Sand & Steel: The D-Day Invasions and the Liberation of France

1070 Pages·2019·20.292 MB·English

by  Peter Caddick-Adams

SAND
& STEEL

PETER CADDICK-ADAMS
SAND
& STEEL
THE D-DAY INVASION
AND THE LIBERATION
OF FRANCE
1
1
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© Peter Caddick-Adams 2019
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Caddick-Adams, Peter, 1960– author.
Title: Sand and steel : the D-Day invasions and the liberation of France /
Peter Caddick-Adams.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2019.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018055471 | ISBN 9780190601898 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: World War, 1939–1945—Campaigns—France—Normandy. | World
War, 1939–1945—Campaigns—France. | Operation Overlord. | Normandy
(France)—History, Military. | BISAC: HISTORY / Military / World War II. |
HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century.
Classification: LCC D756.5.N6 C33 2019 | DDC 940.54/21421—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018055471
This book is dedicated to Professor John Buckley and Professor Gary Sheffield,
two men who, at different times in my career as a military historian, have
mentored and encouraged me and provided me with outstanding guidance,
help and advice. They are, by the happy chance of fate, both now professors in
the War Studies Department of the University of Wolverhampton, UK. I am
proud to call them my friends as well as professional colleagues.
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc.
United States of America
Contents
Glossary vii
Operation Overlord Orders of Battle xxvi
Introduction xxxvii
Part One: Preparation
1 France and America 3
2 Atlantikwall 17
3 Heading Over There 49
4 The Commandos 60
5 Warm Hearts 78
6 A Question of Colour 97
7 Committees and Code Words 114
8 Soapsuds and Tidal Waves 140
9 COSSACs, Spartans and Chiefs 155
10 Rhinos, Camels and Roundabouts 170
11 Ducks and Eagles 198
12 Bigots and Tigers 225
13 Thunderclaps and Fabius 243
vi CONTENTS
14 My Headmaster Was a Spy 260
15 Big Week, Berlin and Nuremberg 275
16 Fortitude, FUSAG and France 294
17 The Giants 320
18 Weathermen 339
19 The Great Armada 353
20 Shells, Rockets and Flies 376
21 Boats and Bugles 396
Part Two: Invasion
22 Night Flyers 417
23 Across the Water and Into the Trees 445
24 Utah: Ivy Division 481
25 Wet Feet 515
26 Omaha: Blue and Gray 545
27 Omaha: Cota Takes Command 579
28 Rangers, Lead the Way! 604
29 Omaha: Big Red One 633
30 Omaha: E-3 – the Colleville Draw 660
31 Gold: Men of the Double-T 699
32 Juno: Maple Leaf at War 741
33 Iron Division at Sword 783
34 Yeomen of England 811
35 Green Berets and le Général 844
Postscript: Fortitude and the Spies 869
Acknowledgements 889
Notes 899
Bibliography 987
Index 999
Glossary
Ia German chief of staff/chief operations
officer
Ib German chief quartermaster/supply staff
officer
Ic German chief intelligence staff officer
I Corps (British) Lieutenant General Sir John Crocker’s 1st
Corps (British Second Army)
III Flak-Corps General der Flakartillerie Wolfgang
Pickert’s 3rd Anti-Aircraft Corps
(Luftwaffe)
4th/7th Royal Dragoon British tank battalion
Guards
V Corps (US) Major General Leonard T. Gerow’s 5th
Corps (US First Army)
6×6 US six-wheeled truck, usually a two-and-
a-half ton ‘Jimmy’
VII Corps (US) Major General J. Lawton Collins’ 7th
Corps (US First Army)
13th/18th Royal Hussars British tank battalion
LXXXIV Corps General Erich Marcks’ 84th Armeekorps,
HQ in Saint-Lô
viii GLOSSARY
88mm German anti-tank/anti-aircraft gun; term
widely used to mean hostile artillery
105mm US field howitzer, towed or mounted in
the M7 ‘Priest’. It had a max range of
twelve thousand yards
A-20 Douglas ‘Havoc’ twin-engined light
bomber and fighter (the Boston in RAF
service)
A-26 Douglas ‘Invader’ twin-engined light
bomber and ground attack aircraft
AAA Anti-Aircraft Artillery
Abwehr German military intelligence service
Achilles British M10 tank destroyer equipped with
17-pounder anti-tank gun
Albany D-Day paratroop drop of US 101st
Airborne Division into Normandy
‘All American’ Major General Matthew B. Ridgeway’s
82nd Airborne Division
APA Attack Transport – US Navy ship fitted
with large davits to handle landing craft
ARC American Red Cross, which manned
Clubmobiles and the Rainbow Corner
Arcadia Washington Conference of 22 December
1941–14 January 1942, which established
the CCS
Argonaut Washington Conference of 20–25 June
1942, which postponed Channel invasion
Army Group ‘B’ German forces north of the River Loire,
led by Erwin Rommel
Army Group ‘G’ German forces south of the River Loire,
led by Johannes Blaskowitz
Argument (aka ‘Big Week’) Allied air operations to
destroy the Luftwaffe, 20–25 February
1944
AS Armée Secrète (Gaullist Resistance)
GLOSSARY ix
ATS Auxiliary Territorial Service (1938–49),
British all-female land force of WW2
Avalanche Anglo-American amphibious assault at
Salerno, 9–16 September 1943
AVRE Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers;
specialist engineer tank based on the
Churchill
AWOL Absent without Leave, a severe military
offence
B-17 US four-engined Boeing ‘Flying Fortress’
heavy bomber
B-24 US four-engined Consolidated ‘Liberator’
heavy bomber
B-25 US twin-engined North American
‘Mitchell’ medium bomber
B-26 US twin-engined Martin ‘Marauder’
medium bomber
Bagration Huge Soviet land operation, launched
on 22 June 1944 in Belorussia, to
complement Overlord
Bailey bridge British-designed combat bridge made of
man-portable, pre-fabricated parts
Band Code name for Normandy invasion
beaches east of the River Orne (not used)
Bangalore torpedo Lengths of explosive-filled pipe, used to
destroy barbed-wire entanglements
Battalion Single-arm unit of 500 to a thousand
men, commanded by a lieutenant colonel
or major
battery Artillery unit of company size, usually of
between four and eight guns
BCRA Bureau Central de Renseignements et
d’Action; Gaullist intelligence service
‘Beetle’ Nickname for Walter Bedell Smith,
SHAEF chief of staff