The British Approach to the Normandy Campaign Staff Ride
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Canadian Military History Volume 15 | Issue 2 Article 4 4-16-2012 Preparing for Higher Command: The rB itish Approach to the Normandy Campaign Staff Ride David Ian Hall Recommended Citation Hall, David Ian (2006) "Preparing for Higher Command: The rB itish Approach to the Normandy Campaign Staff Ride," Canadian Military History: Vol. 15 : Iss. 2 , Article 4. Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol15/iss2/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Hall: Preparing for Higher Command Preparing for higher command: • Omaha Beach (where the 1st and 29th The British approach to the US Infantry Divisions landed and suffered the highest casualties of all the Allied assault Normandy campaign staff ride forces on D-Day). • Pointe du Hoc (which was assaulted and David Ian Hall occupied by the US Rangers, again with very high casualties). n mid-May, just before the official ceremonies • Amfreville (overlooking the Line of to mark the 60th anniversaiy of D-Day began, Departure for Operation Goodwood, 18-20 I July 1944, the British and Canadian I had the privilege of being a consultant historian armoured attack east of Caen beginning on on a NATO HQ’s staff ride in Normandy. The HQ 18 July). of the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps - Italy (NRDS-IT) examined the D-Day invasion and a • La Petit Chapelle (Mortain - where Allied number of the key battles in the Normandy air power, mainly RAF and RCAF Typhoon campaign. Their stated aim was “to provide rocket-firing fighters defeated the German through military historical example, a practical counter-attack, Operation Luttich, beginning focus for the study and analysis of high command on 7 August). and the planning and conduct of future • St. Lambert-sur-Dives (where Major campaigns and major operations, within a David Currie of the 29th Cdn Armd Recce combined and joint context.” Regt won a Victoria Cross in bitter fighting in the Falaise Pocket on 18 August 1944). EAGLE TOUR 04 was the exercise name given to the NRDC-IT battlefield study tour and • and lastly, the Polish Memorial at Mont it was aimed at both senior and junior staff Ormel (where the Polish Armoured Division officers. In total, 80 officers from this fought to seal the neck of the Falaise Pocket multinational HQ, including two major-generals, in August 1944, thus completing the took part. For three veiy active days, we travelled encirclement of the German forces in around Normandy enthusiastically engaged in Normandy and the end of the campaign. “applied militaiy history.” I have described the outline of the NRDC-IT staff The itinerary included a number of the ride in some detail because it was based on the familiar and a few of the not so familiar sites: Normandy component of the very successful British Higher Command and Staff Course • Pegasus Bridge (site of the glider landings (HCSC) staff ride. The HCSC staff ride is run by Major John Howard and the 2nd Ox & annually on a fully joint basis and over the last Bucks Light Infantry in the early hours of 6th few years it has established itself as the premier June - an operation which Air Marshal Sir staff ride conducted in the British armed forces Trafford Leigh-Mallory described as “the finest flying in th e w ar”). today. • Sword Beach (Queen sector, where the One slight departure from the HCSC Staff 3rd British Infantry Division landed). Ride format was the desire of the HQ NRDC-IT to hold formal remembrance services, including • German Strong Point ‘Hillman’ (the the laying of a wreath, at a number of the various regimental headquarters of the 736th national cemeteries and memorials in Normandy. Grenadier Regiment under Colonel von Krug, The NRDC-IT visited the Commonwealth War located behind Sword Beach). Graves Commission Cemetery in Ranville (near Pegasus Bridge), which contains some 2,151 • Arromanches (the site of Port Winston, the British Mulberry harbour). graves. They also visited the German cemetery at La Cambe (21,300 graves) and the American • Longues Battery (a major German Cemetery behind Omaha Beach at Colleville-sur- Coastal Battery, part of the Atlantic Wall). Mer (9,387 graves). A wreath was also laid at the Polish Memorial at Mont Ormel. At each site Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2006 1 Canadian Military History, Vol. 15 [2006], Iss. 2, Art. 4 an officer representing that particular nation gave combined issues, and it revitalised their a short speech before a wreath was laid, a prayer professional interest in military history. Not said and a minute of silence observed. surprisingly, these are the three higher level training objectives stated for the HCSC staff ride. Perhaps, not surprisingly, all of the speeches were veiy different yet equally appropriate for Why Normandy (D-Day and the Normandy the place and the occasion. One speech, however, Campaign 1944)? struck me as being more poignant than the others. A young attack-helicopter pilot, with irst, Normandy is the setting of the last great considerable recent combat experience, Fset-piece battle by the Western Allies in the delivered a speech that was truly remarkable for Second World War - a large-scale airborne and both the humanity and the humility that it amphibious landing operation which offers conveyed. She began by drawing the group’s numerous lessons for all of the functional attention to the row on row of pristine branches of the armed forces today, nationally gravestones that seemed to stretch beyond the and in coalition. Second, the Normandy horizon, reminding us all that each one marked battlefields today are largely similar to what they a young life that ended prematurely because of were 60 years ago and they are easily accessible war. Each grave, she continued, also represented both in terms of physical access and financial a mother’s loss, and the grief and loss that grew costs. Turning to pedagogical reasons, the D-Day outwards, seemingly exponentially, through landings and the successive battles that make family, friends, community and nation. The cost up the Normandy Campaign also provide of battle is never cheap, which is why, she contemporary military commanders and their concluded, that a Headquarters’ Staff, like the planning staffs with numerous case studies on one she was working in now, tasked with Combined (multi-national) and Joint (air, land planning and conducting future operations, had and sea) operations and campaigns. Operation an enormous responsibility to “get it right.” Overlord was the product of all arms landing forces, naval forces that ranged from battleships For this young officer and her NATO to landing craft and submarines, strategic and Pegasus Bridge as it appears today. On the night of 5-6 June 1944 the bridge was captured in a coup de main glider- tactical air forces as well as the largest borne assault by British airborne troops of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, led by Major John colleagues, the Normandy Staff Ride met their Howard. The original bridge was replaced by a larger clone in the 1990s and now resides in a museum closeby. desired aims and objectives and then some. In a assortment of transport aircraft ever to brief yet very practical way it helped them to gain participate in a single battle, the Merchant navy, overlooked when understanding why British, were an effective method of testing both ideas a broader understanding of the nature of high significant contributions from civilians and American and Canadian armed forces study and individual officers destined for high command. It enhanced their ability to identify industry, and decisive input from the diplomatic N orm andy - we won! command appointments or not. With Prussia’s and focus on key strategic, operational, joint and and the Intelligence services. Last, and not to be victory over France in 1870, the staff ride concept History of British Staff Rides was copied by other European nations. and Battlefield Tours More than 60 years after its construction, Port Winston, the British Mulberry Harbour is still visible at Arromanches. The exact date of the first officially sanctioned ie modem concept of the historical staff ride British staff ride or battlefield tour - as a part of Thas its roots in Prussian/German traditions an officer’s professional education and training beginning with Frederick the Great. At the end - is not entirely clear. But staff tours - both of the Napoleonic Wars the concept of combining overseas and to a much greater degree in the theoretical instruction and practical exercises in UK - were a semi-regular feature in training late the field was refined first by Schamhorst and Victorian Army officers during the 1890s. Not Clausewitz and again later in the nineteenth surprisingly, overseas tours studied the century by Helmuth von Moltke, the elder, Chief battlefields of Pm ssia’s victories in 1870, while of the Great General Staff from 1857 to 1887. following the First World War, British officers on the Camberley staff course went to Flanders and Under von Moltke’s direction, the long studied Haig’s battlefields. standing Prussian tradition of officers reading military history and then taking their theoretical Shortly after the Second World War ended, studies outdoors in the form of staff rides and Camberley students as well as the British Army war games was institutionalised. The rationale of the Rhine (BAOR) began visiting areas of North for studying military history seemed obvious: it West Europe, Italy and North Africa where provided “lessons for the future.” And staff rides significant battles of the Second World War were http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol15/iss2/4 2 Hall: Preparing for Higher Command civil servants of relatively equal grade to their awakening or reinforcing an interest in military military colleagues.