omaha landing.

(Along with the others who landed in front of where their LCTs beached, he would have been somewhere in the vicinity of Easy Red beach.  Vierville church was inland from Charlie and Dog Green beaches to the west of him).

Flight Lieutenant Edward (Ned) Hitchcock: He stated that they went in at 1600 hours.

He gives 1700 as the time when his LCT discharged its trucks, only for them to drive into deeper water after leaving the LCT and be swallowed up by the sea.  He stated that he was to be the Electrical Engineering specialist attached to GCI 15082 together with S/Ldr Norman Best who was to be the Radar specialist.  The 3 Fighter Direction Tenders were to be the link with the beachhead units.

(As an aside, prior to D-Day Hitchcock mentions being promoted to Cpl at RAF Yatesbury in Wiltshire along with the man who would become famous later – Arthur C. Clarke).

Flight Lieutenant Richard Rycroft (Medical Officer): After waiting offshore since 0900 on D-Day the LCTs were sent in at 1700. 

He was in the centre of the LCTs and their vehicles were able to reach the shore without difficulty.  The LCTs on either wing were less fortunate and a large percentage of the vehicles were ‘drowned’.

The vehicles which reached the beach were strung out in a line for about 3 hours. (i.e. until 2000 hours).

(He also claims that he was in the centre of the LCTs and reached the beach OK.  F/Sgt Adair claims that he was in the lead LCT which he identified as 649 and which was landed too far out and lost all of its vehicles, ‘drowned’ except one which would not start which the skipper took back).

Corporal Eric John Heathcote: The actual landing was at St Laurent, about 1 mile west of Colleville. 

This beach was under heavy shelling from 88mm guns.  Both exits from the beach were still blocked. 

(Definitely confirms the landing at St Laurent, 1 mile west of Colleville, their planned landing spot.  This confirms their planned landing beach as Easy Red which is approximately 1.5 kilometres (1 mile), east of the junction between Easy Green/Dog Red beaches.)

Corporal Eric John Heathcote: Most of the LCTs were landed in deep water and vehicles leaving them were drowned.  In all, 27 vehicles were landed but only 8 were able to be driven off the beach.  LCT 649 landed considerably further out to sea than the other craft.  All the vehicles which left this LCT were lost in deep holes except one which refused to start and remained on board while the Skipper returned whence he came.

(Confirms LCT 649 as being the one which landed its men and vehicles much too far out to sea).

Mrs Moyna Heathcote: Told how Eric Heathcote’s friend, Dickie Parr, died beside him in a foxhole shortly after landing.

Arnold Palin: He was in one of the first waves of landing craft.  They got under the cover of their own radio truck on landing but decided that they would be safer further along the beach.  They made a dash for the next vehicle a few yards away and scrambled underneath it.  Almost immediately their original truck was hit by a mortar round and exploded killing some Americans and wounding Arnold Palin in the knee.  He attached himself to a group of Americans who were leaving the beach and moved inland with them for a few days but eventually his wounded leg gave out and an American Padre arranged for a truck to take him back to the beach. 

He was eventually put onto a Royal Navy Landing Craft which was taking wounded men back to England.  He was apparently the first British serviceman they had taken off the beach in the 3 days they had been operating there.

(NOTE: Arnold died on 11th May 1945, not by enemy action but as the result of an accident.  He had jumped out of the cab of the lorry in which he had been travelling, stumbled and fell.  The butt of his Sten gun hit the ground and fired, the round hitting him in the head and killing him).

Squadron Leader (Reverend) Harding: He landed opposite the cliff where the enormous US cemetery is now located.  The Unit was zeroed in on by an 88mm, and in 15 minutes had lost all of their valuable radar equipment.  The MO was described by the Padre as very young but very capable; he had been ‘plucked away’ from his honeymoon 3 days after his marriage to accompany GCI 15082.  He also described a ‘very hard working Medical Orderly, (LAC Jock Reid).’ 

(Definite confirmation of the actual landing spot as being in Easy Red beach, as the US cemetery is indeed situated above the shore on the cliff overlooking Easy Red beach.  The most easterly part of the US cemetery abuts the junction line between Easy Red beach and the one it abuts eastward, Fox Green).

Squadron Leader (Reverend) Harding: He stated that they suffered 25% casualties presumably caused by the 88mm which he said ‘plagued them’.

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Memoir): 1700 Went in again.  Only 2 other LCTs apart from our 5 went in.  Beached in 2 feet of water. Ashore in Jeep OK.  All our LCT vehicles off OK.  Several vehicles ‘drowned’ on way in including Ned (F/Lt Hitchcock) in Type 11 convoy.

(Refers to 2 other LCTs in this section but to three in the next one.)

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Radar Group Bulletin): At 1700 the second landing attempt was made, with three other crafts carrying small tanks and armoured cars (presumably US?)  They made it but no other craft landed for 36 hours – until the neighbouring beaches had linked up and the Germans had been cleared right out.

(Apparently there were 3 other LCTs not belonging to GCI 15082 which also went in at this time.  It is presumed that they were conveying US men and vehicles)

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Radar Group Bulletin): Their craft landed first and unloaded – cranes first with a Corporal, an LAC and the Wing Commander.  Sqd/L Best went next with the Lieutenant Air Formation Signals in the Jeep and the rest of the convoy followed.

(Another craft which landed first).

Flight Lieutenant Edward (Ned) Hitchcock: The unplanned landing at low tide had disastrous results which are well documented elsewhere.

After his vehicle ‘drowned’, he waded ashore and managed to drag a cable back and had to grope under water to hook up. By this time, the tide was on the turn, the water was rising and was up to the top of the cab.  The vehicle was stuck fast.

He swam ashore in full kit, only made possible by his fitness and the buoyancy of his assault respirator.

When he reached the shore, he could see no one, no promised beachmaster or medics, just dead and wounded US troops and abandoned vehicles.

He pulled a wounded GI out of an undamaged truck which was being threatened by flames and drove it clear.

Corporal Eric John Heathcote: The men were got to the top of the beach where they dug foxholes and remained while the situation was assessed and a place for the Unit to move to could be found.

LAC John Cubitt: On reaching the top of the beach he turned right.  They stopped as there was no way off the beach.  Unit began to take casualties; the MO and his Orderly began to get to work.  Bill Cubitt dived under his vehicle for cover; the vehicle then had two tyres flattened by shrapnel. 

(This memoir seems to confirm conclusively that the actual landing beach was Easy Red as stated by the Padre, as turning right on landing would take him westwards towards the exit ‘draw’ up to the hamlet of Les Moulins.)

Archie Ratcliffe: He then reported that it went quiet for a while but it seemed to be quite bad a bit further along the beach, about 600 yards or so.  “We could see more LCTs trying to get ashore.  They were getting a hell of a beating.  We could see that they were in battledress so we knew that it was the RAF Special Signals Unit that we were to join at the same map reference that we were given.  It was 15082 GCI Unit.  We had been with them for a couple of days before we sailed so we knew all of them.  We could do nothing to help them.  We could see them trying to get off the beach with their vehicles but were getting heavily mortared and machine gunned”.   He described some minor injuries that he and his mates had sustained but went on to say that ‘15082 were not so fortunate’.

He gives the casualties sustained by GCI 15082 as 8 killed and several wounded.  At this point he notes that his Unit was number 313.  We now know that this was No. 313 Supply and Transport Column.

(This seems to confirm that No.313 Supply and Transport Column were already ashore, at least 600 yards away from where GCI 15082 was making its attempt at landing.  That being so, were they a separate echelon to that of the 5 containing the ill-fated GCI 15082?  There is no indication here whether they were east of west of GCI 15082 when they witnessed its landing).

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: At about 1700, the coxswain of his LCT advised the men that the senior Royal Air Force Officer, “Officer Commanding Troops”, had ordered them in.  It was, by then, low tide.

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: As he had been designated to the lead LCT, he in turn designated the lead fitter to be in the same LCT with him.

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: 2 to 3 days before the landings, the CO had advised him that ‘a boffin’, (scientist), from 60 Group would be landing with him as it had been decided that a specialist would travel with them in case his specialist knowledge was needed.

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: On approaching the shore it was obvious that the whole landing area was a disaster.  Most vehicles ‘drowned’ as they left the LCTs leaving the men to struggle ashore as best they could.  His vehicle hit deep water and ‘drowned’ and his ‘boffin’ passenger (F/Lt Ned Hitchcock), volunteered to wade ashore and hopefully obtain a cable with which to drag the drowned vehicle out of the water.  He gave his official camera to F/Sgt Adair.   The F/Sgt was forced to abandon his vehicle and swim – still loaded with all his personal equipment and the Leica camera.  He did not know for how long he was in the water or how far he drifted until he waded ashore among wrecked trucks, half-tracks, dead bodies and German anti-landing devices.  F/Sgt Adair returned the soaked Leica camera to F/Lt Hitchcock on D+2.

(It seems highly likely that he drifted eastwards from the point the Unit landed. He also claims to have been in the leading LCT whose vehicles all ‘drowned’.) 

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: He struggled ashore ‘considerably east of their planned, expected landfall’ (estimated by him to have been up to as much as 600 yards).  The only RAF member he was able to locate was a young operator, his left arm blown off, lying dead on the beach.  He found himself in the midst of a number of American Rangers and sailors but there were no NCOs.  He picked up a nearby flight jacket to camouflage his badges of rank (snipers were seeking out officers and NCOs), grabbed a carbine and called the men to follow him up the beach and into a trench.

(His estimated distance of drift eastwards of 600 yards (⅓ mile) would have taken him into Fox Green beach and leave him opposite Colleville, their intended landing beach!).

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: Considerable machine gun fire heard but it seemed to be further to the west.

The CO (Wing Commander Anderson) is recorded as having been wounded by this time, as was the Sgt Operations, (Sgt Humble/Hamble?)

The Type 14 Radar Equipment had not made it ashore, no-one knew where the Type 12 was and most of their vehicles he reports as being missing.  The majority of the personnel were also nowhere to be found.

The planned location where they were to set up was still in enemy occupation.

The attached Mobile Signals Unit (singular), was ‘in a shambles’ but had a nucleus of personnel and enough open channels to report to the off-shore radar control unit that there was no chance of them being operational until further notice.

A US liaison Corporal named as Smythe, was with the Unit on D-Day, he and his equipment survived the landing and he was spasmodically able to make contact with his HQ who were able to advise that, by this time, the beach, although still under some fire and considerable sniper fire, was now pretty much under the control of the Allies.  Cpl Smythe stayed with GCI 15082 for ‘some days’.

(The ‘considerable machine gun fire’ which he reported as hearing ‘much farther to the west’ could well have been what his colleagues in GCI 15082 were suffering from.  It is possible that he and his ‘ragtag’ band as he called them, made their way up the ‘draw’ towards Colleville before moving west towards the point above the cliffs where GCI 15082 had settled on the D+1).

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: They went from one trench to another, with Germans evacuating from the far end of each trench as they approached. 

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: They had ‘lost’ 4 men during this activity but in the last trench there were several American Rangers with their Lieutenant.  In addition to ‘losing’ four men he had acquired a medic ‘from somewhere’ and a Navy Petty Officer.

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Radar Group Bulletin): The entire Type 15 set up arrived safely on the beach – aerial transmitter, two diesels, crane, R/T, Jeep and four Crossley trucks.  The Types 11 and 21 had not fared so well.  One of the LCTs had dropped its ramp on a sandbank and the vehicles had driven out in to 8 or 9 feet of water.  The Type 11 aerial vehicle was blown up as it had become a danger to navigation.  The Type 13 Aerial vehicle went in to a very deep hole, never to be seen again.

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Radar Group Bulletin): The only way off the beach was up a small ravine but it was found to be blocked by a solid barrier of earth 5 or 6 feet high.  At this stage, the CO is reported as having been hit in the arm and the leg and others killed or wounded.  The MO and his Medical Orderly were the only medicos on the beach, the others stated as having been wiped out and reserves unable to land. 

Corporal Eric John Heathcote: S/Ldr Trollope then went over the beach to collect the men who were scattered in craft-load groups and ordered them to move to this western end of the beach.  For the next 2 hours, all personnel who were not wounded were employed at the exit to the beach either helping to pull out some of the vehicles from the sea with a bulldozer or with carrying the wounded, both British and American, off the beach.

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Radar Group Bulletin): After only half an hour, a bulldozer was found to clear the earth bank blockage and provide a way off the beach.  In a matter of minutes, the way was opened and they got their vehicles off the beach and up the valley into the quiet and comparative safety of a deserted village (Les Moulins?)

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Memoir): Bulldozer ploughed a route out of beach into nearby fields.

LAC John Cubitt: The Padre, S/Ldr (Rev) Harding, went into some dead ground and located the exit blocked by shingle.  The Padre found the bulldozer and its driver which set to work to clear the shingle barricade.

LAC John Cubitt: A US GI attached to the Unit as Liaison spoke to LAC Cubitt about their situation.  He then moved away and knelt by a lorry wheel for cover.  Shortly afterwards, he was seen to slide to the ground – dead with a head wound.  (Cpl Smythe?)  Reports seeing a Squadron Leader further away with his foot blown off.  A F/Lt (Highfield) helping him heard another shell and shielded the S/Ldr by throwing himself on to the S/Ldr.  The F/Lt was killed in this act by shrapnel.  Propped up on another vehicle with a dressing over an eye was a Sgt (Hamble?).  He was later reported to have lost that eye.  Later on, the Wing Commander came along and took a piece of shrapnel in the wrist.

Squadron Leader (Reverend) Harding: He went forward and found a suitable site in the third house up on the left, ‘where there was an open courtyard’ (Les Moulins?)  He stated that the few Germans who were there ran away and apparently hid themselves in the house next door.  They proved to be no trouble.  He then waved everybody forward to get off the beach.

Corporal Eric John Heathcote: The Padre gallantly reconnoitred the little hamlet of Les Moulins, situated at the western end of the beach.  He reported that it was not under fire and also gave some cover. 

Flight Lieutenant Edward (Ned) Hitchcock: The next thing he reports is the appearance of the bulldozer which cleared the way off the beach and their group, seeming to come together again, rescued such vehicles as they could and drove up a narrow valley off the beach in to a field.  They also collected wounded for evacuation and he noted 10 dead and 40 wounded.

Flight Lieutenant Richard Rycroft (Medical Officer): By 2130 all wounded attended to and carried to the shingle away from the incoming tide.

All shelling had ceased.  Remaining vehicles moved through a gap in the wire into a small lane which led to a cluster of houses about ¾ mile inland (Les Moulins?).  About 60 wounded cared for, of whom only 3 died during the night.

He saw the first US Medical Officer at 2200 and then saw no more until 1200 on D+1.

LAC John Cubitt: He was joined by his driver, a Corporal, and as the gap in the shingle was open, they made for it taking the wounded Sgt (Humble/Hamble?) with them.  About 100 yards along the road in a protected sunken road, they stopped in front of a house.  The wounded were put in the garden of this house and efforts were made to make them comfortable until the morning as there was no prospect of going further until then.

Corporal Bill Firby: They then set out to walk towards where they could see some trucks of GCI 15082 on the beach.  They eventually encountered the Padre, (S/Ldr (Rev) Harding), who called out to them and guided them through a gap in the barbed wire.  The Padre was very calm and assured.  They walked a short distance off the beach and passed a few houses (Les Moulins?)

Archie Ratcliffe: They did not get off the beach until 10:00. (Does he mean am or pm?.  It was probably pm since he mentions that it was the Padre who got them off to a concentration area on the top of the beach near where the American Cemetery is now located at St Laurent-sur-Mer.)

LAC John Cubitt: Personnel were beginning to drift in in 2s and 3s.

LAC John Cubitt: Some American medics paid a visit on their way through and helped with dressings etc.

Flight Lieutenant Edward (Ned) Hitchcock: Some of them managed to find a place to sleep under a hedge in the grounds of a seaside villa.

LAC John Cubitt: They stayed huddled by that garden wall all night, sleeping fitfully.  It took all night to gather the entire Unit together and meanwhile the front had moved about a mile back.

Corporal Bill Firby: Not much further on he was passing some lorries and was called to crawl under it by some other men from his Section.  He spent the night of D-Day there.

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Memoir): Diesel and GP sustained direct hits.  Drove Type 15 convoy away.

Set up a casualty clearing station and for the rest of the evening and most of the night went backwards and forwards to the beach collecting wounded men. Reported 12 men dead and 40 seriously injured.

Squadron Leader (Reverend) Harding: The MO and his Orderly worked throughout the night tirelessly patching up their own wounded and also some US wounded.

Corporal Eric John Heathcote: The MO, with the aid of the Padre, were continuously employed treating the wounded under the worst possible conditions until late afternoon on D+1 when they were got to the American First Aid Post which overlooked the beach.

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Memoir): Sniped by US!  Moved casualties. Slept under a hedge at 0200 on 7th.

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: It was by this time, quite dark and the Rangers Lieutenant suggested that they took a break and hunker down for the night.

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: Sometime later he heard American voices nearby, and a scout, who had been sent to reconnoitre, found that further up the trench to the west were several Rangers and an American Captain.  The Captain had received a signal to the effect that consideration was being given to abandoning the beach and advised him to stay where he was with the other men when they would all attempt to break out and make contact either with the British to the east or with the Americans to the west on Utah beach.

————oOo————

Flight Lieutenant Richard Rycroft (Medical Officer): D+1 – Much sniping from close range; half a dozen men were hit but none seriously.  At 0700 searched the village for hot water and came across 3 US Medical Orderlies in a trench.

1200 – Several US Medical Officers appeared in the village from a Casualty Clearing Hospital about a mile and a half away.  They took over from the Orderlies.  Were surprised at number of casualties – unaware of the position on this smaller beach

Last patient moved from the beach by 1700, 24 hours after they had landed.

Flight Lieutenant Edward (Ned) Hitchcock: D+1 – Up at dawn, returned to the beach to rescue the Type 14 transmitter.  Just after the bulldozer had pulled it free of the sand, it came under sniper fire.  The bulldozer abandoned the tow.

He then reported American tanks arriving from the direction of Easy beach and a little while later a group of men crowded around a vehicle listening to the BBC news which stated that the invasion had been successful.

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Memoir): D+1 – Up at 0500. To beach. Salvaged water-damaged Type 14.

Corporal Eric John Heathcote: At 0500 on D+1, S/Ldr Trollope went up the road to see if the Unit could be moved further inland.  It was reported that before a move took place, F/Lt Effinberger, who had been sent up this road, came back and reported that the road was under cross fire from machine guns.  Later it was considered that this fire probably came from US troops who had mistaken the RAF blue grey uniforms for German field grey.

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Radar Group Bulletin): After a few hours sleep, awake at first light and back to the beach.  No further landings were being made but many craft were standing out at sea waiting to land.  More salvaging.  With the bulldozer, pulled out two submerged Type 11 vehicles.  All vehicles destroyed or damaged to some extent on the beach.  Salvaged the Type 14 Aerial vehicle which had been stuck in the sand and had suffered from sea water damage.  The front line was reported to be a mere half mile ahead but the US troops had linked up with the neighbouring parts of Omaha beach.

Squadron Leader (Reverend) Harding: D+1 – A full medical team arrived about 1100.

Corporal Bill Firby: D+1 – Their Technical Officer who was a Pole (Effinberger).  He carried out a recce up the lane to see if they could move the convoy away from the beach to safer ground.  He was shot at – friendly fire!  They moved from their overnight position to a field where he met up with F/Sgt Muir Adair.

Archie Ratcliffe: The first thing next morning (D+1?) was to bury the dead, a task described as being very unpleasant.

His Unit No 313 S&T Column had lost 6 of its 8 vehicles and GCI 15082 had only 1 Signals Van and 1 Recce vehicle.

Following 2 of their men, (Tubby Dyer and Titch), being taken prisoner by the Americans and sent back to England, eight of them plus the other members of GCI 15082 were kitted out with American uniforms.  This equipment was noted as follows: – Shirts, vests, jackets, pigskin boots, blankets and full cases of compacts containing cigarettes, chocolate bars etc.

Mrs Moyna Heathcote: She also confirmed that the men were allowed to keep their US uniforms which had been issued to them in a hurry by the Americans.

Squadron Leader (Reverend) Harding: They then moved to a convenient field at the top of the cliff.

Corporal Eric John Heathcote: At about 1100 the 88mm guns again opened fire on the beach with greater determination and so the Unit moved up the road and pulled in to a field three quarters of a mile up as Transit Area No.3 was still not open.

Corporal Eric John Heathcote: At about 1400, Major Kolakos, Intelligence Officer with 49th A.A. Brigade contacted the Unit in the field and told them that General Timberlake suggested that they should go to Transit Area No. 2 at the top of the hill, adjacent to his Headquarters.  This was the first official contact of any sort with the Americans since the landing.  The Unit moved out of the original field, through the village of St Laurent (where terrific rifle fire was taking place) and into Transit Area No. 2 where it stayed the night.

Flight Lieutenant Edward (Ned) Hitchcock: They later moved to a camp site nearby.

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: F/Sgt Adair stated that, out of a total complement of 64, (this number was solely of GCI 15082 personnel) plus an unknown number of attached personnel, whose Units he did not identify, there were 47 either killed or wounded.  He also stated that most of the telecommunications equipment and all of the radar equipment with the exception of the Type 15 GCI was lost as were 26 of 34 vehicles.  This was the end of D+1.

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: At day break, the American Captain formed the men into three platoons, one under the Lieutenant, one under the Petty Officer and the third, despite his protestations of inadequacy, was under F/Sgt Adair.

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: At about 0900 on D+1, (7th June), after attempting to clear an orchard with only limited success due to concentrated machine gun fire, they retreated to the east of their penetration point.

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Memoir): Moved convoy up lane.

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Memoir): Back to beach to try to evacuate wounded. 12 dead and 40-odd wounded.

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: Parked on the road was the Unit’s Crossley mounted Type 15 Transmitter, the receiver and operations van, an Austin mounted Lister diesel and ‘a few other assorted trucks’.  Milling around were some of the G15082 personnel, most of whom were either under the trucks or crouching along the hedgerow.

F/Sgt Adair then gathered together enough volunteers to go back to the beach to salvage what equipment they could.  On making their way carefully down the ravine (not identified alas), they came across other members of GCI 15082 as well as more men from US Units. The GCI 15082 men had taken cover under wrecked vehicles and hedgerows.  These men’s joy at seeing F/Sgt Adair’s beach volunteers vanished when they were co-opted for beach work!

Under a certain amount of small arms fire, they located 3 General Purpose trucks that were still serviceable which were loaded with anything useful that could be salvaged along with supplies of jerrycans of water and petrol.  This trip to the beach confirmed the loss of the majority of their specialist vehicles.

When the Unit reformed, a few Americans had arrived, amongst whom was a US Colonel who advised them to stay put and go operational from there until further notice.  The Type 15 was got working later that night ‘with modifications which would never have been authorised by the Air Ministry!’

At this point, F/Sgt Adair records that his techs were attempting to get the radar equipment operational, MT people were repairing and servicing the vehicles.  Waterproofing of vehicles was removed and oil changed.

Squadron Leader (Reverend) Harding: The Padre mentions an American Colonel and his Aide coming past who informed the Padre that they were holding the enemy a quarter of a mile up the road at a crossroads.

Squadron Leader (Reverend) Harding: The MO borrowed a motorbike and took the Padre with him on it to the British beach to their left (Gold?) to try to obtain some medical supplies – and a Prayer Book.

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Memoir): Salvaged two more vehicles.

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Memoir): Moved to Transit area 2 above beach, (SE of St Laurent-sur-Mer).

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Radar Group Bulletin): In the afternoon of D+1 the convoy formed up and travelled east where, by the other beach head (Gold was east of Omaha!).  Met a US General (Timberlake) who showed them where to set up as he wanted them ‘on air’ asap.  Their designated site was 6 or 7 miles away and still in German hands.

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Radar Group Bulletin): Now evening, wounded had been cleared and taken back to England.

Corporal Eric John Heathcote: All the serious cases were evacuated to England that night.

————oOo————

HQ 85 (Base) Group Operations Record Book: – on 8th June 1944 (D+2), under 21 BDS shows that the convoy moved that morning to ‘a field nearby’ so that the equipment could be examined.  Convoy moved in the afternoon from Transit Area 2 to a cliff behind it where the equipment was set up ready for operational use on the following evening.

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Memoir): D+2 – Back to beach salvaging. Close call from sniping.  Set up Type 15 on Airfield being built.

Corporal Eric John Heathcote: D+2 – S/Ldr Trollope contacted Gen Timberlake to review the situation.  S/Ldr Best and the other tech officer who had been working ceaselessly salvaging equipment from the beach considered that it would be possible to set up and become operational if a site was selected.  Accordingly, S/Ldr Trollope saw the Gen again and a site was chosen overlooking the cliff. 1 missing; 5 Officers and 31 ORs wounded, (one of whom later died of his injuries).

Casualties were given as 1 Officer and 9 ORs killed.

Squadron Leader Norman Best (Memoir): Dug fox-hole and slept until 0330.

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: In an article for “Canadians on Radar”, Muir Adair recalled that, after his group had been attempting to clear an orchard of German snipers, they came across the second echelon of GCI 15082 who had come ashore after them.  This information is not shown in the ORB.

HQ 85 (Base) Group Operations Record Book: 8th June 1944 (D+2), No. 15082 GCI having lost all its communications vehicles and equipment with the exception of a Type 13 GCI and 2 VHF receivers, an attempt was made to take in by sea No 1 Air Transportable Signals Unit in order to supply skeleton communications pending the arrival of replacement vehicles.  This attempt failed owing to the length of time wasted after the Unit was loaded, in clearing the ship from Southsea.

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: GCI moved on to the site which had been their original destination for the night of D-Day, on D+4.  This site was close to St Pierre du Mont and they stayed there until July 1944.

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: In an article for “Canadians on Radar”, Muir Adair recalled that he noted a couple of days after D+1, i.e. D+3, 9th June, that they located replacement vehicles parked on a secondary road that led to Carentan.  They knew that they were intended for his Unit as they had GCI 15082 scrawled on the side of each vehicle in white chalk.  Nobody knew how they had arrived there!

He further stated in this article that his Unit became operational in the small hamlet of Les Moulins on D+4.

21 Base Defence Sector Operations Record Book: 9th June 1944 Location near St Laurent.  By the afternoon of the 9th, the military position in this Sector had improved to such an extent, the bridgehead now being seven to eight miles deep, that a signal was received ordering GCI 15082 to start packing up immediately preparatory to moving to the original site selected for them to come to on D-Day, this area now being cleared of the enemy.  The work of packing up was started immediately, hence the Unit did not operate on the night of the 9th June 1944 but moved to the new site on 10th June 1944.

21 Base Defence Sector Operations Record Book: 10th June 1944 The technical equipment of GCI 15082 which was serviceable, left first thing in the morning for the new site (the one originally selected for D-Day) and the rest of the convoy followed on, after lunch, a distance of about 8 miles, leaving the Wing Operations Room behind to await the arrival of GCI 15072.  The main convoy arrived at approximately 0500 hours and the domestic site and the cookhouse were prepared.

Flight Sergeant Muir Adair: There took place a quick meeting involving two of the Controllers, a Corporal Operator and his General Duties Sergeant, (Tommy Spears).  The GD Sergeant was F/Sgt Adair’s right-hand man who was a Regular and had been with GCI 15082 since its formation.  He was in charge of Unit Discipline, Security, the domestic site, catering and everything else that was non-technical or operational.

Meanwhile the Sgt GD had organised reports on damage, missing persons etc.  He also reported that one of their Controllers, (S/Ldr Trollope), had been named as Acting CO.

The Sgt GD had also organised a domestic site in an adjoining field alongside a hedgerow where a field kitchen had been set up and soup made of ‘C’ rations was simmering.  Some semblance of order had been established.

————oOo————

Jim Horsley’s daughter, Ann Kirby: States that he landed on Omaha on the second or third day, (D+1 or D+2).

It is worth quoting the following: “Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, Commander of the US First Army, (speaking after the War), said ‘I have returned many times to honour the valiant men who died… every man who set foot on Omaha Beach was a hero’.  Ann says she knows that he was referring to American troops but that those who knew more details would include those brave men from the Royal Air Force.

Footnote on Archie Ratcliffe

From the information supplied by this individual, it seems to indicate that he and his group did actually land in the morning but further along the beach from where they could see the GCI 15082 being very severely handled later that day.

Archie Ratcliffe’s later thoughts were as follows: –

1. He spoke of the Padre moving from corpse to corpse collecting dog tags and giving the last rites to severely wounded men, using a stubby pencil to jot down details.  He stated that he, Archie, was not religious but just felt he was watching God at work.
2. He states that all four of the BDS lads were killed later that evening while getting off the beach.  It is not known what BDS stands for in this instance – possibly Bomb Disposal Squad?
3. Sgt Humble stated as having been blinded.
4. F/Lt ‘Hoppy’ Highfield killed soon after he landed.