hms warspite d-day 1944...

One of the many contributions that surface warships made to their army counterparts during World War II was the provision of naval gunfire support. Nowhere was this more important than off the beaches of Normandy during Operation Overlord. This began on the morning of D-day (6 June 1944) when bombardment groups assigned to each of the assault forces carried out coordinated engagements against 23 German gun batteries and other designated targets throughout the assault area while destroyers and rocket-firing craft directly assailed the landing beaches. Once the initial landing forces were safely ashore, this fire support mission continued with unrelenting vigor. Through the duration of the Normandy campaign (early September) British battleships, monitors and cruisers conducted over 750 support engagements against shore targets during which they fired 34,621 shells ranging in size from 5.25-inch to 16-inch in calibre. Added to this were another 24,000 shells fired from British destroyers as well as many thousands more that were fired by Allied warships. This proved to be a significant force multiplier for the Allied ground forces and was an advantage that the Germans had no equivalent or counter to. Time and again naval cannonade reduced Axis fortifications, weakened their defenses, repulsed their counterattacks and debilitated their willingness and ability to resist. This, in turn, saved thousands of Allied casualties and proved to be a decisive factor on numerous occasions. In one famous instance, the battleship Rodney played a key role in defeating a major German counterattack near Caen when its 16-inch shells devastated a concentration of German armour located an astonishing 17 miles inland from Gold beach. Pictured here is the battleship HMS Warspite, which served as part of Bombarding Force 'D' off Le Havre and is seen here shelling German gun batteries in support of the landings on Sword beach on 6 June 1944. McNeill, M H A (Lt), Royal Navy official photographer [Public domain]. For more information on this and other related topics, see The Longest Campaign, Britain’s Maritime Struggle in the Atlantic and Northwest Europe, 1939-1945.

brian walter