WAR OF WORDS
Tanks land on D-Day beaches in incredible never-seen pics of the Battle of Normandy in 1944 as soldier’s diary emerges
DRAMATIC pictures of the D-Day landings during World War II have come to light after 76 years.
Lieutenant Stephen Malenoir-Vickers, of the Royal Engineers, cleared mines and paths across Juno Beach for the armoured bulldozers.
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His archive includes dramatic previously unpublished photos of tanks disembarking on to the sand and rare 'restricted' D-Day maps.
He also kept a war diary charting from the Normandy landings all the way to the end of the war.
His personal effects are now being sold with C & T Auctions, of Ashford, Kent, who expect them to fetch £4,000.
The Normandy landings were codenamed Operation Neptune but are usually referred to as the D-Day landings.
The aim of the largest ever seaborne invasion was the allied attack on mainland Europe to drive the Nazi forces out of France and later the rest of the occupied continent towards the end of World War II.
Planning for the invasion got underway in 1943 but was only carried out the following year.
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On D-Day – June 6, 1944, the operation got underway with a naval bombardment followed by 24,000 airborne troops from Britain, Canada and the US landing shortly after midnight.
The amphibious troops landed within a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast which had been divided up into five areas – Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
Malenoir-Vickers was part of the allied forces that landed at Juno beach, near Courcelles, at 4.30am and massed with his men at the “Elbow Frankie” assembly area.
The beaches were strongly defended though and the troops came under heavy fire from gun emplacements mounted along the cliffs.
The beaches were also heavily mined and littered with metal tripods and barbed wire in an attempt to stop the allied forces gaining a foothold.
On the first day the allies failed to achieve any of their objectives and the towns and villages in the area remained in Nazi hands.
The five beachheads were only linked up on June 12.
A key objective for the first day, taking the town of Caen, was only accomplished on July 21 after heavy fighting.
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Over the coming months though the allied forces slowly gained the upper hand and could start their push through occupied France.
German casualties on D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men.Allied casualties were documented for at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead.
Malenoir-Vickers was later awarded the Military Cross after the platoon he was in charge of constructed a bridge and a temporary ‘Bailey’ bridge over the Markkanaal in The Netherlands while coming under mortar and small arms fire.
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