How to be an Armoured Farmer, building Hobart's Funnies in Glorious 15mm (and maybe 28mm if they arrive in time!)

This is a suitable point to note that in 77 Asslt Sqn RE the four gapping teams sent in on LCT’s to Queen White Beach, performed so bravely and were as follows:

Green gap, 1 Troop: Successful – Three Crabs and three AVRE’s deployed (log carpet, bobbin & SBG). One AVRE hit by A-tk gun, broke a track and drowned (believed to be SBG), crew forced to dismount and clear obstacles & mines by hand. Bobbin took two hits coming off LCT, hit two mines whilst moving inshore, with the second disabling the tank. A crewman, L/Cpl Fairlie was killed by a mine whilst trying to put up the wind sock (the tank commander went to recover his body but found nothing of him, so returned to organise the crew into a fighting patrol). The lead AVRE reached the lateral road and supported the crabs as they cleared mines down each side of the road. Green gap was started at 0730hrs and was gapped at 0810hrs, absolutely remarkable in the circumstances.

Yellow Gap, 2 Troop: Successful – Two Crabs and four AVREs (General Purpose (GP), log carpet, bobbin & SBG). Landed slightly further down than 1 Troop. Laid Boase Bangalore but it was detonated by enemy fire, so not as effective. Crabs flailed a route through the dunes and another towards an enemy gun position. one blew up it’s tracks on a mine but a route was cleared around it. The bridge was dropped on top of a gun pit to silence the A-tk Gun in it. The bobbin was damaged by fire and was jettisoned. once lane was established, they linked up with 1 Troop to attack the houses at Lion-Sur-Mer. Yellow gap was started at 0731hrs and was gapped at 0830hrs (fully open at 0900hrs).

Blue Gap, 3 Troop: Successful – Three Crabs and three AVRE’s deployed (log carpet, bobbin & SBG) plus Sqn reserve of 2 crabs, 2 GP AVREs and 1 D7 Armd bulldozer. LCT initially floundered on a submerged DD tank but discharged the team in far deeper water than expected. The troop cleared the beach to the left of where 4 Troop were due to land. Flails cleared lane to lateral road, log carpet was laid as planned and bridge dropped at exit on to lateral road. Bobbin was hit by a mine and A-tk fire and was drowned. The D7 also struck a mine. Two of the Crab commanders  (Sgt Turner and Cpl Aird) were unfortunately killed by sniper fire shortly after completing their initial tasks. They faced an immense rate of fire due to the failure of 4 troop to land and also had to deep drop off their LCT due to the DD tank issue. Blue gap was started at 0740hrs and was gapped at 0820hrs.

Red Gap, 4 Troop: Failed – LCT 947 carried Two Crabs and four AVREs (Plough, log carpet, bobbin & SBG). Along with the gapping team was the commander of 5th Asslt Regt RE Lt Col Arthur DB Cocks. They landed at 0735hrs and the leading flail disembarked. The second flail was coming out of the doorway when it was hit and disabled by an A-tk round, jamming the doorway. As the occupants tried to clear the wreck further A-tk rounds hit the LCT, an explosion occurred (believed to be the Boase Bangalore torpedoes being set off by enemy fire). It was during this explosion that Lt Col Cocks was killed. The damaged LCT, unable to offload its cargo is ordered back to England. They would not return to Normandy until the end of June.

Total losses for 77 Asslt Sqn were one of the heaviest, I feel this is down to a combination of things, 1 Tp had an exposed right flank being the furthest unit in that direction and 3 Tp suffered from the same on the other side compounded by the fact that 4 Tp could not land. The damage caused to the vehicles on LCT 947 could have only been caused by a 75mm or 88mm German position and from other naval reports, it seems that the enemy waited until the LCTs were within 200m of shore before opening up, so clearly better trained, or more experienced troops in this part of the beach.

Killed – 7

Wounded – 13

Missing – 2

They also lost 2 AVREs, with 2 damaged, plus one Sherman crab damaged.

Footnote: it should be noted that, whilst tracked lanes had been established very quickly, it took until 1130hrs to open up the first wheeled vehicle exit and this meant a large traffic jam built up on the beach. This only started to abate by 1700hrs, by which time four exits had been established on Queen White Beach.