Canadian troops landing on the Juno sector of the Normandy beaches - 6 June 1944
Juno was ultimately the responsibility of the Canadians to secure. The objectives were to establish a beachhead between Courseuilles and St-Aubin-Sur-Mer, a five-mile distance, push through the gap between Bayeux and Caen, and to eventually arrive at Carpiquet airfield eleven miles inland.
Soon I will be posting on SS-Schwere-Abteilung 101 in the infamous Villers-Bocage, these will be posted with as much information as possible. These will begin on 6.8.2012.
Prepare for Tigers and British/Canadian Commonwealth!
There are a few, and that is the target. Granted I do it mostly for myself. But yeah I agree to a degree.
If you’re a prick what does that make anon ;D
I’d dare say anon is about as useless as a tit-job on a wild bore.
Plate01: The Alert was given and SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101 marched forward to the front in Normandy. This photo was taken on the morning of June 7, 1944 on the N316 highway between Bézu-la-Forêt and Morgny, north-east of Normandy. In this photograph we see Michael Whittmann at the turret of his Tiger “205”.
Plate02: Here we see, climbing the hairpin bends of N316, the tigers of No.1 truppe following “205”. Leading the way is truppe commander Jürgen Wessel’s Tiger “211” being followed by Balthasar “Bobby” Woll* in Tiger “212” and SS-Hauptscharführer Hans Höflinger’s Tiger “213”.
Plate03: The rear of Tiger “221” belonging to Untersturmbannführer Georg Hantusch, commander of 2.Truppe/2.Kompanie, notice the company’s special markings on the left of the hull’s rear.
*note Balthasar “Bobby” Woll was Michael Wittmann’s gunner, later having been promoted to a Tiger commander himself.
Agent Orange-“Pipeline” (by SpikedgeXXX)
Fallschirmjager:
I wounder just how many times I heard this while skateboarding…
A Grille 15cm Schweres Infanteriegeschuetz 38(t) Ausf H, just outside of Brécourt Manor, taken out by the 101st Airborne Division/506th PIR B (Baker) Company, June 6th 1944.
Six Ravens Protect The British Monarchy
by Laurie Kay OlsonThis weekend Queen Elizabeth II and all of her subjects will be celebrating her
Raven resident at the Tower of London Diamond Jubilee on the throne of the British Commonwealth. She has six beautiful ravens in permanent residence at the Tower of London to thank for protecting the Monarchy, and the royal post she has held for sixty years now.
In many cultures around the world, the ravenis seen as an ill omen, a symbol ot the supernatural, or even believed to carry the portent of death. During the Middle Ages the raven was also considered a witch’s familiar.
It is uncertain exactly when the birds took up residence in the Tower, but legend has it that during the reign of Charles II (1630-1685) the royal astronomer, John Flamsteed, complained of ravens interfering with his study of the stars from the Royal Observatory. At that time the Observatory was located in the White Tower. Charles ordered the birds destroyed. He was quickly advised that if the ravens left the tower, the tower would fall and disaster would ensue for the kingdom. TheKing changed his mind and decreed that henceforth at least six raven would be kept in the tower to forestall any impending tragedies.
Another legend has it that a Dark Ages king named Bran (Welsh for raven) was killed in battle and he had requested that his head be buried on the White Mount, later the site of the Tower of London.
There are currently seven ravens in residence at the tower — six and a spare. They are Hardey, Thor, Odin, Gwyllum, Cedric, Hugine, and Munin. They live in special pens at the Wakefield Tower.
Beefeater at the Tower of London — the RavenmasterA Yeoman Warder, or Beefeates, is the Raven Master. He keeps an eye on this unusual unkindness of ravens (a group of ravens is an unkindness). He cares for them, feeds them, and keeps one wing of each clipped to prevent escape. This does not harm or hurt the birds, though the occasional bird has been known to make a run for it.
One of the most difficult times for the Monarchy was just after World War II. The raven population was down to just one — a raven named Grip. Most of the birds apparently flew the coop, it is believed, due to the disruption of the Blitz as the Germans bombed London relentlessly. It is rumored that one of the ravens was kidnapped. It seemed that perhaps the legend of the ravens could be true.
The raven pens at the Tower of London
Not all ravens are suited to the job. In 1986 a raven named George was retired to the Welsh Mountain Zoo for unsatisfactory conduct. He had apparently developed a fondness for chewing on TV antennas. The pampered birds can be quite long-lived as well. One raven, Jim Crow, died at the ripe old age of 44.
The raven called Thor is apparently quite a talker and will repeat things that the Raven Master has said to him with a great deal of talent. Something that has been known to create some confusion in the bird pens.
The Battle Approaches Villers
From 8.6.1944, the German resistance was organized around Tilly and the evening of the 9th saw the arrival of the famous Panzer-Lehr-Division, an armored demonstration and training division under General Bayerlein, who was ordered by Rommel to go onto the defensive in the west 12.SS-Panzer-Division ‘Hitlerjugend’.
The Panzer-Lehr-Division was an armored formation. It had 94 Pz.Kpfw.IVs and 89 Pz.Kpfw.V Panthers. It was recalled from Chartres and on the way, coming under attack by ‘Jabos’, it lost 90 trucks, 5 tanks, 84 half-tracks and mounted guns, numerous armored vehicles and 40 tankers filled with fuel.
In the front line, three German armored divisions, Panzer-Lehr-Division to the west, 12.SS-Panzer-Division ‘Hitlerjugend’ in the center and 21.Panzer-Division, formed with other divisions that had fought since June 6 a veritable shield that was hard to penetrate by frontal attacks. By now, the German army was making no serious attacking movements, being content to be pinned down on the defensive, to set up its armored units, join together all available troops and gather the units that had been held up were finally arriving one by one.
On the Allied side, the line up as follows:
-To the north and north-east of Caen the beachhead had been slightly widened since D-Day evening. The only progress made was removing the pocket at Douvres as the forces that landed at Sword Beach and at Juno Beach linked up.
-In the center, north of the Caen-Caumont road, the front formed a line through Brettvile-l’Orgueilleuse, Brouay, Cristot, Bucéels, château de Verriéres, château de Berniéres, La Belle epine and Torteval.
-Further west, in the Bessin area, the Americans, who had faced the most difficult situation at Vierville, Saint Laurent-sur-Mer and Colleville-sur-Mer on 6th June 6th made rapid progress south before the German reinforcements arrived. V Corps crossed the Aure on June 8th and passed the N13 highway; 29th Infantry Division passed through Isigny-sur-Mer and on June 9th reached the Vire river at the Vey bridge and the Elle River at Neuilly-le-Forét. On the 10th, 2nd Infantry Division and 1st Infantry Division raced south to Lison station, Balleroy and Caumont.
June 10: A dozen bombs fell on Villers and on the château farm. There was no casualties, but damage to property and throughout the area many window panes were blown out.
June 11: The Germans returned to the château. Two officers appeared, wishing to set up a hospital thee where the first wounded could be operated on. They began by placing a large red cross on the roof. In the front line, the situation developed slowly. Being unable to penetrate the German lines, Montgomery planned to use his two old Eighth Army divisions from North Africa, the 51st Highland Division and the 7th Armored Division, the “Desert Rats”, to attack in a pincer movement around Caen. The 51st Highland Division were to cross the beachhead held by the 6th Airborne Division on the eastern bank of the Orne while 7th Armored Division swung to the south-west.
The operation failed on the eastern flank. The German forces, the 346th and the 711th divisions flaked by elements of the 21.Panzer-Division, inflicted heavy losses on the 6th Airborne Division although it had massive support from the artillery, and on June 11th crushed the 51st Highland Division’s attack in under an hour.
Against the German forces in the middle of the front, west of Caen, the Allies set the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division and the British 50th Infantry Division. The latter formation came up against German defenses, and although it managed to infiltrate at Tilly, its lack of armored support prevented it from holding the town. This left the alternative of attempting to encircle the German forces from the west, with Villers-Bocage as the prime objective.
the U.S. 1st Infantry Division, which has landed at Omaha Beach and linked up with the 9th and 50th Infantry Division south of Por-en-Bessin, now encountered only small units of Germans with little weaponry. Racing through Cerisy Forest, the division, commanded by General Huebnar, reached Baleroy. By the 11th of June, it had reached Caumont.
When informed of this ‘lightning” offensive, British Second Army Commander General Dempsey and XXX Corps Commander General Bucknail came to the conclusion that there must be a certain weakness in the German lines, and considered moving General Erskine’s 7th Armored Division west and then have i make a broad sweeping movement to bring it round to Villers-Bocage and then south of Caen behind the German lines.
The scheme worked out by Allied Command was as follows:
On June 12th, to start from Buceéls and Douet de Chouain, then via Juaye-Mondaye, Saint Paul-du-Vernay and Cahagnolles, behind the lines held by the 50th Division, to reach the American sector, head off southwards along a road parallel to that taken by U.S. 1st Infantry Division as far as Livry, and finally to veer east towards Villers-Bocage along the Caumont-Villers road. This was General Montgomery placing all his confidence in a division he knew well, 7th Armored, to pull off a surprise attack behind German lines.
Photo probably taken on the morning of June 14th, near Les Hauts Vents, on the old Caen road shows a camouflaged Tiger where Wittmann’s Kompanie was in position while waiting for the supply vehicles.
The Battalion on its way to Normandy:
On June 6th, the battalion was north of Beauvais, some 70km north of Paris. In the time needed to assemble the scattered companies, the battalion was ready to set off for the Normandy front during the night of June 6-7th. It was recommended as much as possible to move only in the cover of night, to avoid being attacked by Allied fighter-bombers (Jabo).
The convoy passed through Gournay-en-Bray, Lyons forest, Morgny where it came under aerial attack on the 7th, and Les Andelys where the bridge across the Seine had been bombed and was no longer capable of taking the weight of a 57 ton Tiger tank. This entailed a broad detour southwards to Paris where the battalion paraded down the Champs-Elysées, obviously for propaganda purposes, before moving up to the front. In the woods near Versailles, the battalion was the target of a major night attack from the air, with the 3rd Kompanie and the workshop kompanie sustaining heavy losses.
During the long journey, the Kompanies remaining tanks encountered mechanical problems, forcing commanders to leave them where they stood until they could be repaired, with the attendant risk of leaving them at the mercy of a marauding Jabo. The road followed past through Dreux, Verneuil, Argentan and Falaise. The Kompanies sustained further casualties, with 9 killed and 21 wounded on the Creil road, at Versailles, at Argentan where Scharführer Kleber was killed, and at Falaise.
The theoretical strength of a Kompanie was 14 Tigers, but on June 12th, When Michael Wittmann’s 2.Kompanie reached Villers after passing through Epinay-sur-Odon, it was down to 6 Tigers, and 4 of those required attention the following day. The 1.Kompanie under command of Hauptsturmführer Möbius was some 10km further east in the Noyers area, and was down to 8 Tigers.
Meanwhile, the 3.Kompanie was in Falaise on June 14th where during the night of the 14-15th they suffered a devastating bomber raid that killed 130 townspeople. The Germans lost 3 Tigers, 18 men killed and 11 wounded. That same night, Aunay-en-Odon was bombarded for the second time after the raid on the 12th, and the whole town was reduced to rubble, leaving 56 dead. The SS-Schw.Abtl.101 had its headquarters at Baron-sur-Odon.
In the afternoon of June 12th, Wittmann’s Kompanie reached Epinay-sur-Odon, and moved to the foot of the Cot des Landes where, under the cover of sunken lanes, it found shelter south of highway N175. This afforded a chance to get some rest while waiting till the supply vehicles following behind caught up.
That evening, Monseiur Henri Robine saw two tanks. One had started to move up his farm track leading to the highway, before turning back and taking shelter in the Hauts Vents farmyard. The commander parked his Tiger in the barn, the laid down in the grass where, dog-tired, he fell fast asleep. The other Tiger stayed in under the trees of a country lane known as ” the old Caen road” to the east of the farm. According to citizens who were sheltering at the cider-house on Epinay road, these two Tigers were accompanied by three other tanks, some light vehicles, and German soldiers.
During the night, the Tigers moved on at least three times. They must have been located by spotter planes because they were hounded by naval shells, which however caused no damage.
I.SS-Panzerkorps Liason officer SS-Obersturmführer Jürgen Wessel made contact with the Panzer-Lehr-Division which informed him of the skirmishes during the noon of June 12th between German units and and British Hussars guarding the 22nd Armored Brigade’s left flank. The officer alerted the I.Panzerkorps HQ, which in turn alerted 1. and 2. Kompanies of the 12.SS-Panzer-Division ‘Hitlerjugend’ as well.
Thus, on June 12th, The Germans knew that a British attack was on the way but not the exact direction it was going to take, and the few tanks on the lookout in various places sidestepped the battle to let the Allied column advance, the better to neutralize it later on when they could counter with a better compliment of weapons and men.
So General Montgomery’s surprise attack turned out to be nothing of the sort...
Michael Wittmann’s Last Battle
A great investigative documentary about Wittmann’s great attack at Villers-Bocage and his demise.
A “Mutti” of Panzer-Lehr-Division with a wild-boar piglet, France, June 1944.
March Route of SS-Abteilung 101
This map shows the route taken by SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101, the date markers indicate how slow the daily progress of their march from Paris to its initial area of operations in Normandy in the area to the southwest of Caen. Nearly a week was needed for the 250 kilometer march. (Juni=June).
After damage to the differentials on this Sturmpanzer, the drive sprocket was completely removed and the track “detoured”. Note the additional filter system.
A Parting shot before I go to the land of dreams and gesamt Krieg…
Here we have a G.I. and his trusty lil mutt in Italy, behind him is the remains of one of the famous Tiger belonging to schwere-Panzer-Abteilung 504, the gun has been sabotaged. In the back ground is a Sturmgeschütz III Ausf.G, the back end of a Panzerkampfwagen IV and various bits of a Steyr Radschlepper Ost, Tigers and StuGs.
