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- 3 -

In the early hours of the morning of 6th June the men of
Able and Baker Companies filed silently into the assault craft
which swung from the davits of the ships. Standing by, off
shore, under the thunderous bombardment going on, [underlined] were the H.M.S.
St. Helier, Brigadier and the S.S. Clan Lamount [end underlined] . All these
carried small assault crafts. Finally the tiny boats were loaded
and lowered into the sea. Then began the most critical phase
of the operation. Running the gauntlet to the beaches these small
craft came under fire but so well had the heavy supporting weapons
done their work that the craft were able to beach - at the exact
time and place - five minutes after eight on Nan Red beach.
As the men felt the jar as the craft touched down, the ramp was
released. The dash up the bullet-swept beach began. Through
the explosing mortar bombs - under the hail of 88 MM air burst
Able and Baker reached the sea wall and fanned out through the
breach to their tasks.

Able Company's task was to reduce a series of enemy positions
in the houses along the coast. A few casualties were sustained
getting across the beach itself. Later, when the house to house
fighting began, Lieutenant Keith and several of his platoon were
seriously wounded. By a quarter to ten A Coy had secured its
section of the beach-head. But only after great difficulty.
The enemy held houses were protected by "S" mines, wire, with
defences so sited that each house could supports its neighbor.
In addition the buildings in the tow gave snipers excellent vantage
points from which to pick of the invaders. Nine men including
two platoon Sergeants, Sergeant Ned Rigley and Sgt Hugh McCormack,
were killed. Twenty others - including CSM Hugh Poley were wounded.

To Baker Company fell the task of reducing a strong point
which dominated the beach. It had been hoped that the heavy
preliminary air and naval bombardment would silence this small
fortress. But it had somehow escaped destruction - must be
taken out the hard way. Long and bitter it was, but, finally, with
the help of AVRES - armoured vehicles Royal Engineers, mounting a
special Petard - the garrison fell. One Officer, Lieutenant G.
Moran was seriously wounded, with three men of his platoon the
other two platoons losing eight men wounded. While baker company
were thus engaged all during the day until five o'clock in the
evening, the second wave troops had passed successfully through
them. From this trouble some blockhouse 48 prisoners were taken.
A search revealed that approximately the same number of enemy
had been killed.

[underlined] CHARLIE COMPANY'S LANDING [end underlined]

Charlie had a less stormy passage in the early stages of
the landing but soon after getting out of the village they came
under heavy fire from Tailleville. This was their objective so
they at once deployed and began working their way forward to the
wall around the main German Strong point. The enemy were more
strongly entrenched here than had been anticipated. Numerous
tunnels led from one gun pit to another, in addition their
weapons were so disposed that all approaches were completely
covered by fire, However, with the aid of a troop of tanks
this strong hold was reduced. Four officers and 57 other ranks
came out with their hands in the air. A feature of this action
was the use, for the first time in the campaign, of the man-pack
flame-thrower. The enemy displayed little inclination to stay at his
post in the face of the searing flame.

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