A Stern Reckoning

A Stern Reckoning: XXX Corps: From Gold Beach to the Seine - the story begins when the divisions earmarked for the invasion of Normandy returned to England in late 1943. Many men were not happy when they found out why they had been brought home and were quick to voice their displeasure. A large number had fought in France 1940, North Africa 1942, Tunisia and Sicily 1943 and thought they had done enough. In 1944 they commenced training hard for their new task, until in May 1944 they were moved into secure camps before embarkation. This is the story of the British Army's veteran XXX Corps, commanded by General Brian Horrocks, that landed on Gold beach on 6 June 1944.

After the beaches had been taken it was then into the Bocage with its high hedges, small fields and sunken lanes - a landscape perfect for defenders and a nightmare for the attackers as they fought field by field and hedge by hedge in a bloody battle of attrition. Each village and town they encountered had to be taken by frontal assault until it was ground down to dust, and the German forces fought for every inch of ground, making the Allies pay a high price in blood. As XXX Corps slowly advanced they left behind them hundreds of mounds of soil, capped with a white cross or a rifle with a helmet hanging on it, in the verdant countryside. The stench of death hung on the warm summer air and hordes of black flies plagued the survivors.

After the breakout from the Bocage XXX Corps passed the hell that was Falaise and advanced to the Seine. It was here the 43rd Wessex Division would have to force a daylight crossing in small boats. The German troops held the high ground on the far bank and had full observation of the crossing sites. Many boats were riddled with bullets as they tried to cross the river, but eventually the men reached the high ground and a bloody battle ensued as they dislodged the Germans from their entrenched positions. As this battle raged sappers of the Royal Engineers started the construction of the bridges, David and Goliath, all the time under heavy fire. More troops entered the bridgehead on the high ground as the Germans brought forward reinforcements and Tiger tanks. Eventually the Germans were pushed back and began to retreat. XXX Corps then burst out of the Seine bridgehead heading for the Reich.

This is military history at its most dramatic and brutal, as viewed by a rich cast of characters who movingly relate their own experiences in great detail.