Sword Beach (code name)

Sword Beach was one of the five landing sites for the Allied invasion of Normandy on the morning of June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day. Success of the combined British-Canadian forces that landed at Sword Beach was imperative if the Allied troops were to complete one of the key objectives of the D-Day invasion and capture the city of Caen from the Germans. The forces that landed at Sword Beach met stiff opposition from the German occupation forces and did not immediately secure the city. However, the British did establish a foothold in the area that was instrumental in the eventual Allied efforts to move inland. The battles fought at Sword Beach and the other beaches at Normandy led to the liberation of France from the Nazi forces in August of 1944 and were a key factor in the end of the war less than a year later.

Background

By June of 1944, British and German troops had been at war for almost five years. Germany had taken control of a number of European countries, including France, and was threatening Britain with aerial bombings. The Allies, including Britain, France, Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, India, China, and the Soviet Union, knew they needed to take steps to defeat Germany, especially in France. To accomplish this, the Allies—principally the British, American, and Canadian forces—planned a top-secret invasion at Normandy in France.

Code-named Operation Overlord, the invasion was to be at Normandy in part because German forces expected an invasion elsewhere. The Allied forces took great pains to continue the illusion that they planned to invade at another area of France through the use of decoys and misinformation. Normandy was therefore less protected than these other areas. It also had the advantages of being relatively close to British ports as well as a French port in Cherbourg. In addition, it was in easy range of British air bases where many Allied flyers were stationed. Establishing a beachhead there would allow Allied troops to push inland and ultimately force the Germans out of France.

The beach at Normandy was divided into five separate landing sites that were each assigned code names. American forces were assigned to land at beaches code-named Omaha and Utah; British forces were assigned to Gold Beach; and combined British and Canadian forces were to land at Juno and Sword Beaches. In all, 150,000 soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.

After a one-day delay because of bad weather, the invasion began in the early morning hours of June 6. The invasion forces landed at different times, dependent on the tides and the amount of resistance faced at each site. By day's end, the Allies had established a foothold in Normandy and could begin the long push inland. As a result, on August 25, France was liberated from the Germans, and many consider the invasions at Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno, and Sword Beaches to be the beginning of the end of the war.

Overview

Sword Beach was the designation given to the easterly-most section of the Normandy beach included in Operation Overlord. It was also the smallest of the landing sites, able to handle an invasion force of less than four thousand. The British 3rd Division was in charge of the advance; the D-Day planners were hoping that this small force could land enough men to quickly take the city of Caen and help the Allies establish a strong presence. This would prove to be an overly ambitious goal, and Caen would not be in Allied hands until the middle of July.

The small beachfront and the geography of the area combined with a wind-driven tide that rose quickly after the invasion created congestion as the troops and their armored amphibious vehicles landed. This limited the number of vehicles available for the push inland toward Caen and hampered the success at Sword Beach.

Much of the success of the D-Day invasion has been attributed to a fleet of unusual tanks used by the Allies. Dubbed "Funnies," the vehicles included a type of tank that could be used as a ramp to help other tanks cross obstacles, one that had a huge chain flail to detonate hidden mines, a flame-throwing tank that intimidated enemy troops, and the duplex drive tanks known as Sherman DDs. The Sherman DDs had a canvas screen that helped them float and a propeller that moved them in water. Twenty-one of the twenty-five DD tanks deployed to Sword Beach reached land successfully and were helpful in allowing the Allies to gain a hold on the beach.

The invasion force ran into stiff opposition from the Germans in the form of snipers and tanks. Part of the plan for the forces invading at Sword Beach was to meet up with the forces that landed at Juno Beach and move into Caen, but German forces on foot were able to significantly delay this. Additional opposition came from a unit of German Panzer tanks that pushed the Allies back to a location about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from achieving their objective at Caen.

Reinforcements arrived in the evening of the first day of the Normandy invasion in the form of men and equipment dropped by gliders that were escorted by Mustang and Spitfire aircraft. However, it would take weeks before the invading forces from Sword Beach and their reinforcements could achieve their objective more than a month later.

The invasion that began on D-Day took more than two months to complete with the liberation of France in late August. While the invasion was a success overall, the forces that invaded Sword Beach encountered many challenges and were only able to achieve one of their three main objectives on D-Day when they occupied a stretch of land along the east side of the Orme River.

There are, however, numerous groups and individual accounts of bravery and extraordinary accomplishments at Sword Beach. Among these is the story of Bill Millin, a Canadian-born bagpiper who was attached to the commando unit of the Cameron Highlanders as the personal piper to Brigadier Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat. Millin walked onto Sword Beach on D-Day wearing a Cameron kilt and unarmed except for his bagpipes and traditional sgian-dubh knife tucked into his sock, inspiring the Allied troops who were fighting and confusing the German enemy.

Bibliography

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"D-Day (June 6, 1944)." PBS, www.pbs.org/thewar/detail‗5217.htm. Accessed 19 Sept. 2017.

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Edwards, Phil. "Sword Beach." BBC, 17 Feb. 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/ff7‗swordbeach.shtml. Accessed 19 Sept. 2017.

Greenspan, Jesse. "Landing at Normandy: The 5 Beaches of D-Day." History.com, 6 June 2014, www.history.com/news/landing-at-normandy-the-5-beaches-of-d-day. Accessed 19 Sept. 2017.

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"What You Need to Know about the D-Day Beaches." Imperial War Museums, www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-d-day-beaches. Accessed 19 Sept. 2017.