Operation Tonga
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Operation Tonga was the codename given to the landing of the British 6th Airborne Division on the eastern flank of the invasion area during the Battle of Normandy on the night of the 5/6 June 1944. The objective was to help to defend the flank primarily by capturing and holding the only crossing of the Orne River north of the town of Caen. Each specific tactical objective was met. The mobility of the German defenders (particularly 21st Panzer Division) was impaired and the effectiveness of their counter-attacks was reduced. The operation greatly facilitated the seaborne landings during their critical, initial stage when they were most vulnerable. Operation Tonga was one of the few successful, large-scale, night drops of paratroopers in military history.
As part of Operation Overlord the British 6th Airborne Division was to land, by parachute and glider, on the eastern flank of the landing area, around the River Orne in the general area of the village of Ranville, approximately six miles to the south of Sword Beach and ten miles to the north-east of the town of Caen. The purpose of these landings was to hold the left flank of the landing area, especially key bridges, preventing German armour from 'rolling up' the beaches from one end.
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[edit] The Plan
Operation Tonga had four main objectives.
1. To capture intact the two bridges running over the River Orne, near Ranville, and the Caen Canal, at Bénouville, both of which were connected to each other by the same road with a mere 500 yards between them.
2. The destruction of the Merville Battery, a heavily fortified gun emplacement, four miles to the north-east of Ranville. The Battery overlooked Sword Beach, and it was therefore seen as a considerable threat to the invasion as its four guns could account for thousands of lives as the sea-borne troops came ashore.
3. The destruction of the River Dives bridges. Approximately seven miles to the east of Ranville was the River Dives, and it was certain that enemy counterattacks would be launched from this direction and that they would threaten the eastern flank of the invasion area. In order to delay these for as long as possible, the 6th Airborne Division was ordered to demolish the four bridges that crossed the River at Robehomme, Bures and Troarn, and a further bridge over the smaller River Divette at Varaville.
4. Once these tasks had been accomplished, the Division was to secure the Ranville area and be ready by dawn to fight off enemy counterattacks. In particular the Division was to occupy the ridge several miles to the north and east of Ranville and at all costs deny its use to the enemy, for it overlooked the invasion area and would seriously compromise the stability of the eastern flank if it fell into enemy hands.
Operation Tonga would see approximately half of the 6th Airborne Division deployed. This consisted of Divisional Headquarters, the 3rd and 5th Parachute Brigades complete with their attached Engineers and medical services, a Company of glider infantry, and a Battery and a Troop of anti-tank guns. Operation Mallard, which would take place on the evening of the D-Day, 6th June, would bring in most of the remainder of the 6th Airborne Division, principally two Battalions and a Company of glider infantry of the 6th Airlanding Brigade, a Battery of light artillery, and the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment, included amongst which was a Troop of Tetrarch light tanks. This latter Operation would make history as the first time that field artillery and tanks had been flown into battle by air. This reinforcement mission also came just as the German 21st Panzer Division was launching a counter-attack on a vulnerable point on the invasion beaches. The appearance of troop-carrying gliders over their heads was instrumental in persuading the Panzers that they might be cut off, and they withdrew.
[edit] The battle
[edit] Coup-de-Main
The initial assault was carried out by 181 soldiers -- four platoons of D and two of B Companies, 2nd Ox & Bucks -- in six Horsa gliders, led by Major John Howard. Major Howard's orders were to capture intact the bridges and to hold them until relieved. The part of Operation Tonga involving the capture of the two bridges of the Benouville-Ranville crossing is often referred to as the "coup de main".
At 16 minutes past midnight on June 6, three of the gliders landed near the village of Bénouville on the west bank of the Caen Canal within fifty metres (164 feet) of the canal bridge (Pegasus Bridge). The first, Glider No.91, containing Major Howard and No.1 Platoon of the "coup de main" force, landed heavily and came to an abrupt halt when, as had been planned during the briefings, it pushed its nose through and penetrated the first belt of barbed wire around the bridge. The force of this sudden halt catapulted both glider pilots through the cockpit screen and rendered them, together with all of their passengers, unconscious. Within a few seconds, however, the men had fully regained their senses and became aware that all around them was quiet. The noise of the crash had not alerted the Germans at the bridge, a mere 50 yards from where the glider had come to rest. If it had then the fate of the coup de main might have been decided in seconds. Fortunately, the guards had disregarded the noise that they heard as that of debris falling from a damaged Allied bomber.
No.1 Platoon were quickly out of the glider and instinctively went about the tasks for which they had been training for months. Several men knocked out a machine-gun position whilst the majority of the platoon, led by Lt. Den Brotheridge, rushed over the bridge to capture the other side, firing from the hip and lobbing grenades as they charged. Once across to the western side of the bridge, Brotheridge dropped a grenade into another machine-gun position but was shot through the neck in the next instant. Mortally wounded, Lieutenant Den Brotheridge was the first British soldier to die as a result of enemy action on D-Day. As No.1 Platoon had begun their attack, No.2 Platoon landed safely in the second glider and immediately moved up to help clear the enemy away from the eastern end of the bridge. No.3 Platoon were not so lucky as the abrupt halt to their landing had torn the fuselage from the glider and left a dozen men trapped in the wreckage, one drowned in the adjacent lake. Their commander, Lieutenant Smith, was injured as a result of the crash and was hurt further by the grenade-wielding German whom he encountered and killed several minutes later, however he continued to lead his men and helped to secure the western side of the bridge. Throughout all of these actions, the accompanying Royal Engineers of the 249th Field Company, had been ignoring the enemy fire directed at them as they climbed all over the bridge, looking for wires to cut and detonation devices to remove. The Germans had clearly prepared the bridge for demolition but, fearing an accidental explosion or sabotage by the French Resistance, the charges had not been placed. After overcoming the initial shock of this sudden and violent assault, the German garrison fought back, but defeat was inevitable and many fled the scene. As the firing died down, Major John Howard knew that, for now at least, Bénouville bridge was safely in British hands.
A few hundred yards to the east, spanning the River Orne, stands another bridge known as Horsa Bridge, or Ranville Bridge, after the nearby village. This was the second objective of the Ox and Bucks, and was assaulted by the remaining three gliders, one of which landed miles away from the bridge and so played no part in the raid. The other two gliders, however, landed on target. No.6 Platoon landed first and proceeded to attack the bridge, but by this time the sound of fighting in the direction of Pegasus Bridge had alerted the German garrison. Fortunately, their defensive capability amounted to a single machine-gun position, the crew of which fired a few ineffective rounds at the British as they came into view, and then fled in the face of No.6 Platoon's accurate mortar fire. A few minutes later, No.5 Platoon, who had landed 700 yards short of the landing zone, arrived at the bridge, unaware that it had already been taken. They ran across it, expecting to be fired upon at any moment, but in the gloom before them there appeared the unmistakeable shape of Lieutenant Fox, the commander of No.6 Platoon. So ended the brief struggle for Horsa bridge.
The coup de main raid had been a complete success. With comparatively few casualties, both bridges had been taken in just ten minutes. The landing of the gliders on to these very small landing zones in the dark was later hailed by Air Vice-Marshal Leigh-Mallory, the commander of Allied air forces during the invasion, as "one of the most outstanding flying achievements of the war."
[edit] Reinforcing the Bridges
Most of the 6th Airborne landed by parachute 40 minutes later, one of their many tasks being to reinforce the defenders of the bridges, which were successfully held, against little enemy interference, by Major Howard's men for two hours before the first troops arrived. The role of the 7th Battalion The Parachute Regiment is frequently overlooked in this regard, for they were the relieving force who were to bear the brunt of the German counterattacks to the west of the Caen Canal throughout the 6th June. They had dropped some six hundred strong, however due to a confused and scattered drop, less than half of these has assembled at the rendezvous point and all of their support weaponry, mortars and medium machine guns, were missing. Nevertheless the Battalion distinguished itself in holding a wide bridgehead around Pegasus Bridge against constant enemy probing attacks, frequently supported by armoured vehicles. In particular their "A" Company, based in the nearby village of Bénouville, suffered the most severe fighting and were eventually cut off from the remainder of the 7th Battalion.
The first relief was from 6 Commando, led by the commander of the 1st Special Service Brigade, Lord Lovat, who arrived to the sound of the Scottish bagpipes, played by 21-year-old 'Mad Piper' Private Bill Millin. The arrival of these troops, however, did little to help the defence of the bridges as their orders were to cross over the Bridge and help secure terrain east of the Caen Canal, which the remainder of the 6th Airborne Division was currently holding. The remnants of the 7th Battalion's "A" Company continued to hold out until 9:15pm on the 6th June when British infantry, in the form of the 2nd Battalion The Royal Warwickshires, arrived from the invasion beaches and secured Bénouville, and so allow the evacuation of "A" Company's many wounded. The remaining twenty men of the Company who were still able to fight followed at around midnight.
[edit] The Merville Battery
Each of the four guns of the Merville Battery were sited within a reinforced concrete casemate, six and a half feet thick with a further six feet of soil above. As these could only be destroyed by an unlikely direct hit from the heaviest of ordnance, it was decided that British paratroopers would attack and destroy the guns a few hours before the landings at Sword Beach began. The 9th Battalion The Parachute Regiment was selected for the task.
The northern end of the Battery was protected by an anti-tank ditch, 14 feet wide and 300 feet long, with the remaining circumference protected by two belts of barbed wire, the inner belt being 8 feet tall, and in between these lay a minefield 50 to 75 feet in depth. The garrison of gunners and sentries amounted to one hundred and sixty men, and were supported by numerous machine-gun emplacements and three 20 mm anti-aircraft guns.
Lieutenant-Colonel Terence Otway, the commander of the 9th Battalion, had formulated a complex plan to assault the Battery. Firstly, an advance party of four men was to land in advance of the remainder of the Battalion. They would then proceed to the Battery to cut holes in the barbed wire and clear paths through the minefield. At 00:30, before this reconnaissance party had reached the Battery, one hundred RAF Lancaster and Halifax heavy bombers would attack it with 4,000 lb bombs in the hope of destroying the position altogether or at the least inflicting considerable damage upon the defences. At 00:50, the main force of the 9th Battalion would land and they would be expected to reach the Battery by 04:00. With them would come a troop of Royal Engineers from the 591st Parachute Squadron, and a plethora of equipment, including mine-clearance devices, bangalore torpedoes for dealing with the barbed wire, and two six-pounder guns of the 4th Airlanding Anti-Tank Battery, which would be used to puncture the steel doors that sealed each of the casemates. At 04:30, No.4 Platoon was to make a diversionary attack on the main gate area whilst two sniper groups fired at enemy troops in pillboxes, machine-gun emplacements, and upon flak towers. The next phase was to be the timed arrival of three Horsa gliders, containing most of the Battalion's "A" Company and more Engineers, who were to land inside the Battery itself and attack each of the casemates with Sten guns and flame-throwers. At the same time, "C" Company would make the main assault by proceeding along the cleared paths through the minefield, quickly followed by the remainder of "A" and then "B" Companies. In the event of failure, the light cruiser HMS Arethusa (assigned as naval gunfire support for the Division) would open fire on the Battery at 05:30 if no success signal had been received.
The entire plan, as laid out above, broke apart completely. Due to navigational errors, low cloud, and the pathfinders being dropped astray and so unable to mark the drop zone for the 9th Battalion, the paratroopers were scattered anywhere up to ten miles from the zone. Lt-Colonel Otway waited at the Rendezvous Point, but by 02:50 only one hundred and fifty of his six hundred and fifty men, and nothing else besides, had arrived. None of the Jeeps, anti-tank guns, mortars, mine-detectors, medical personnel, sappers or the naval liaison party had arrived. With time pressing on, Otway was left with no choice but to attack with what he had. When the 9th Battalion arrived at the Battery they found that their reconnaissance party had gone about their business excellently, having made a thorough study of the German positions as well as clearing four paths through the minefield. The RAF bombing raid had, however, missed the Battery completely and their bombs fell away to the south, doing no harm to the Germans but landing dangerously close to the reconnaissance party.
By 04:30, the Battalion had been reorganised into four assault groups, led by Major Parry and consisting of "A" and "C" Companies, which were to proceed along two of the paths cut through the minefield. As they were forming up, however, they were spotted and as many as six German machine-gunners opened fire upon both of the 9th Battalion's flanks. A small party of paratroopers under Sergeant Knight engaged the three guns near the main gate, taking out their crews with bayonets and grenades, whilst the only Vickers medium machine-gun available to the Battalion dealt with those upon the other flank. Knight then led his group around to the main gate and improvised the diversionary attack by opening fire with everything at their disposal, which suitably distracted the Germans.
As this was happening, two of the assault gliders approached the Battery, the third having cast-off over England when its tow rope snapped. The gliders were to be guided to the Battery by the troops on the ground using Eureka beacons, however none of these had been recovered from the drop, and so the gliders pilots were flying by eyesight alone. Their view was further obscured by clouds and smoke from the bombing raid, which resulted in one of the gliders mistaking a village two miles away for their objective. The other, however, found the Battery and was making its final approach when it was spotted and fired upon by a machine-gun, wounding four of the men inside and throwing the glider off course. The glider finally came to rest 750 yards away. The glider was a wreck and several men had been hurt in the crash, however they disembarked in time to detect and ambush a party of Germans who were marching towards the Battery.
As the glider flew by, Lt-Colonel Otway gave the order to attack. Major Parry blew his whistle, the Bangalore torpedoes were detonated to further clear the barbed wire, and the four assault groups charged forward. In the darkness, the marked paths were not so clearly visible and so it was inevitable that some men strayed from the path and onto mines. Three German machine-gun positions fired on the assault groups but these were soon dealt with by the Battalion's Bren gunners and snipers. Amidst the enemy fire and exploding mines, firing from the hip and lobbing grenades at any strong-points that they encountered, the paratroopers charged on towards the casemates. Initially taken by surprise, the German garrison quickly recovered, first by shooting flares into the sky to illuminate the area, and then by bringing shellfire down outside the wire, and even arranging for a Battery at Cabourg to fire directly onto the minefield.
Otway ordered in his reserve to deal with the final machine-guns that were hitting the assault teams, who by now were pouring into the casemates and engaging their defenders hand-to-hand. The guns, which were to be destroyed with specialist explosive that had not been recovered after the drop, were knocked out one at a time using the high-explosive anti-tank Gammon bombs which each man carried. The fighting began to die down as the garrison was at last overcome, and by 05:00 it was all over. Inside and around the Battery the scene was one of carnage, with dead and wounded of both sides lying everywhere. The German garrison had numbered approximately one hundred and thirty, but by the end of the battle, only six were unscathed. Of the one hundred and fifty men of the 9th Battalion who began the assault, sixty-five had been killed or wounded.
The guns which had posed such a threat to the invasion, even though they were found to be obsolete 100 mm guns instead of the 150 mm calibre that was expected, had been destroyed and many lives were saved as a result. The assault upon the Merville Battery, by a small and wholly ill-equipped force, is still regarded as one of the most outstanding achievements in the history of the Parachute Regiment.
[edit] The River Dives Bridges
The task of destroying the four bridges over the River Dives, and one over the River Divette, fell to the Royal Engineers of the 3rd Parachute Squadron. In the northern area at Varaville and Robehomme, they were supported by the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, and by the 8th Parachute Battalion in the south at Troarn and Bures.
"B" Company of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion was to escort sappers of the 3rd Parachute Squadron to destroy the bridge at Robehomme, however two of their three platoons had landed in the flooded areas that surrounded their drop zone. Many men of the 3rd Parachute Brigade landed in the water that night, the majority, after hours of struggling, made their way to safety although many had been forced to abandon all their weapons and equipment to avoid being dragged under. An unknown number of parachutists drowned. "B" Company's No.5 Platoon, however, landed on dry ground and headed for the bridge, gathering together men from various units on the way, including some 8th Battalion men who should have been seven miles away - due to low cloud and navigational difficulties, the drop of all the parachutists in Normandy had been badly scattered. They reached the Bridge to find other men present, but sadly none of the engineers had any of their high explosive with them. An attempt was made to destroy the bridge using 30 lb of explosive taken from the anti-tank Gammon bombs that each man carried. The bridge was considerably damaged but not destroyed. It was finally demolished at around 6am when a party of engineers arrived with 200 lb of explosive.
The Canadian's "C" Company were to accompany other engineers to Varaville to destroy the bridge over the River Divette. The scattered drop badly drained their strength of this Company and only fifteen of the original one hundred and twenty men set off for the village. Engineers of the 3rd Parachute Squadron succeeded in destroying the bridge at around 9am, but the remnants of "C" Company struggled for a further hour before finally overcoming the garrison of Varaville.
The 8th Battalion, seven miles to the south-west, had experienced great difficulties in forming up due to the scattered drop. In addition to the usual problems, the pathfinders who were to mark their drop zone in advance of the main landing were mistakenly dropped at Ranville, four miles north of where they should have been, and as a consequence the men in fourteen of the thirty-seven Dakota aircraft carrying the 8th Battalion jumped there instead.
By 3:30am, only one hundred and forty-one men had presented themselves at the Rendezvous Point, and with this force Lieutenant-Colonel Pearson began his advance upon Troarn. To cover his rear, Pearson established an ambush of two PIAT anti-tank weapons along the road to intercept any units moving towards the Battalion's rear, and a few hours later this group engaged and destroyed six vehicles of the 21st Panzer Division. The 8th Battalion was not yet strong enough to attack Troarn, and so it came to a halt at a crossroads, a mile to the north of the village, in the midst of the Bois de Bavent woodland. No.2 Troop of the 3rd Parachute Squadron were ordered to make their way to Bures to destroy the two bridges over the River Dives there, a task which was accomplished by 9:15am.
Unknown to the 8th Battalion, Major Roseveare, the commander of the 3rd Parachute Squadron, was already on his way to Troarn in a Jeep with some of his men. They drove straight through the village and in so doing attracted a great deal of fire from the German garrison. The men in the Jeep returned fire with their machine-guns and raced through the village unscathed, except for one man who fell out of the Jeep at speed and was captured. Roseveare and his party arrived at the bridge, beyond the village, and set up their explosives, and by 5am a 20 foot gap had been created in the centre of the bridge. The 8th Battalion knew nothing of this, however, and were preparing to make their own way to Troarn. When No.2 Troop returned from Bures, they were ordered to move on Troarn with the Battalion's No.9 Platoon to protect them. The group were involved in several highly successful skirmishes with German troops on the way, and when they reached the now destroyed bridge, they laid additional charges and doubled the damage.
[edit] Defensive Positions
With all of their primary tasks complete, the 6th Airborne Division prepared to defend their gains. Of the 5th Parachute Brigade, the 7th Battalion was still fighting hard in Bénouville to the west of the River Orne, whilst to the east of it, the 13th Battalion had captured Ranville several hours after they had landed, and this became the first village to be liberated in the invasion. The 12th Parachute Battalion was positioned a little to the south of Ranville, dug in along a small ridge which screened the Division against attack from the south. Several times on D-Day, the 12th Battalion was attacked by the 125th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, and despite the significant loss of strength they had incurred on the drop, the Battalion, supported by well-sited anti-tank guns, nevertheless held their ground most successfully and dissuaded further attacks.
The seriously understrength 3rd Parachute Brigade was charged with holding the vast ridge to the north and east of Ranville. The 8th and the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalions had already established themselves in the Bois de Bavent woodland and the village of Le Mesnil respectively. In the north, the 9th Battalion had left the Merville Battery behind and was proceeding towards its final objective, the village of Le Plein. The Battalion had only eighty men left, however, and despite an attempt to take Le Plein, it was far too weak to overwhelm the Germans in the village. Instead they concentrated themselves in the Chateau d'Amfreville and successfully tied down the enemy throughout the day. During the afternoon, the 1st Special Service Brigade arrived to take over responsibility for the northern sector of the ridge, and the task of driving the Germans out of Le Plein and digging out the 9th Battalion from amongst them fell to No.4 Commando. Despite suffering numerous casualties as a result, the Commandos had secured the village by nightfall and the remainder of the Brigade similarly occupied various positions in the northern sector. The ridge, for the time being, was secure.
[edit] Aftermath
Operation Tonga had been a complete success, despite the scattered drop of the parachutists which denied them, at the very best, of 50% of their strength. The arrival of the 6th Airlanding Brigade and other units with the Second Lift, Operation Mallard, did much to consolidate the positions gained on the first night. Subsequent attempts by the 6th Airlanding Brigade to expand the bridgehead southwards by capturing the villages of Escoville and Longueval were unsuccessful, but in spite of frequent battles, the southern flank was not hard pressed by the enemy.
In the north and east, however, it was a different story. On the 8th June, the excellently equipped 346th Division of the German 15th Army crossed the River Dives and during the next four days launched a succession of violent attacks on the 3rd Parachute and 1st Special Service Brigades in the hope of ripping the crucial ridge from their grasp. Both units were extremely hard pressed, especially the 3rd Parachute Brigade which had been severely understrength from the moment that it had landed in Normandy. However, both Brigades fought with great cunning and extraordinary tenacity, and they inflicted notably severe losses on the 346th Division. Indeed, in just four days, they successfully shattered the offensive capability of this fine Division. On the 10th June, the 346th Division had exploited a gap in between the two British brigades, but this came to nothing as the 7th and 13th Parachute Battalions had been positioned in Ranville to combat just such a threat, and the German force was destroyed with an estimated 400 dead and 400 captured. The Germans had always maintained a foothold in Bréville, a village on the ridge situated in between the 3rd Parachute and 1st Special Service Brigades, and this position was a platform for the German attacks, each of which threatened to destablise the entire position of the 6th Airborne Division. On the night of the 12th June, with the 3rd Parachute Brigade having barely managed to fight off the attacks on it during the day, the decision was made to deal with Bréville and eliminate the threat. The responsibility fell to the 12th Parachute Battalion, aided by some of the commandos, and despite suffering heavy losses in the attempt they managed to capture the village. This victory was extremely significant. From that day forth no further truly serious attacks were made on the 6th Airborne Division.
The arrival of the 51st (Highland) Division did much to make the 6th Airborne Division's positions solid, the Highlanders taking over responsibility for the whole of the southern flank, allowing the Airborne troops to concentrate on holding a considerably shorter line facing eastwards. For the next two months, the Division did not advance, but remained in its positions, and did excellent work in patrolling amongst and harassing their neighbouring enemy. On the 17th August, with the German defence in Normandy cracking, the Division was given the order to follow up a planned withdrawal of the Germans in their area. Despite lacking the vehicles and many of the support weapons that an ordinary ground-based army unit is accustomed to, the 6th Airborne Division won high praise in the rapidity of its advance, overcoming stubborn enemy rearguards, forcing numerous crossings across rivers, pursuing the Germans to the mouth of the River Seine. Here their part in the Normandy campaign ended and they were returned to England in the first week of September to await further operations.
The fight for one of the bridges over the River Orne became one of the best known incidents of the invasion. It was portrayed in the film The Longest Day and the bridge was renamed Pegasus Bridge after the Airborne troops' badge. The bridge, which was replaced by a more modern one, can be found in the Pegasus Bridge museum and memorial, next to the original battle site.
The exploits of the British 6th Airborne Division will be dramatized in a mini-series to be produced by BBC.
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