Ron and his company arrived at St Valery only to find the Germans had relocated to Le Havre. Nevertheless they received a warm welcome!
Photograph of Le Havre September 1944...It only needed one shot from an enemy tank or SP, whereas the allies had to put multiple shots in the side or the rear of the Tigers or Panthers. The chances of penetrating the front of a Tiger with a 75mm gun were slim.
Furthermore, due to high hedgerow walls the attacking forces found difficulty maintaining good communications on their flanks and in coordinating the attack if units were larger than a company. The challenge for the Allied forces was huge.
"As we halted a French civilian came up to us and told us there was a Senior German Officer hiding under a bridge about 3km away. My platoon officer was extremely suspicious, told me to grab a sten gun and ordered me into his jeep with the Frenchman. It was no trick, sure enough the German came out as soon as we stopped. I took both his hand guns from him, a Luger I handed in and a Berreta which I kept.
After Falaise we proceeded unhindered heading for St Valery. The idea being that this would be a kind of
revenge attack for what went on in the failed evacuation of our lads in 1940. On arriving outside St Valery our scouts found that the German Garrison was no longer there, the French informed us that they had all moved into Le Havre. This was significant as 49th Polar Bear Division was preparing to mount an attack on Le Havre. The port facilities could be useful but most of all to silence the Germans’ heavy guns which were reaching the Normandy beacheads. However, the size of the new German Garrison coupled with the formidable defence structure anti-tank and blockhouses, meant it would have been suicidal to try to take tanks in. Therefore, we (the 51st Highland Division) were added to the attack as support.
That night searchlights gathered, enough to create an artifical moon. The attack started at around midnight and it took around 2 to 3 days to complete and mop up. The French civilians unfortunately suffered a lot of casualties and were angry with us that we had not negotiated a truce to allow them to leave. We must have thought of this but I suppose the element of surprise was the crucial factor for this particular attack."
The assault on Le Havre began at 17:45 hours 10th September. Naval vessels engaged the coastal batteries and RAF bombers dropped 5000 tons of explosives for 90 minutes prior to the assault on the ground. The Battle claimed 5000 civilian lives...
