The 47 Royal Marine Commando takes Port en Bessin
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- čas přidán 2. 11. 2019
- Port en Bessin was an important D-day objective for 2 reasons. It was in the middle of an 11 mile gap between Gold and Omaha beaches and was to be the site of a terminal bringing in fuel to be pumped into Pluto Minor.
The 47 royal marine commando was given the task.
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Yes, My dad was there too as adjutant to 47 RM Commando in HQ Troop. He was 22 on D-Day so very young like so many. He joined 47 with his school friend Lt. John Bennett and shared a tent with the 47 RM Commando Legend The MO John Forfar. Capt PM Donnell became my godfather. My father never spoke much about the war except to acknowledge that he had killed the enemy hand to hand and did not like conflict. Sadly he died 1981 aged 58 before I realised the enormity of the achievements of 47 at Port-en Bassin and at Walcheren. I have taken two of my sons to PEB - one last year repeating the walk that the Commando did on D day and one son to Walcheren where he actually met Doc Forfar who took him to show him the dunes and pill box that my father led a bayonet charge into. Sadly my son never met his grandfather but for Doc Forfar to tell him the story was a great experience and eye opener. 47 RM Commando an exceptional band of heroes!
It's great to hear from family of the commandos. If you did the walk you probably know Alex Wilson, the son of Lt Wilson. He lives in Port en Bessin and does the walk.
My wife's father was in the 47th Royal Marine Commando and participated in the attack on Port en Bessin. He received a Military Medal for rescuing some wounded comrades under German fire. He was in the motor pool I believe. Sargent William Effion Ellis. Thank you for an excellent video.
Thanks for the feedback. They were great men.
My grandad was there that day too received the military medal for the same thing saving lives under heavy fire.
My Grandfather of the 431 Battery of the Essex Yeomanry/147th RA (mentioned at 9.52) supported the Royal Marine Command attack on Port En Bessin. He was a gunner in a Sexton 25 Pdr. Thanks for posting this video. Very interesting
thanks for watching and the feedback.
Great video! It's great to finally get a comprehensive understanding of what the Commando did on D-Day & +1
On a side note, I'm bloody glad the Germans decided not to shoot Cpl Amos - it would've been tatters for me!
instablaster...
Stood at PenB, facing seaward, the hill to your right:- there's an earlier era fort converted to a firing position by Jerry. Visiting in early 80's a climb upnto'gave' x3 German mg casings, fired but for sure as later proven, also 'a piece' that has apparently well rusted to main mini barrel iron sights and a slotting mech below which I assume was part of a gun of sorts. They were all just there below mud, gravel etc in and around said position.
Very interesting and informative with plenty of anecdotal detail included. My father-in-law arrived in Port en Bessin a few days later with the cable ship bringing the fuel pipe for the beachhead (apparently still visible at low tide). He spoke of this to us but not in much detail. He was very young at the time having lied about his age to join the navy and get away from the farm..
Thanks for the feedback. The pipes were flexible held up by bouys. Nothing visible now.
This deserves a hundred thousand views. I am not sure why it hasn't taken off.
My late Father was with 47 RMC his name was Jack Pinder. God bless them all.
Thanks for a great detailed video.My father Andy Charlton was in 47 commando when he joined up at 18 years of age and fought at Port en Bessin.He was a corporal in B troop and a landing craft coxon. He never spoke of his time at war maybe because his older brother George,a tank commander was killed in Libya.
Thanks for the info on your father. Hope you learnt something from the video. I got a lot of documents from the son of Lt Wilson of A troop who lives in Port en Bessin.
Very interesting as my father was a 19 year old in the German navy and was on one of the flak ships which was in the inner Harbour. It was hit by a shell from an offshore ship and sank with most of the crew. My father and two others survived as they were on the Harbour wall but all were wounded.
They escaped the town and moved towards their regrouping point but were captured by Americans in a Red Cross bunker where they were being treated. By father was deaf in one ear for life and I remember even in the late 1970s often had bits of shrapnel work their way out of his body. After the war as a pow he stayed in the 22:24 UK in 1946 and married in 1950 as his home town
was occupied by the Russians. He didn’t talk much about it but said the commandos were everywhere and they all thought there must have been thousands of them attacking as the German units were overwhelmed he said very quickly. But that was later in life so no doubt he had forgotten some points and memories were faded.
Thanks for that great feedback.
The flack ships were on the sea side of the harbour wall. The commando's were beeing shot in the back, as they went up the hill. But didn't know where the gunfire was coming from. A battleship told the commando's on it's loud speaker where it was coming from. Then they went to put them out of action.
The Navy had strict instructions not to destroy the harbour wall. So could not fire upon the flack ships.
This is an excellent video of a less-known battle which we should be much better informed about. I can imagine a film being made about this, it certainly should be. I followed your walk and used Google Maps ( Road map and aerial views ) to identify exactly where you were.
Google earth is a great tool.
My late father was 18 years old on d day and joined the 47th commandos at the age of 17. He was a vickers machine gunner so in Y troop and we took him back here in his 70’s where he told us a little of the history from his perspective. Thanks for taking the time to make this video which added to my understanding of the heroic actions of these men and civilians alike.
Glad that you appreciate the video.
Please could you tell me his name ?.
@@johnpinder8121His name was John Gordon Holmes (Taffy)
Very interesting and informative, I enjoyed your video very much. Thank you.
Always a blessing to hear WW2 history. Being from the USA I know we didn’t save everyone from everything. I wish more WW2 information from Europe would be released to us.
Americans are rightly proud of their veterans and we in Europe owe them a great debt. The sad thing is, all the other allies disappear from Newsreels and more modern films, so you hear almost nothing about them. There were 57,500 Americans, 75,215 British and Canadian in the Normandy landings. Every one of them an absolute hero.
fantastically done as always thank you for keeping this history alive.
Thanks Col.
Great place , visited in October ...note this was harbour filmed in the longest day ..meant to have been Ouistreham
As the Casino at Riva bella had been rebuilt they couldn’t film it there. The building of the preventorium was in place of the actual tourist office. That was where the commandos were filmed. They put a small walkway across the port entrance to destroy it as a commando went across. The nuns came down the hill at the end.
Cornelius Ryan got it wrong by having a building of a casino. The germans had demolished it and there was a bunker in the ruins . The bunker was called the casino bunker.
Yes this bothered me in The Longest Day as it is, i think never mentioned as Port en Bessin in the making of documentary of the longest day, but we can all pretend that it is the attack on the port instead of Ouistreham, and honestly i am shocked that Cornelius hadn't just made it the Port en Bessin attack anyway to save historical accuracy.
Amazing story.
Thank you very much for this. My Great Uncle took part in this raid - Lance Corporal - PO/X 115851, No. 47 R.M. Commando. Later to fall in Walcheren. Please feel free to cantact me if you have any further information relating to the actions of 47 Commando.
Thanks for sharing this.
My uncle marine J Griffin awarded the MM medal, for taking out a machine gun postion single handed. God bless him. 45 commando. Lost one lung at Walcheren.
Thanks for the feedback.
Fantastic videos, you’re just very softly spoken so sometimes difficult to hear especially with background noise on there! Other than that thank you for taking the time to produce these!
Thanks for the comment. I try to get the audio constant. Don't always manage it.
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