6th D Day Beach – Band Beach

SitRep

Forgotten 6th invasion beach.

So, the date was June 6th 1944 and the Allied troops landed on Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno & Sword beaches, but to the East of Sword beach 3 other potential significant threats came in the shape of gun batteries at; Merville battery, Houlgate battery and Benerville battery. So, there was a 6th beach identified to assault and deal with these threats. This was codenamed ‘Band’ beach.

Merville was dealt with by British Paratroopers the elements of the 6th Airborne Division in the early hours of D Day.

There were 3 options for dealing with the batteries;

  1. Bombing from the air
  2. Naval gun bombardment
  3. Attack by Commandos or Paratroopers

In the end bombardments by aircraft & ships resulted in there being no need to assault them from the sea. This freed up troops to undertake other actions as the landings progressed.

“Lest we forget”.