Sailors and Royal Marines from HMS Raleigh headed to the beaches and hedgerows of Normandy to learn about the greatest invasion in history – and pay their respects to their forebears.
Two dozen personnel from the Torpoint establishment – mostly instructors at the Military Training Unit, which teaches sailors to use small arms – spent three days revisiting sites carved into the annals of history 69 years ago.
One of the Raleigh team lays a wreath at Ranville cemetery in Normandy
SAILORS and Royal Marines from HMS Raleigh headed to the beaches and hedgerows of Normandy to learn about the greatest invasion in history – and pay their respects to their forebears.
Two dozen personnel from the Torpoint establishment – mostly instructors at the Military Training Unit, which teaches sailors to use small arms – spent three days revisiting sites carved into the annals of history 69 years ago.
Each sailor and marine was expected to give a talk and presentation on a particular aspect of the battle for Normandy – and, where relevant, draw parallels with present-day operations.
La Cambe cemetery near Carentan at the foot of the Cotentin peninsula was the first stop for the Raleigh personnel – last resting place of more than 21,000 German soldiers.
American troops spill out of a landing craft on to the Normandy shore
CPO Jock Rennie said the overwhelming impression left by the German cemetery was “one of darkness”.
He added: “It was a shocking and sobering experience especially when you came across a stone with four names and realised this was a tank crew who all died together.”
Six miles north of the German burial ground are the gun emplacements at Pointe du Hoc – the landscape is still pockmarked like a moonscape from the naval bombardment it suffered on D-Day.
Men of 48 Commando wade through the surf as they come ashore on D-Day
After the pummelling, the site was assaulted by US Rangers in a mission similar to one today’s commandos would be expected to carry out.
The Rangers at Pointe du Hoc found the casemates empty – had the guns been installed they would have defended Omaha Beach, the next destination on the tour.
Even without the guns at Pointe du Hoc, the landings at Omaha – bloodily recreated in Saving Private Ryan – almost miscarried.
“When we saw the lie of the land and how well defended the German positions were, it made us all realise the enormity of the task undertaken by the US Army,” said CPO Rennie.
The tranquil surroundings of the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer
The assault on Omaha cost the Americans 3,000 casualties, most of whom are interred a short distance along the coast at the immaculately-kept Colleville-sur-Mer cemetery.
Among those buried here, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of the president of the same name, and two of the Niland brothers, Preston and Robert – whose fate inspired Saving Private Ryan.
Having spent a good two hours at the American cemetery, the Raleigh party moved east to Longues Battery, where four 152mm (6in) guns guarded the approaches to the small town of Arromanches – the site of Gold Beach on D-Day.
It fell to submariner PO Donald Keyes to explain the importance of naval gunfire support to the team… many of whom were gunners.
The group pose in front of one of the guns of the Longues Battery
Arromanches itself is perhaps the iconic D-Day site – not least because the sands and waters are still peppered with the remains of the Mulberry Harbour which sustained the Allied push into Normandy and on into the heart of France.
At Sword Beach, near Ouiestreham, the battlefield visitors learned of the importance of the RN beachmasters who got vehicles, supplies and men off the sands in a quick and orderly fashion, while nearby the party was shown around the Hillman bunker complex which gave an insight into German tactics defending Normandy.
Raleigh’s visit to Normandy concluded by the banks of the Orne river and Caen canal and the legendary Pegasus Bridge, seized in the very first minutes of D-Day by airborne troops in a surprise attack.
Cruiser HMS Belfast pounds the German lines with her main armament
A short distance from the crossing is the village of Ranville, where 2,563 men of all nationalities are buried.
After a poem by LS Hawkings in memory of his uncle who’s laid to eternal rest there,
Sgt McGhee delivered a fitting and sombre summing up of the sacrifices made by the British on D-Day, before a minute’s silence.
American ships disgorges masses of material and troops on to Omaha Beach a few days after June 6
On completion PO Andrew Veale laid a wreath on behalf of the Military Training Unit and CPO Rennie laid a wreath on behalf of the Torpoint Royal British Legion, of which he is a member.
The senior rating and his colleagues all left Normandy deeply impressed and much the wiser.
“We drew out lessons which still apply today and collectively broadened our understanding and knowledge of a truly enormous naval action,” said CPO Rennie.
“The lasting impression, however, was the ultimate sacrifice paid by so many young men on that ‘Longest Day’ and it would be churlish of me not to highly recommend this experience to a wider audience – one of the 100 things to do before you die.
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