General Eisenhower announces that Allied forces will be withdrawn from the Normandy beachhead beginning today due to the heavy allied losses and defeats. With the British and Canadian beachheads already evacuated, the small American beachhead has been under constant counter-attack and bombardment by German Panzer Forces. Remaining troops will be withdrawn as soon as possible. General Eisenhower has submitted his resignation to the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff....
Although
this press release is of course fictitious it very possibly could have
come true if not for the courage of one British Airborne soldier, his
PIAT, and one PIAT round.
It
was the morning of June 6th 1944. D Company, Oxfordshire and
Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, along with attached troops had landed by
glider and had seized and held the vital bridges over the Caen Canal
and the Orne River, along with a vital crossroads known as the
“T-junction”.
Although well equipped their sole means of repelling
German Armored advances was the dreaded PIAT. The PIAT was a short-range
infantry anti-tank weapon. It had numerous shortcomings one of which
was the inability to reload quickly. PIAT gunners had a saying, “hit it
with the first shot because you won’t get a second.”
The
commanding officer, Major John Howard, knew that they would likely face
a German counter-attack and hoped he and his men would not have to
fight Panzers with only PIAT’s and small arms.
Major Howard started
receiving reports of German armor approaching his position. They were
moving the vital “T-junction” which served as the main arterial road
from Benouville to Le port, and then on to Caen and the invasion
beaches. Approaching the British positions were 6 Tanks, a force of
German infantry that outnumbered the British 4 to 1, and a battery of
88′s.
In
his defensive position was Sgt. “Wagger” Thornton, who had the one
remaining operable PIAT and two PIAT rounds. The “Ox and Bucks” held
their fire so as to not reveal their positions, hoping to lure the
leading German MK IV tank into the killing zone. Sgt. Thornton coolly
waited until the tank was well within range and fired. The PIAT round
struck the front of the tank almost dead center, penetrated the
interior, and set off all of the ammunition inside. The German forces
withdrew reporting that the British troops had heavy anti-tank guns set
up at the Bridge. The German tank then sat in the middle of the
“T-junction” blocking movement for any other heavy vehicles, effectively
preventing the use of this vital road for any German counter-attacks.
What
if Sargeant Thornton had missed? Surely the superior numbers and armor
would have overwhelmed the lightly-armed British Airborne forces. The
rest of 6th Airborne Division would have been hard pressed to stop a
determined German attack. The paratroops were scattered and at the time
of Sgt. Thornton’s action were just starting to form into effective
fighting units.
Colonel
Von Luck, commander of the German 125th Panzer Grenadier Regiment,
stated that if he had had use of the “T-junction” and bridges he could
have supported the attack on the British beach-heads by the 21st Panzer
Division. Such an attack would have succeeded if the Germans had
sufficient troops, which the 125th would have provided. Of course if the
German 21st Panzer Division had succeeded in penetrating to the British
and Canadian beach-heads the landing would have become a debacle and
likely a second “Dieppe”. If the Commonwealth landings had failed we can
also argue that the bulk of the German armored force, which was used to
defend the Caen region from the British and Canadians, would have then
been free to encircle the American beachheads and similarly annihilate
them. Something else to consider is the enormous casualties endured by
the British and Canadian forces in Normandy facing the German panzers.
This was due to the fact that the Allies even in 1944 did not have a
tank capable of consistently defeating the front-line German tanks. With
the bulk of the German armor now facing the Americans and with
criminally poor anti-tank weapons the Americans would have been
decimated like the Canadians were later around Caen.
