The Normandy Campaign

Company A, landing at H plus yo, lost some of its equipment in the heavy seas. Even worse, Capt. Thomas P. Moundres, its commander, was mortally wounded before reaching the beach. The senior lieutenant assumed command and succeeded in getting the platoons into firing 

Smoke Screen During the Omaha Beach Landings 

1944 3 officers of the 8ist were killed and 2 others, including the battalion commander, were seriously wounded. One company lost its total complement of transportation while each of the other three companies lost two vehicles. 

The 87th Chemical Battalion, commanded by Lt. Col. James H. Batte, was attached to VII Corps in the D-day assault of Utah Beach. Three of the firing companies supported the three battalions of the 

After the fall of the port of Cherbourg half of the battalion supported the 9 th Division during the several days required to mop up the Cap de la Hague. By r July, when this operation ended, the 87th Battalion had been in continuous combat for twenty-five days. Nineteen man had been killed and 75 had been wounded battalion ammunition expenditures totaled 19,129 rounds of HE and 11,899 rounds of white phosphorus. 

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John Buckley, British Armour in the Normandy Campaign 1944 (London Frank Cass, 2004) French, Raising ChurehilVs Army, pp. 100-5 Postan, Hay and Scott, Design and Development, pp. 329-30, 341. 

British Armour in the Normandy Campaign 1944, London Frank Cass, 2004. 

Despite the complaints heard throughout the Normandy Campaign about the lack of trained mortar battalion replacements, there was no over-all shortage of CWS officers in the European theater. Colonel St. John, Chemical Adviser, G-3, SHAEF, reported in June 1944 that so many CWS officers were in the theater that they were "sitting in each other s laps and standing on each other s feet. ... 

As the initial weeks of the campaign wore on and units moved inland, some flame thrower targets did appear. Cities and towns presented obstacles which occasionally called for flame thrower action, although the ist and 2d Infantry Divisions reported that the weapon was not particularly useful in ordinary street fighting. The V Corps stated that the limited range of the portable flame thrower restricted its usefulness in fighting in the hedgerows, that ubiquitous feature of the Normandy terrain. ... 

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