6 June 1944

6 June 1944

The Channel Islands command reported no Allied landings on Guernsey and no enemy naval forces in the islands' waters. Four Typhoons strafed the Casquets, damaging the lighthouse and extinguishing its light but causing no personnel casualties. Batteries Elsass and Annes, Alderney, and Guernsey anti-aircraft weapons engaged several Allied aircraft during the day; the command recorded claimed hits but no direct assault on the islands. [T-1022/2174, PG 38468, scans 0300-0304]

From about 02:20 the Normandy command reported enemy aircraft, parachute and glider landings, fighting around Caen and attacks on communications. Reports followed of landings or attempted landings near Cabourg, east of Ouistreham, Grandcamp and Port-en-Bessin. Sabotage and parachutists were also reported around Le Havre. Alert Level II was ordered for Le Havre and the admiral’s staff, and all seaworthy harbour-defence boats were directed to reinforced defensive positions.

Telephone and signal links with Cherbourg and parts of the Channel Islands were repeatedly interrupted. The command attempted to establish the scale of the airborne landings and the position of enemy forces between the Vire and the Orne while reports arrived piecemeal from coastal headquarters, naval observation posts and batteries.

Large groups of warships, transports and landing craft were sighted off the Normandy coast. Naval gunfire and bombing struck German coastal positions, while batteries at Marcouf, Longues, in H.K.A.A. 1255, at Cap de la Hève, and elsewhere engaged cruisers, destroyers, transports and landing craft. German reports claimed hits, ships forced to turn away, and some vessels damaged or sunk; these were contemporary German claims and were not independently verified in the diary.

The batteries of H.K.A.A. 1255 fought under particularly heavy naval and air attack. Its 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th batteries fired against cruisers, destroyers, a battleship reported as of the Queen Elizabeth class, transports, landing craft and targets near the Orne mouth. Communications were repeatedly cut, observation and fire-control positions were damaged, and local radio links and repair parties were used to keep guns in action.

The later H.K.A.A. 1255 battle report listed the day’s fire missions in detail. 1./1255 engaged several small warships, cruisers, a destroyer, a torpedo boat, the reported battleship and landing craft. 2./1255 and 3./1255 engaged destroyers, cruisers, transports and landing vessels, often breaking off when targets made smoke, turned away or passed out of range. The report attributed the diversion of transports toward the Orne sector partly to the artillery resistance, but this was the battery’s own post-action assessment.

Batterie Marcouf and neighbouring Cotentin positions reported close fighting, bombardment and difficulties in maintaining contact. Batteries at Longues and along the Calvados coast exchanged fire with the invasion fleet. The diary also followed enemy movements inland, the condition of bridges and roads, and the uncertain situation at Ouistreham, Caen, Grandcamp and the Cotentin approaches.

By the afternoon and evening the command recognised that the main landings lay between the Vire and the Orne and that substantial enemy forces had established themselves ashore under the protection of a powerful fleet and overwhelming air cover. The diary continued to record German counter-movements, artillery fire, losses and fragmentary reports from isolated coastal positions through the end of the day.

Roll 2174, PG 38468, scans 0295–0306; supplementary battle report at PG 38469, scans 0594–0600.