Sword Beach formed part of Operation Neptune within Operation Overlord of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France that commenced on 6th June 1944. The beach was assaulted by units of the British 3rd Division, with French and British commandos attached. Elements of the 6th Airborne Division seized key bridges inland from the beach, which stretched 5 miles from Ouistreham to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer.
The landings were achieved with many casualties but the advance from the beach was slowed by traffic congestion and resistance in defended areas behind the beach. Further progress towards Caen was halted by the only armoured counter-attack of the day, mounted by the 21st Panzer Division.
The total number of casualties at Sword Beach, which includes those killed, wounded, and missing, were approximately 2,200. This includes about 1,000 dead among the soldiers who landed there, with an additional 600 British airborne soldiers killed or wounded, and 600 more who were listed as missing.
The Sword Beach memorial, also known as the Kieffer Monument, is a tribute to the commandos who landed on 6th June 1944. The monument, which resembles a flame, was erected on top of a steel German cupola. It commemorates the members of the British and French 1st Special Services Commando Unit that lost their lives at Sword Beach and Pegasus Bridge.
50mm German Antitank gun
The guns crucial positioning on the shore protected the gun of any direct fire from the sea, and it could cope with collateral attacks from the beach, the boardwalk and adjacent streets. After having put out of combat the first allied tanks in the morning of 6th June 1944, it was reduced to silence following a heavily armed attack by three other tanks and sustaining damage that can still be seen today.
P47 Crash
Second Lieutenant john Alfred “Jack” WEESE was 24 years old when his plane crashed at sea off the coast of Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer. The pilot from the US Air Force 386th Fighter Squadron had left Beaulieu Airfield in England for a mission above Cherbourg.
After his P47 was hit by flak, he announced he was attempting to belly land. That would be his last communication. His body was recovered the same day. The tide pushed the plane which became stranded the next day. The American aviator was buried locally but four years later, his body was returned to his family in Ann, Arbor Michigan.
