Streamlined Title: XXX Corps: From Gold Beach to the Seine

When the divisions earmarked for the Normandy invasion returned to England in late 1943, many men were displeased to discover the reason they had been brought home, and were quick to voice their displeasure. A large number of these veterans had fought in France in 1940, North Africa in 1942, and Tunisia and Sicily in 1943, and felt they had done enough. However, in 1944 they commenced rigorous training 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, they faced the challenge of the Bocage - a landscape of high hedges, small fields, and sunken lanes, perfect for defenders and a nightmare for the attackers. The Allies fought a bloody battle of attrition, field by field and hedge by hedge, as each village and town had to be taken by frontal assault until it was ground down to dust. The German forces fought fiercely 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 mournful mounds, capped with white crosses or rifles with helmets, in the verdant countryside. The stench of death hung heavy in the warm summer air, and hordes of black flies plagued the survivors.

After breaking out from the Bocage, XXX Corps passed the hell that was Falaise and advanced to the Seine. Here, the 43rd Wessex Division would have to force a daylight crossing in small boats, under the watchful gaze and deadly fire of the German troops holding the high ground on the far bank. 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, the sappers of the Royal Engineers began the construction of the bridges, David and Goliath, all the while 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, and 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 through the eyes of a rich cast of characters who movingly relate their own experiences in great detail.

product information: