Sword Beach was the codename of one of the five main landing beaches in Operation Neptune, the initial assault phase of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944.
Stretching 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from Ouistreham to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer it was the furthest east of the landing points and around 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Caen. The landing site was divided into four zones - Oboe, Peter, Queen and Roger (west-east). The German defences consisted of beach obstacles, anti-tank ditches, mines, machineguns and mortars at the beaches and across the River Orne at Merville there were heavy guns. The defending troops belonged to the German 716th Static Infantry Division and could call on the support of the nearby 21st Panzer division. The landing forces were the British I Corps, comprising British 3rd Infantry Division and the 27th Armoured Brigade.
As well as being the furthest east of the landing beaches, Sword Beach was also the smallest, only wide enough for a brigade-sized landing force. 3rd British Division had the task of getting enough troops ashore to push inland quickly and seize Caen, and link up with 6th Airborne Division.
Sword Beach experienced the only counter-attack by the Germans on June 6. British troops had been unable to link up with the Canadians on Juno Beach, as had been planned and they were attacked by the German 21st Panzer Division, who were veterans of the Western Desert Campaign. The 192nd Panzer Grenadier Regiment had reached Sword Beach by 2000 hours but were subject to aerial attacks and were destroyed by the R.A.F and the tanks of the 27th Armoured Brigade which had landed on Sword.
By the end of the day, 29,000 men had been landed at Sword with 630 casualties. Allied forces had advanced about four miles inland, the situation was stable and a link up with the Canadians on Juno had been established. However the major objective of Caen which was to have been captured on D Day still evaded them.
The Brigade went on to fight at Bourguebus Ridge, Mont Pincon, the Nederrijn, the Rhineland, and across the Rhine River.
Read more about this topic: 9th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)
Famous quotes containing the words sword and/or beach:
“When valour preys on reason,
It eats the sword it fights with.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“There I was dragging the ocean, that knock-out,
in and out by its bottle-green neck, letting it chew
the rocks, letting it haul beach glass and furniture sticks
in and out.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)