Let us make a little sidestep here and pay some attention to the naval counterpart of
the German battery. We give you the order of fire given by the allied ships on the
battery at Longues sur Mer on D-day.
The sequence seems chaotic, but you have to realise that each ship had its own
target. But as the battle continued, the assignment of targets had to be changed.
One pre targeted battery was easily silenced and an other gave longer resistance.
Main objective of the naval artillery was preventing artillery fire on the landing beaches.
Order of the battle:
The French cruiser "Georges Leygues" opened fire on the battery at 05:37
with her 9 pieces of 15,2 cm. That was 20 minutes before sunrise.
French La Galissonniere class cruiser.
The German battery opened fire at the US destroyer "Emmons", but very soon it attacked the US battleship "Arkansas". This ship replied directly with her 12 guns of 12 inch and many rounds of 5 inch grenates.
US battleship Arkansas.
The Germans now re-aimed their fire towards the Gold-beach-major-control-ship "Bulolo", this ship was forced to retreat. At 05:57 the English cruiser "Ajax" fired with her 8 guns of 6 inch at the casemates at Longues. These rounds had more precision, since the "Ajax" was equipped with a radar guided firing control.
HMS Ajax before the war.
The German battery was quieted at 06:05 for a short time, but reopened fire at the "Arkansas" and booked several close misses. At this point the French cruiser "Montcalm", a sistership of the "George Leygues", took over, because the US battlewagon had her own priorities at Omaha-beach. The French fire resulted in a shut down of the battery from 08:45 until the afternoon, after which the "Ajax" had to come into action again. Extra support was given by the English cruiser "Argonaut" which fired with her 10 guns of 5,25 inch.
HMS Argonaut.
After silencing the battery, both French cruisers took over and produced a regular
covering fire untill 19:00.
With special thanks to naval expert Ad van der Weel, Middelburg.
Conclusion:
After the battle, specialists tried to find out which allied shells caused the most
damage. Considering the present state of the bunkers and the fact that casemate nr 1 was
already destroyed by the Airforce, I am willing to think that it was a draw that day.
The upper roof of the M 262 is undamaged, so the crack in the ceiling above Major Pluskat
is a special addition by filmdirector Darryl F. Zanuck. The film is a masterpiece.