Every year, from 1947 to 1979, the Directing Staff and students of the Army Staff College at Camberley travelled to Normandy in June. There they sprawled in groups in the long grass and listened to the stories of some of those who fought in the 1944 Normandy campaign.
This was neither a holiday nor an exercise in nostalgia, though it was certainly a welcome break in a year of intensive study. It was, in fact, an essential part in the education of young Army officers, who might in future years hold senior command and staff appointments. Strategy and tactics could be learned from books or military training, but it is difficult to impart a true understanding of the reality of battle. Many post-war soldiers have faced low-level action - the terrorist, armed with rifle or bomb. But, with the exception of Korea in the early 1950s, none have fought in an extended full-scale war. The Falklands and Gulf conflicts, demanding as they were, hardly produced opposition like the German Panzer Divisions in Normandy in 1944. What is it like when your tank squadron’s advance is suddenly confronted by 88mm guns, which can knock you out long before your own weapons come into range? How do men react to prolongued shelling? What are the effects on the human spirit of the stress of combat? How do you overcome your own quite natural fear and lead men in action - not just once, but day after day? What happens when the chaos of the battlefield disrupts the neat plans of commanders and their staffs? All these, and many others, were questions to which the students found answers, often hidden in the stories which unfolded on those annual Battlefield Tours.
One important lesson, which emerged so clearly but which can never be reproduced on training away from the danger of live ammunition, is that there are moments when the pendulum of battle seems to hang limp; when a strong personality, be he Colonel, Corporal or even Private Soldier, grabs that pendulum and pulls it firmly his way. The significance of the actions of one man, who imposes his personality on the situation at a critical moment, can spell the difference between success and failure. Equally certainly, the commander who, for any of a number of reasons, cannot provide the clear and dynamic leadership which the situation and his men demand, will fail. The significance of the individual was a lesson which emerged at almost every ‘stand’.
Over one hundred concrete caissons were towed across the Channel and positioned off the French coast at Omaha and Gold beaches forming artificial harbours.
The men who, on those annual visits, described their personal experiences of battle, on the very ground where the actions had taken place, had found their own answers the hard way. It would have been easy to have labelled them as ‘heroes’; a label which all would have strongly resented. They saw themselves as ordinary men in an extraordinary situation. They told their stories with humility and humour. The student returned from a tour not just fascinated by the stories he had heard, but quietly reassured that perhaps, if the call came to him and his generation, he might answer that call as had those who went to Normandy in 1944.
Piers in operation with floating roadways (to the left) leading to the shore at Arromanches.
In 1980, to mark the end of the annual Staff College Battlefield Tours, we produced a small book, Brightly Shone the Dawn, which aimed to record a few of those stories, lest they fade away, with the passage of time, into unrecorded history. Some of those stories are reproduced here, for the most part updated by more research.
This book does not seek to be a comprehensive history of the Normandy Campaign, nor even of the events Inland from King Beach. Rather it is a collection of inter-linked snapshots of specific incidents on the route inland. The dedicated student of military history will find many books which give a far fuller account of the campaign. Our aim is to take the visitor who wants to understand something of the individual in war, and lead him to specific places on the ground where he may capture something of just a few of the personalities and events of the 1944 battlefields.
For those who decide to follow this story on the ground we suggest that the best place from which to start your pilgrimage is the delightful seaside town of Arromanches. Nestling in a small cove among the hills, it may seem an unlikely startpoint - until one notices the remains of the Mulberry Harbour off-shore. Throughout the summer of 1944 Arromanches was the vital lifeline through which reinforcements, stores and all the necessary paraphernalia of war had to come, and through which casualties and prisoners of war returned to Britain, as the Armies inland fought to expand their D Day beach-head and in due course break-out to liberate France and defeat Germany.
A Sherman tank begins its journey to the fighting, travelling along one of the floating roadways connecting the piers with the shore at Arromanches.
During the planning for D Day it was assumed that any port that might be captured would be mined and its handling facilities destroyed. The very concept of constructing mobile ports and floating them across the Channel is almost unthinkable today, even with more than half a century of advances in technology. And yet more than two million tons of prefabricated steel and concrete were concealed off the coast of Southern England, towed across to Normandy and constructed into the two Mulberry Harbours at Arromanches and St Laurent (Omaha Beach - destroyed in a storm 19–22 June). The outer breakwaters consisted of aged ships which were steamed into position before being sunk. In addition vast concrete caissons were towed across the Channel and sunk. Many can still be seen off the coast at Arromanches today, particularly at low tide. Inside these protected areas floating piers were positioned, so that ships could moor and unload. From these piers sections of floating roadways, which had been towed into position and bolted together, linked piers to beaches. By the end of August 1944, when the Battle of Normandy had been won, the 2nd British Army numbered some 830,000 men, with 203,000 vehicles and 1,240,000 tonnes of stores, much of which had come through Arromanches. The magnitude of this achievement can best be understood by a visit to the excellent museum at Arromanches, with its working models, films, etc. Arromanches is indeed an admirable launch-pad from which to follow the incidents covered by this book.
Some will read this small book in the comfort of their homes, perhaps in front of a blazing fire on a cold winter’s evening, with a glass in their hand and a map of Normandy beside them. We hope that they will glean something of those whose stories we have tried to tell. But the real value of this book should be for those who can give a day or two to visit the battlefields, to stand where they stood in the fields and lanes of Normandy, and to hear the voices of those young men who, answering the call of Duty, found themselves plunged into an extraordinary adventure which would alter their lives and outlooks and chart the course of history. They are elderly now, those who are left, and we should remember them and their comrades with pride, grateful for the peace they won for us.
We would particularity like to record our thanks to those who have allowed us to retell their stories. Many of those listed below are, sadly, no longer alive, but, whether in 1980 or 1999, we greatly appreciate the help they gave us:
Major-General Sir James d’Avigdor-Goldsmid, Bt, CB, OBE, MC.
Captain PGC Dickens, DSO, MBE, DSC.
Captain P Dyas, OBE.
Major-General DS Gordon, CB, CBE, DSO, DL.
Lieutenant Colonel RHWS Hastings, DSO, OBE, MC.
Company Sergeant Major SE Hollis, VC.
Lieutenant Commander HM Irwin, VRD, RNVR.
Major CF Milner, MC.
General Sir John Mogg, GCB, CBE, DSO, DL.
Captain AMcL Morrison, MC.
We are grateful Gavin Waddell who drew the maps, and to Michael Irwin who has allowed us to use some of the photographs he took on D-Day.
Finally, we would ask anyone who does visit these battlefields to give time to visit at least one of the many War Cemeteries in Normandy. No true Battlefield Tour could be complete without paying one’s respect to those who answered the call, but did not return.
June 1999
Bridge of Cally, Perthshire. Winchester, Hampshire.