50 Div In Normandy:

A Critical Analysis Of The British 50th (Northumbrian) Division On D-Day And In The Battle Of Normandy

L-Cmdr Ethan R. Williams

• Publisher: Lucknow Books
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781782894278
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

In late 1943, the British army ordered the veteran 7th Armored, 51st (Highland), and 50th (Northumbrian) Divisions to return to the Great Britain to provide combat experienced troops for the invasion of northwest Europe. On D-Day, the 50th Division achieved nearly all of its objectives. By mid-June, however, the 50th held positions only a few miles beyond its final D-Day positions. The apparent failures of the veteran divisions in later operations led many senior leaders to believe that these divisions had become a liability. This thesis will evaluate the performance of the 50th Division in Normandy by first examining the period before the invasion to determine the 50th's readiness for war, British army doctrine, and weapons. The 50th's prior combat experiences and pre-invasion training will be analyzed to determine the effect that prior combat had on the division. Finally, this thesis will evaluate the performance of the 50th Division in specific combat engagements in Normandy.

CHAPTER 1 — INTRODUCTION

You will enter the Continent of Europe and, in conjunction with the other United Nations, undertake operations aimed at the heart of Germany and the destruction of her armed forces.{1}— Directive to Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force Issued February 12, 1944

At 4:45 a.m. on September 1, 1939, German forces attacked across the Polish border, igniting the Second World War. Later that same day, the British 50th (Northumbrian) Division received orders to mobilize. Two days later, Great Britain and France, bound by their obligations to Poland, declared war on Germany. The German “Blitzkrieg” invasion quickly overwhelmed the Polish defenders as Warsaw fell on September 27 and all resistance in Poland ceased a little over a week later. Fearing an attack in the west, Great Britain and France mobilized and deployed their forces to the French border, and waited for the German invasion in the west. That invasion came on May 10, 1940. Circumventing the impressive Maginot Line, the German forces attacked through Belgium and Holland. After easily defeating the Dutch and Belgian armies, the Germans continued the offensive, driving a wedge between the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.) and the French forces in northern France. Elements of the 2nd Panzer Division reached the coast of the English Channel on May 19, isolating over 300,000 British and French troops in the north of France.{2} Following a failed attempt by the 50th Division to break through the German penetration and link up with the French army in the south, those trapped forces began a withdrawal north to the coast.

At the port city of Dunkirk and along the adjacent beaches, the “Miracle of Dunkirk” occurred as nearly 337,000 B.E.F. and French soldiers were evacuated to Britain.{3} While the Royal Navy performed superbly in its mission to rescue the trapped soldiers from northern France, the battle in France and the evacuation can only be viewed as a massive defeat. It took only three weeks for the Germans to defeat the B.E.F. and it was only another two weeks before Paris was captured. France surrendered to Germany on June 22, 1940. War continued to rage in Europe, however, for the next five years, engulfing the entire continent—from the Atlantic Ocean to Moscow and from Norway to North Africa.

Following their defeat in France, the British focused their efforts on the Mediterranean, fighting the Germans in North Africa, Crete, and Greece. In June, 1941, Germany opened a second front when it attacked the Soviet Union. Later that same year, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor officially brought the United States into the war. At the Arcadia Conference, held in Washington, D.C., two weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill presented his strategic plan for the defeat of Germany:

1. A naval blockade of the Axis countries

2. An intense bombing campaign against Germany

3. Break the German people’s will to fight through propaganda and encourage rebellion within occupied nations

4. Landings by small armored and mechanized forces throughout Europe from Norway to Greece

5. A large and “decisive assault” upon German controlled Europe.{4}

To accomplish the “decisive assault” on Germany, American and British planners developed the framework for an invasion in the spring of 1943. This plan consisted of Operation Bolero, the build-up of men and materials in Great Britain; Operation Roundup, the cross channel landing in Northern France in 1943; and the beach head consolidation and advance into Germany. Immediately there were concerns regarding the timing of Roundup. The Americans desired an earlier invasion, as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt believed that it was “of the highest importance that U.S. ground troops be brought into action against the enemy in 1942.”{5} British planners opposed this early invasion. With America still mobilizing for war, Britain would be required to supply the majority of the men and materiel for the initial effort. Furthermore, the British feared that a premature invasion would either lead to a static front and a return to the horrors of trench warfare seen in World War I or result in another evacuation like Dunkirk. The planners agreed that the invasion of Europe would have to wait, but a second front against Germany was still needed to ease the pressure on the Soviet Union and to satisfy political requirements at home. The British, already engaged in northeastern Africa, proposed a 1942 invasion of northwestern Africa by Allied forces. The Africa plan was soon adopted and on November 8, 1942, Operation Torch commenced with landings at Algiers, Oran, and Casablanca.{6}

In 1943, the tide turned against Germany. Allied forces, which included the 50th Division, defeated the German Afrika Korps in the Tunisian desert and the Soviets handed Germany heavy defeats at Stalingrad and Kursk. In July, the Allies, with the 50th Division in the lead, landed on Sicily and were preparing for further operations in Italy.

The Allies, though, realized that despite their successes in the Mediterranean, the liberation of Europe still required a landing somewhere in northwest Europe.

The diversion of men and materiel to Operation Torch pushed any chance of executing Operation Roundup to 1944. This delay, however, had several advantages for the Allies in the west. The Soviets would continue to wear down the German army on the Eastern Front, the Allied air forces would launch a combined strategic bombing campaign against Germany and would gain air superiority over the Luftwaffe, and the U-Boat threat would be eliminated. American war production would be given more time to build up men and machines for the invasion and the Allies would have more time for training and planning.

On March 13, 1943, Lieutenant General Frederick E. Morgan was named the Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC) and formed a combined Anglo-American planning staff. While the Supreme Commander was yet unidentified, COSSAC issued its first directive on April 26, 1943, which, among other things, gave guidance to plan for a major invasion in France as early as possible in 1944.{7} The COSSAC staff, analyzing the entire coast of northwest Europe, quickly identified two potential landing sites. The Caen sector of Normandy was selected over the closer, yet heavily defended Pas de Calais. COSSAC developed a plan that called for an initial assault of three divisions from the sea with coordinated airborne and commando operations. Churchill and Roosevelt approved this plan at the Quadrant Conference in August, 1943. On December 6, 1943, the Allies appointed General Dwight D. Eisenhower as the Supreme Allied Commander for what was now known as Operation Overlord and the COSSAC staff became SHAEF, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.

To lead the ground forces in the invasion, the Allies appointed General Bernard L. Montgomery as the commander of the 21st Army Group (see Appendix A for the D-Day organization of the 21st Army Group). Montgomery, having distinguished himself as a division commander in France in 1940 and as 8th Army commander in North Africa and Italy, immediately made several proposals to General Eisenhower on the invasion plan. His recommendations to expand the seaborne divisions from three to five and to extend the invasion area to include the east coast of the Cotentin peninsula were quickly incorporated into the Overlord plan. The expansion of the plan, however, required additional shipping, which pushed the target invasion date from May to June, 1944.

While the SHAEF staff continued planning for the assault, units in Britain continued training and preparing for what would be their first combat in four years. Three divisions, however, were not strangers to combat. Having been in battle since 1940 and proven themselves in North Africa and the Mediterranean, the 7th Armored Division (the “Desert Rats”), the 51st (Highland) Division, and the 50th (Northumbrian) Division returned to Britain in late 1943 to provide combat experienced troops for Overlord. For the 50th Division, D-Day marked the start of their fifth year in combat, making them the most combat experienced division in the British army.

On the morning of June 6, 1944, four years after the “Miracle of Dunkirk,” the British 50th (Northumbrian) Division prepared to land on a stretch of French coastline in Normandy codenamed “Gold Beach” as one of the assault divisions in Operation Overlord. The last time the 50th Division saw France was on June 2, 1940, when the division departed from Dunkirk. Several miles to the east, the British 3rd Infantry Division, another veteran unit from Dunkirk, prepared to land on Sword Beach. While the 3rd Division spent the previous four years in training and preparing for the Normandy invasion, the 50th Division fought in North Africa and Sicily. This combat experience was one reason that Montgomery selected the 50th to be an assault division on D-Day.{8} As commander of the 3rd Infantry Division in May, 1940, Montgomery fought alongside the 50th Division in northern France. Later, as commander of the 8th Army, the 50th served under his command in North Africa and Sicily. For the invasion of France and the subsequent operations to liberate Europe to succeed, Montgomery desired seasoned, combat experienced troops to take the lead while the green divisions that had been training for the past four years got their bearings and gained combat experience.

On the first day of Overlord, the 50th Division proved Montgomery correct. The division achieved nearly all of its objectives and was in position to complete the remainder the following morning. On D-Day, one 50th Division soldier displayed extraordinary heroism and earned the Victoria Cross, Great Britain’s highest award for gallantry. By mid-June, however, the division was engaged in a bloody battle of attrition with German armored forces and held positions only a few miles beyond their final D-Day positions. Criticism of the veteran divisions began to emerge. The failures of the 7th Armored, 50th, and 51st Divisions in mid-June operations and apparent lack of forward progress in July led many senior leaders to believe that these divisions, thought to be an asset before D-Day due to their combat experience, had become a liability. Many thought that these units had lost their combat edge and were no longer effective.

Consequently, the 50th Division assumed a supporting role while fresher units took the lead in operations during the later phases of the fighting in Normandy.

Many historians have analyzed the British performance in the campaign on the larger scale, focusing on Montgomery and operations at the 21st Army Group level.{9} At the center of the debate is Montgomery’s plan for the conduct of the battle. When the British 3rd Infantry Division failed to take Caen on D-Day and subsequent attempts to take the city and break out of the initial lodgment in mid-June failed, the British appeared to be stalemated.{10} Montgomery claimed that this was all part of his orig...

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• ABSTRACT
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• ILLUSTRATIONS
• CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER 2 - FOUNDATIONS AND FIRST BATTLES
• CHAPTER 3 - LEARNING TO JUMP OUT OF A BOAT
• CHAPTER 4 - NORMANDY
• CHAPTER 5 - CONCLUSION
• REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER
• APPENDIX A - 21st Army Group-June, 1944
• APPENDIX B - Infantry Brigades of the 50th Division
• APPENDIX C - Infantry Battalions of the 50th Division in Normandy-June, 1944
• APPENDIX D - Victoria Cross Citation for WO2 Stanley E. Hollis, August 17, 1944
• BIBLIOGRAPHY