'D' Day Borders on Gold Beach

The 6th Battalion had been formed in 1939 from the 4th Battalion Border Regiment (TA) which was recruiting well and over strength. The 4th became the ‘Westmorland’ battalion and the new battalion, the 6th Battalion ‘East Cumberland’ Battalion The Border Regiment, based in Carlisle and Penrith.

After time in Kent in 1940 and the north east on anti-invasion duries, in one of the deja vu’s of history, by 1943 they were at Felixstowe. This was not just in the area where the Lord Lucas had raised his regiment in 1704, but with the Landguard Fort that Lucas’ had provide a garrison now included in the Brigade’s defensive plans. However the battalion’s role in defending Britain was about to come to an end: it was about to contribute to the invasion of Europe.

Overlord

‘Operation Overlord’ required that landing of men and equipment and the return of wounded and POWs did not distract the assault troops. It was the role of the traditional lines of communication troops, but on the beach, possibly under fire. The 4th Battalion had served as communication troops in France in 1940: now the 6th Battalion would undertake that role, and more, on ‘Gold Beach’.

But in the Spring of 1943 the Battalion were occupied in exercises to test their abilities as an infantry unit. Four exercises some on a larger scale than others: Exercise ‘Spartan’ - February, Exercise ‘Neptune’ - May , Exercise ‘Teller’ - June and Exercise ‘Toreador’ also June. They were involved in an unamed exercie with 79 Armoured Division in August. ‘Neptune involved them in an attack on the Landguard Fort. Lord Luca's Regimnet had provided a garrison for Landguard in 1703.

Beach Groups

Then on 23 August the location of the War Diary shifts to Ayr and records, “Selected Officers to Ayr Scotland for training in Beach Group handling.” The Battalion were joining the units allocated to ‘Operation Overlord’ and as part of a Beach Group would land on ‘D’ Day. Beach Groups were a sign that the invasion of Europe would not involve an assault on a port. They would would operate from the first landings until the beach was safe enough to hand over to the normal lines of communications and logistics units.

Beach Groups were a new idea. The ‘Torch’, ‘Husky’ and ‘Avalanche’ landings had been on a far smaller scale than that planned for Overlord, but they had highlighted the need for specialist multi-service and multi-role units to get men, supplies and equipment from ship to shore concentration points. Units that could defend themselves if required and provide labour. They would also handle the flow of casualties and POWs back to Britain. There would eventually be seven Beach Groups for ‘Overlord’.

Each Group would be built around an infantry battalion. The battalion gave the Group its headquarters and its fighting capability. The 6th Battalion, The Border Regiment, would be the infantry battalion of 10 Beach Group. Dual infantry-specialist roles were not a new idea for the Regiment. In 1915 the 9th Battalion had served as the Divisonal Pioneer Battalion in France; digging trenches, building roads and fighting.

Training

The Battalion transferred from East Anglia to Gailles Camp, on the Ayrshire coast north of Troon in mid- September 1943. Most of the battalion went by rail. The movement order presumed an overnight journey leaving Felixstowe on 13th and arriving at Gailles on the 14th. Number 10 Beach Group was the last Group to be formed: others had begun the process in April. For some units the transfer from infantry brigade to Beach Group was considered a demotion. Senior Officers continuously emphasised that units should take it as compliment that they had been selected. That can’t have counted for much as the battalion arrived at an unknown, but very large hutted training camp, with no NAAFI or YMCA canteen, on the less than hospitable Ayrshire Coast. However Gailles had been running all the Beach Group training and by September it was a well-oiled machine.

Training for managing beach logistics was one thing, but the difficult job was to get the disperate groups of specialists from the Army, Navy and RAF, 3,300 in all to work together. One example issue was that Navy and Army wirelesses worked on different wavelengths. More subtle was overcomiong inter-service rivalry and traditions.

10 Beach Group

The Group had men from the Royal Engineers, Royal Army Service Corps, Royal Army Medical Corps, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Pioneer Corps, Provost Corps, RAF and Royal Navy. Wherever possible dual command was operated: soldier and sailor or soldier and airman.The fundamental issue the Groups faced was getting material out of ships at sea and taking them across the beach to dumps. The arrival of DUKWs reduced the need for transhipment at the water’s edge and revolutionised the work of Beach Groups, but there were not enough DUKWs to eliminate the need for some cargoes to be transhipped.

New Forest

At the end of March 1944 the Beach Group arrived at Brokenhurst in The New Forest. They continued to take part in training exercises that took them to Southampton, Studland and Wittering near Selsey.

In mid-May they moved to what would become their embarkation camp. Camp B5 at Knights Copse near Lyndhurst. On 23 May the camp was sealed and final briefings for ‘Overlord’ began. On 30 May the Group moved to Southampton for embarkation. The Group was divided into serials for specific ships and into anding groups. Most would be ‘1st tide’: they would land on Jig Red and Jig Green with the specialist armour that led the assault troops of 50th Northumbrian Division ashore.

10 Beach Group would work alongside 9 Beach Group that would land on King Green and King Red.

The War Diary makes no comment on the sea conditions, but it was rougher than expected. Men would have been seasick, but of more concern was that the wind and seas menat the tide rached higher up the beach than expected. Less ebach to owork on and distubtingly the high sea levels prevent all the underwater obstacles on Jig Green being cleared.

Landing

At ‘H’ Hour + 7 the assault infantry would land. The 1st Battalion The Dorset Regiment on Jig Red and 1st Battalion The Hampshire Regiment on Jig Green. Their task was to press inland and cut the Bayeux-Caen road.

The the uncleared obstacles on Jig Green and a pill box at the east end of Le Hamel forced the Beach Group to concentrate their initial efforts on Jig Red. It would not be until later in the day that a patrol of ‘B’ Coy was able to neutralise the pill box. Beach Group Headquarters was able to enter Le Hamel at 1545. A temporary POW cage was created on Jig Red.

During the night the Luftwaffe dropped anti-personal bombs on the beach.

‘D’ Day +1

One man from the morter platoon was killed and two others wounded by the Luftwaffe’s bombs.

The Group established two dumps Ammunition and, Petrol, Oil and Lubricants – and during the day was receiving material at both. The Group’s first news summary was published. It suggested that around 500 POWs had been collected in their area.

‘D’ Day +2

The ammunition dump was now operational and issuing material. The bad weather restricted unloading and the Group believed that landings were behind schedule, but improving. The Group’s news summary suggested that 50th Division were capturing around 1,000 men a day.

9 June and onwards

The Group closed its temporary POW cage and POWs were now concentrated at a cage east of Mont Fleury. The unloading of supplies continued to improve. On 10th June the Group reported satisfactory unloading of stores and men. The News Summary for 10 June included:

“…German P.W. reported to have said they have not seen their own air force for sometime. Numbers of P.W. cannot be estimated but thousands and thousands of them.

A party of P.W. In Le Hamel was 210 strong one evening and 230 strong next morning – all Germans wishing to join 10 Beach Grp, must send written application to the

Adjutant...”

Stores landed

The Group records showed these quantities landed by 2000 hrs each day:

 9 June 674 tons of stores and 171 vehicles

10 June 1,737 tons of stores and 151 vehicles

11 June 2,107 tons of stores and 326 vehicles

A later summary recorded that the stores situation was progressing well apart from beer. Between 9 June – 8 July the Group unloaded 51,156 tons of stores and 39,040 vehicles.

End Game

The Groups news summary from the 15th onwards include more and more light hearted light-hearted, for example the Pioneer Platoon 6BORDER offering to build stables, prisons and fix windows, as well as lift mines. The same summary recorded the Group having evacuate 2,100 casualties.

The Pioneer Platoon later claimed to have found the first wooden ‘S’ Type mines in the area, only to have counter claims from ‘C’ Coy. Both were trumped by 9th Coy FE’s claim that Brockenhurst was “positively pathed with mines of all sorts.”

The increase in humour was directly related to the work of the Group becoming ever-more routine. Never‑the-less the Group kept its guard up. On 1 July a defensive plan was circulated as a precaution against a German breakthough. However the Group was already being asked to supply infantry drafts to Divisions in the front line. And then in the War Diary a list of almost 36 men who had volunteered for the paratroops and airlanding units.

Better than Mulberry

The shortage of infantrymen and the reduced role of beach landings would see the Group being suspended by the end of August. Surprisingly the Beach Groups had delivered more stores than the better-known Mulberry Harbours. The disbandment of the 6th Battalion the Border Regiment followed from the need for infantrymen. The War Office decided to disband the battalions that had been created by duplicating existing TA units or those formed during the War. Twenty-five officers and 550 men would go as reinforcements to units in 15th Scottish Division.

Peter Green