Probs already been covered but i think HMS Warspite was involved in the beach bombardment ,don't know which beach ? could anyone else give a more detailed account of which ships were involved and at what beach they targeted
The Warspite bomabarded Sword Beach and targets to the east See this page Normandy, Neptune, Arcadia, Dieppe, Quebec, Conference, Mulberry, Eisenhower, Tedder, Montgomery, Overlord, Channel Also, I found this on the nameless webpage "W" Allied warships Battleships Six battleships took part: three British and three US: · USS Arkansas · HMS Nelson · USS Nevada · HMS Ramillies · USS Texas (Flagship of Rear Admiral C.F. Bryant) · HMS Warspite Cruisers Twenty-five cruisers (19 British and Commonwealth, 3 US, 2 Free French, 1 Polish and 1 Dutch), including: · HMS Ajax · HMS Arethusa, · HMS Argonaut · USS Augusta (Flagship of Rear Admiral Kirk - Lt. General Omar Bradley embarked) · HMS Belfast (Flagship of Rear Admiral Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton) · HMS Capetown · HMS Ceres (Flagship of U.S. Service Force) · HMS Danae · HMS Diadem · HMS Durban (used as a blockship in "Gooseberry" breakwater) · ORP Dragon (Polish, damaged in July and then used as a blockship in "Gooseberry" breakwater) · HMS Emerald · HMS Enterprise · HMS Frobisher · Georges Leygues (Free French) · HMS Glasgow · HMS Mauritius (Flagship of Rear Admiral Patterson) · Montcalm (Free French, Flagship of Rear Admiral Jaujard) · HMS Orion · USS Quincy · HMS Scylla (Admiral Vian's flagship, mined and seriously damaged, out of action until after the war) · HNMLS Sumatra (Dutch, decommissioned due to crew shortages and losing her guns to HNMLS Flores and Soemba, used as blockship in"Gooseberry" breakwater) · USS Tuscaloosa Destroyers and escorts 135 ships (eighty-five British and Dominion, 39 US, 7 Free French and 7 other Allied): · HMCS Algonquin (Canadian) · USS Amesbury · USS Baldwin · USS Barton · HMS Bleasdale · HMS Boadicea (torpedoed and sunk 13 June) · USS Carmick · HMS Cattistock · HMS Cottesmore · USS Doyle · HMS Eglinton · HMS Faulknor · USS Frankford · HMS Fury (mined 21 June and not repaired) · HMS Glaisdale · HMS Grenville · USS Harding · USS Hobson · HMS Jervis · HMS Kelvin · HMS Kempenfelt · HMCS Kitchener (Canadian) · ORP Krakowiak, (Polish, former HMS Silverton) · La Combattante (Free French, former HMS Haldon) · USS Laffey · USS McCook · HMS Melbreak · HMS Middleton · USS Murphy · USS O'Brien · HMS Pytchley · USS Satterlee · HMS Saumarez · HMS Scorpion · HMS Scourge · HMS Serapis · HMCS Sioux (Canadian) · ORP Slazak (Polish) · HMS Stevenstone · HNoMS Stord (Norwegian) · HNoMS Svenner (hit by German torpedo and sunk off Normandy at dawn, 6 June)[2] HMS Swift (mined and sunk 24 June 1944 off Normandy) · HMS Talybont · HMS Tanatside · USS Thomson · HMS Ulster · HMS Ulysses · HMS Undaunted · HMS Undine · HMS Urania · HMS Urchin · HMS Ursa · HMS Venus · HMS Verulam · HMS Vigilant · HMS Virago · HMS Wrestler (damaged by a mine and not repaired) Other warships 508 ships (352 British, 154 US and 2 other Allied): · USS Bayfield, attack transport · HMS Centurion, old battleship sunk as a blockship in "Gooseberry" breakwater · Courbet, Free Naval French Forces, old battleship sunk as a blockship in "Gooseberry" breakwater · USS Charles Carroll attack transport · HNLMS Flores, Dutch gunboat · HNLMS Soemba, Dutch gunboat · HMS Lawford, frigate (bombed and sunk} · HMS Roberts, monitor · HMS Bulolo, H.Q. ship The British 9th and 159th minesweeping flotillas and U.S. 7th Minesweeping Squadron provided minesweeping protection. A distant anti-submarine screen to the operation was provided by HMS Onslow, Offa, Onslaught, Oribi, Melbreak and Brissenden. Additional protection from E-boats was provided by various Motor Gun Boat flotillas.
Cheers for that ! can't understand why Omaha beach defences were left almost intact I read that some bombardments fell short ??
My father was on the HMS Glasgow which was with the American naval forces at Omaha beach. He was the "captain" of C turret. I will ask him next week if he remembers any details on the bombardment - I am sure I remember him telling me they went in very close to the shore at some stage to give fire support to the struggling troops on the beach. Edited to add: 23 May 1944 - 06 Jun 1944: Normandy Landings As ships assembled in Belfast Lough for the impending invasion of Europe they were joined by HMS Glasgow on 23rd May 1944. On 31st May that year the ship was "sealed" with mail neither leaving nor going aboard the cruiser and on 3rd June she sailed, in company with a number of American warships, to pass up and down the north Cornish coast preparing for the task in hand. On 5th June 1944 HMS Glasgow proceeded to her assembly point from whence she took an active role in the bombardment of "Omaha" beach prior to the landing of American infantry forces there the following day D-Day 6th June 1944. Throughout that morning, with the assistance of air spotters Glasgow continued to engage selected targets ashore. During the engagement more than 500 HE 6" shell were fired from the cruiser.
I seem to remember reading somewhere that a lot of the bombardment fell wide of the targets for fear of hitting the incoming landing craft, not sure how accurate that is (been a while since I researched D-Day itself in detail). When I was on a battlefield tour in Normandy at Omaha one of the guides commented that the bombardment probably killed more cows than Germans. -SC
