Wn18 Colleville Plage.
10./ Grenadier-Regiment 736 of the 716th Static Division (Wehrmacht).
To the allies - Sword Beach, 'Roger' Green, code named Skate.
1 x R612 casemate.
1 x Ringstand for a 5cm KwK gun.
2 x Vf58c Tobruk's.
1 x Pz.T.FT.17 turret
on a U shaped Tobruk.
1 x 5cm KwK L/60.
1 x 7.5cm F.K.231(f).
1 2.5cm Pak 112(f).
2 x Mine fields Mf.71 & 21.
7.5cm F.K.231(f).
2.5cm Pak 112(f).
Pz.T.FT.17 turret on a U shaped Tobruk.
Wn18 Colleville Plage.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
These are all the defence positions printed onto this German map, also showing the command structure.
5cm KwK L60.
Could this have been 10th Company, 738 Infantry Regiment.
Trenches at Wn18.
Wn18 Colleville Plage.
Red - defence structures.
Longer Red - possibly huts for troops.
Black line - barbed wire defence.
Black straight lines - anti-tank ditches and an A/T wall.
Green - trenches.
This area now is covered in houses, the road system is very much the same and it would have been with sand dunes along the beach.
Beach defences.
Barbed wire.
Trenches with a 5cm Pak on the Atlantikwall.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
The beach on a lovely day in November.
Rommel inspecting the beach defences.
Rommel inspecting the beach defences.
Placing concrete defence on the beach.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
On D-day.
This was the defence position of ''Skate'' the code name given to Wn18 by the ''Bigot'' Allied planners.
Bigot map with all the defence positions marked on it.
Fire support for ''Sword'' sector.
HMS Dragon Transferred to the Polish Navy: On 15 January 1943 and on D-Day shelling German shore batteries at Colleville-sur-Orne and at Trouville.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
On D-day.
This was the defence position of ''Skate'' the code name given to Wn18 by the ''Bigot'' Allied planners.
7.5cm F.K. 231(f).
7.5cm ammunition. It could fire high explosive and solid shot against tanks but had trouble following a moving target.
Plan.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
Several AVRE's landed in front of the casemate and the 7.5cm Kannon managed to shoot tanks and landing craft before at least two rounds from a tank took it out. You can see the blast effects on the concrete.
AVRE Petard armed Churchill tank.
AVRE Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers.
Major General Sir Percy Cleghorn Stanley Hobart KBE, CB, DSO, MC. the General in charge of the 79th Div.
79th Armoured Division Black Bull the division in charge of all the ''Funnies''.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
Several AVRE's landed in front of the casemate and the 7.5cm Kannon managed to shoot tanks and landing craft before at least two rounds from a tank took it out. You can see the blast effects on the concrete.
Plan of an R612 casemate.
The damage inside the casemate.
Gun room of an R612.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
The side of the casemate which was covered in sand.
Plan.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
The side of the casemate which was covered in sand.
Plan.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
R612 casemate the view from the landward side.
Field of Fire.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
N° 4 Commando.
Wn18 Colleville Plage.
The road to the French Redoute.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
French Redoute was used as part of the defence..
Plan.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
The 5cm KwK L60. This gun took out quite a few tanks and hit many landing craft.
The 5cm KwK L60.
The 5cm KwK L60.
Plan.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
Pz.T.FT.17 turret on a U shaped Tobruk. A captured tank turret placed on a U Tobruk, a crew of one with shelving inside the Tobruk to stack ammunition. It would have held many hundreds of 7.92 rounds.
Pz.T.FT.17 turret MG34 machine gun..
Plan of a U type concrete Tobruk.
Pz. T type turret.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
Pz.T.FT.17 turret on a U shaped Tobruk, this is where the turret was set on top of the Tobruk. All this area has now been built over.
Pz.T.FT.17 turret on a U shaped Tobruk.
U shaped Tobruk from behind.
Pz.T.FT.17 turret with the rear doors open.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
Wn18 beach defences with trenches on the edge of the beach and the R612 casemate behind.
How it may have looked.
More trenches.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
D-Day morning 6th of June 1944. The RAF & USAAF started bombing around 06.00am , then Naval units continued the bombardment and around 7.15am landing craft rockets fired on the beach, then around 07.25am the first units started to land to the west of Wn18.
Lancaster's.
B17.
Landing Craft Rocket.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
Once the bombing, shelling and rocketing stopped the landings started. The whole coast of France was segmented into code names by the Allies. Here Sword Beach was split into Oboe, Peter, Queen & Roger and then again with Green, White and Red.
Canadian Infantry Landing Craft.
Sherman Duplex Drive (DD) tanks running in to the beach.
Infantry landing on Sword Beach.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
Wn18 is the V shaped roads on the left and the landings went in to the right of the picture.
Landing craft and tanks were attacked by the guns of Wn18. Many of the tanks were hit until one fired at least two rounds into the embrasure. Disabling the gun.
The R612 showing the damaged embrasure..
Sherman Duplex Drive (DD) tanks running up the beach.
Sherman Crab flail mines up a beach.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
Looking down the beach to the west where the first landings took place. This is where the majority of tanks and soldiers came ashore on Sword Beach. The assault infantry here were the 2nd Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment.
Different landing craft.
British infantry landing.
Infantry sheltering on the beach.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
Sword Beach D-Day utter chaos.
German artillery map showing the artillery targets that a fire control officer could call down onto and landing craft and troops in the area. One call to the artillery with the code word Engers and a four gun batterie of 10.5cm or 15.5cm could come crashing down.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
About 09.05 the Commandos started to land.
Just before touchdown, the congestion on the beach with so many tanks.
Landing Craft Infantry - LCI.
(L) - Large.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
About 09.05 the Commandos started to land.
They came in closer to Wn18 and took a lot of damage from the beach defences. Many landing craft were disabled and some sunk. Quite a lot of Commandos were killed & wounded and as it was high tide with a strong westerly wind the surf was running and the landing ships with boarding ramps (like this one in the picture) had a lot of trouble off loading the Commandos, as some ramps were washed away.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
A Centaur MK IV close support tank. This was a Cromwell with a 90mm short range gun that could support the Commandos on landing. About 46 were used on D-day.
Centaur MK IV close support tank.
Centaurs in pre D-day camps in southern England.
Centaur inland after D-day.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
Commandos assembling on the beach.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
Memorial.
Wn18 Colleville Plage
Memorial.
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William "Bill" Millin the personal piper to Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat, Commander of 1 Special Service Brigade on D-Day.
Lord Lovat is at Bill Millins left arm in the water wading ashore.
Lord Lovat at a planning meeting.
Piper Millin playing to Commandos.
Combined Operations Badge
Wn18 Colleville Plage
Piper Bill Millin at Sword Beach.
Wn18 Colleville Plage