Re: Memorial Day

Posted by Goose on May 26, 2014 at 08:26:21 from (70.198.1.204):

In Reply to: Memorial Day posted by John T on May 26, 2014 at 04:17:58:

While recently reading my June, 2014 issue of Naval History magazine, I learned something I hadn't heard before.

A couple of hours after the Normandy invasion began, troops on Omaha Beach were pinned down and pretty much at a standstill. Then, much like a Cavalry charge in an old west movie, about a dozen Navy destroyers came charging to the front through the heave traffic, turned parallel to the beach, and began firing their 5" guns almost point blank into the German defenses. A couple destroyers worked so close into shore that Germans were hitting them with rifle fire. One witness in a Higgins boat said he saw a destroyer go barreling past, black smoke coming from its stack. He said he thought, "My God, that guy's going to beach right in front of the German defenses". He said at the last second, the destroyer made a hard left turn parallel to the beach and opened fire.

The truth was, the overhead bombing and offshore fire from battleships and cruisers hadn't been as effective has had been hoped in softening up the German defenses. The destroyers' five inch guns at that range were far more effective. More through luck than accuracy, one destroyer managed to put a 5" round down the barrel of a German artillery piece. One German emplacement proved difficult to silence: through concentrated fire, two destroyers shot up the cliff directly under it until the entire cliff collapsed and the German emplacement fell down the bank.

Several Allied tanks were attempting to advance up a hill, but were being held up by the Germans. One destroyer fire team couldn't see exactly what the tanks were firing at, but fired where the tanks were firing. It was repeated over and over. The tanks would fire into a particular area, the destroyers would fire into the same area, the tanks would advance a ways, and the routine would be repeated.

A destroyer would typically carry 1500 to 2,000 rounds of 5" ammo. Most had depleted some of it earlier in the morning. In this melee, the destroyer Captains were ordered not to deplete over 50% to 60% of their remaining ammo before going back to England to replenish. It was an order that was promptly ignored. One destroyer fired 1137 rounds of 5" in less than two hours. Others came close to that amount. Fire crews aboard the destroyers were spraying down the guns with water to try to keep them cool enough to keep operating.

After all was said and done, and the invasion began advancing again, it was found only one destroyer had suffered minor damage. The destroyer Captains had repeatedly switched their engines from "forward" to "reverse" to keep from becoming a sitting target.

In a post war memoir, General Bradley said, "The Navy saved our hides that morning".

I've always had nothing but respect for destroyer crews. I've never been aboard one, but I recall being aboard an aircraft carrier in heavy weather in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. From the rather solid vantage point of the carrier, you'd look to the side and see a destroyer that was escorting the carrier rise to the top of a wave--and then disappear. You'd swear it sank. Then a couple of minutes later, here it would come again.

Didn't mean to ramble on, but as I said at the start, the Navy destroyers' actions and participation in the landing was something I hadn't heard before and apparently was never publicized to the degree it should have been.

Replies:

• Re: Memorial Day Bret4207 04:10:02 05/27/14 (0)

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