​​The 9th Parachute Battalion were allocated to parachute into Normandy on 6 June 1944, D-Day. They were to parachute into drop zone V which is close to the village of Varaville. From here around 600 men should have successfully drop in and then moved off from the drop zone rendezvous (RV) point towards the village of Gonneville-en-Auge.&nbsp;​Once in the village of Gonneville-en-Auge, Lieutenant Colonel Otway and his men formed up at the RV point. It was from this point once formed up they moved off towards the battery. He should have had 600 men, but at 02:45 he only had 150. The attack would have to go ahead regardless.&nbsp;​The attack was finally made from the direction of the south of the battery. This was across a mine field which Lieutenant Colonel Otway and his 150 men would need to cross.&nbsp;​This was completed and the attack went in with the 9th Parachute Battalion understrength and under resourced. With the attack being made on all four casemates, casualties started to amount. Lieutenant Colonel Otway was satisfied that in the short time of the attack, all four cannons had been destroyed by his men. They began to withdraw back out across the minefield. Lieutenant Colonel Otway by then only had 80 men who were fit and able to fight. Some of the severely wounded men were left at the battery inside the casemates for protection.&nbsp;​To the north of the battery was the observation post where the German Battery commander, Oberleutnant (Lieutenant) Raimund Steiner. He received telephone calls during the early hours of 6 June about the attacks. He called on other German artillery batteries to fire directly onto the Merville Battery. He eventually made his way from the area Merville-Franceville-Plage and head towards the battery.&nbsp;​This walk covers all three main areas of the story of the Merville Battery from the 6-7 June 1944. This includes a visit to the Merville Battery Museum.​&nbsp;

France

La Route de la Libération de l’Europe est un itinéraire culturel certifié par le Conseil de l'Europe reliant les pays, régions, lieux de mémoire et histoires marquant la libération de l’Europe de l’occupation du régime nazi. La route a été conçue par la Fondation LRE comme un moyen de réfléchir à l’histoire de la guerre et à ses conséquences à longs termes grâce à une approche multinationale et multi perspective. Avec des centaines de sites et histoires dans neuf pays européens, la route relie les principales régions traversées par les forces Alliées en 1943-1945.La Fondation LRE et sa branche nationale LRE France présentent ici la Route de la Libération en France, la partie française de l’itinéraire qui vise à créer des sentiers de la mémoire dans toutes les régions françaises touchées par la Seconde Guerre mondiale et la Libération. Vous pouvez ainsi découvrir et visiter des musées, des monuments et des sites historiques, et en apprendre plus sur les histoires et les itinéraires thématiques de la LRE en France.

This German observation bunker was the eye’s of the Merville Battery and is located at Merville-Franceville-Plage. The officer in charge of the battery used this as his ‘bike shed’ for the bicycle he rode back and forth to the battery on.​ 

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 ​Overhead aerial of the gun battery at Merville (3km east of Ouistreham) consisting of four medium casemates, after air bombardment, May 1944. Bombing failed to penetrate the casemates and, because of the threat the battery posed to the landings on SWORD Area, it was attacked and neutralised by 9th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment in the early hours of 6 June.​ 

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​It was from this location in Gonneville-Auge that the men of the 9th Battalion headed to make the assault on the battery with only 150 men.​ 

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The officer in charge of the 9th Parachute Battalion that lead the assault on the Merville Battery. His memorial is within the grounds of the museum.​

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A view looking across the battery and the route of attack towards casemate 3 and 4.

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​​9th Parachute Battalion on D-Day​ 

WN05 was made up of several concrete defensive positions overlooking this small area of beach and west towards the mouth of the River Orne. It included multiple gun emplacements, such as 75mm and 35mm cannons. These were supported by machine gun nests and anti-aircraft guns. This sector of the Atlantic Wall was defended by soldiers of the German 716th and 711th Infantry Divisions.&nbsp;The observation bunker was a key element of the Merville Gun Battery located 2km southeast of WN05. The battery was manned by the 716th Infantry Division’s Artillery Regiment (1716th). In 1944, this bunker sat along the beachfront; over time, shifting sand has now placed it among the dunes.&nbsp;On the night of 5 June 1944, Steiner was present in this bunker. He had stored his bicycle, used to travel between the battery and the observation post, inside. The site is now referred to as “Steiner’s bike shed.” Despite this, Steiner chose to use a different bunker 500 meters to the east as his command post. Due to drizzle and rain, Steiner assumed a landing was unlikely and went to sleep.&nbsp;Just after midnight on 6 June, Steiner was awoken by a call from his second-in-command, Hauptwachtmeister Buskotte. Buskotte reported that an Allied glider had landed near the Merville Battery and that close-quarter combat had begun. Steiner immediately contacted General Richter at 00:28 to inform him of the fighting, but the warning was not taken seriously.&nbsp;Steiner and several of his men exited their bunker and moved into the surrounding dunes. He recalled the sound of bombers overhead striking targets further west. More aircraft soon followed, towing gliders. Steiner noted their unusual size and even fired upon them with two other soldiers. He believed that one glider he hit later crashed east of the Merville Battery.&nbsp;Later that morning, Buskotte called again, stating the battery was under renewed attack. This was the assault by Lt. Col. Otway and the British 9th Parachute Battalion. Steiner ordered artillery from the 711th Division to fire on the Merville position due to Allied presence and told Buschotte to move the men into protective bunkers.&nbsp;Buskotte’s final call reported the British attempting to use flamethrowers. Steiner then retrieved his bicycle and rode to the Merville Battery to assess the situation himself.&nbsp;

​​Steiner’s ‘Bike Shed’ Observation Bunker and WN05.​ 

​​Operation Tonga was undertaken by the men of the British 6th Airborne Division on 6 June 1944, D-Day. The operation was formed of several key objectives. These were to capture to the two bridges over the Orne river and Caen canal. Destroy five bridges over the Dives river and to neutralise the Merville gun battery.&nbsp;​The task to destroy the guns at the Merville Battery was allocated to Lieutenant Colonel Otway of the 9th Parachute Battalion. In total his allocation of men should have been around 600. They were to mainly parachute into drop zone V which was located to the west of Varavile. Some would land via Horsa gliders.&nbsp;​Drop zone V is located 1km to the southeast of the Rendez-Vous (RV) position. It can be accessed via the lane, Le Dé<s>e</s>b<s>p</s>arquement, which heads off towards it. The drop zone sat to the north and south of Chem de la Breche Binette. This is the lane that was used by Otway and his men to move to the RV position from the drop zone.&nbsp;​At 00:30, 6 June 1944, a group of Lancaster bombers carried out their pre bombardment of the Merville Battery. This resulted in many bombs missing the target and landing close to the first group of men from the 9th Parachute Battalion who had parachuted in. This was to the northern area of the RV. They were known as the Trowbridge Party. Shortly after this the main contingent of the men would parachute in.&nbsp;​Following the drop, Otway moved from the drop zone RV and arrived here at the RV point in Gonneville-en-Auge at 01:30. He was highly concerned as only a small number of his men had made the RV. Many being miss dropped, lost or killed in the landings. Otway knew that regardless of the number of men, he had to move forward from here and onto the Merville Battery to make the attack. If he did not, the guns would potentially have been able to fire on to Sword Beach and the landings as they came ashore in the morning. This was a great threat to the landings.&nbsp;​At 02:45 as Otway began to prepare to move for the battery a group of 40 men arrived. This took Otway’s numbers to 150 men in total. Otway should have had 600. He also had no heavy equipment for the attack which should have included mine detectors. His men needed to break through a mine field at the battery once there.&nbsp;​Otway and 150 men left from this RV and made their way along Rue du Douet Philibery and towards the battery. The memorial commemorates the men who made the attack on the Merville battery which is 1km north of this position.​&nbsp;

​​9th Parachute Battalion Rendezvous Point​ 

Even na middernacht op 6 juni 1944 werd een bataljon van de 6e Britse Luchtlandingsdivisie ingezet om het kanon van de Duitse batterij van Merville te vernietigen. De geallieerde inlichtingendiensten zagen deze vier versterkingen, een paar kilometer landinwaarts en bewapend met zware kanonnen als een serieuze bedreiging voor de landingen op Sword Beach. Luitenant-kolonel Terence Otway en zijn 9th Parachute Battalion moesten deze gevaarlijke missie volbrengen. Het 9th Battalion moest de vier versterkingen aanvallen in een omgeving vol met prikkeldraad en bezaaid met mijnen en machinegeweernesten. De aanval kende vele tegenslagen. De 750 para’s waren verspreid neergekomen en enkel 150 van hen kon zich verzamelen. Ook moesten ze het stellen zonder aanvalsapparatuur. Maar de aanval ging gewoon door. Na een half uur van felle gevechten werd de batterij ingenomen. Bijna de helft van de Britse para’s was gedood of gewond. Van de 130 Duitse soldaten van het 1716e Artillerieregiment overleefden slechts een kwart. Toen de bolwerken waren ingenomen werd het duidelijk dat de inlichtingendiensten het kaliber van het kanon had overschat. Een Frans-Brits samenwerking resulteerde in de opening van het Merville museum in 1983. Het museum ligt op de plaats waar de slag plaats vond. Een van de vier versterkingen is bewapend met een 100 mm veld-howitzer identiek aan die werd gebruikt in 1944. Op het terrein staat ook een Dakota die was betrokken bij de luchtlandingen van D-Day. Toeristische informatie Ga voor meer informatie en de openingstijden naar: http://www.batterie-merville.com/?lang=nl

Just after midnight on 6 June 1944 a battalion of the 6th British Airborne Division was deployed to destroy the cannon of the German battery in Merville before they could harm the Allied forces landing on Sword Beach. The Franco-British museum located inside the battery highlights the merciless battle fought by the paratroopers.

On D-Day, one of the missions of the 6th British Airborne Division was to destroy the German gun battery located in Merville. Indeed, the Allied intelligence services saw these four strongholds, located a few miles inland and armed with heavy guns, as a clear danger to the progress of Allied forces on Sword Beach.

Lieutenant-colonel Terence Otway and his 9th Parachute Battalion were to carry out this daring and difficult mission. Indeed, the 9th Battalion would have to attack the four strongholds in an area surrounded with barbed wire, strewn with land mines and machine gun nests.

The attack knew many setbacks. The 750 paratroopers were dispersed and only 150 of them could gather up. They had to do nearly without their assault equipments. But, the assault was launched all the same. After half an hour of fierce fighting, the battery was taken. Nearly half of the British paratroopers were killed or wounded. Of the 130 German soldiers belonging to the 1716th Artillery Regiment, only one quarter survived. Once the strongholds were taken, it became clear that the intelligence services had overestimated the caliber of the cannon.

A Franco-British partnership resulted in the opening of the Merville museum in 1983. The museum is located on the very spot where the battle took place. One of the four strongholds shelters a 100 mm field howitzer identical to the one deployed in 1944. Inside the museum area, visitors can also admire a Dakota plane involved in the airborne assaults on 6 June 1944.

9th Parachute Battalion on D-Day

Foto's

Locaties en verhalen langs de route

Steiner’s ‘Bike Shed’ Observation Bunker and WN05.

9th Parachute Battalion Rendezvous Point

Merville Batterijmuseum