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due to the lack of suitable OP?). Now for some direct quotation from Vere’s diary text. “When we reached the Chateau, the Company Commander told me that the Germans were pressing him from a strongpoint on the other side of a large field, immediately outside the wooded Chateau grounds. This target was technically too close to our troops to engage, because a ship’s shell could fall on us. However, things didn’t look too good anyway, so I decided to take the risk. The Tels got me a ship, I sent the fire orders and she fired: but I couldn’t see where the shots were falling. So I called for a battleship, thinking that as their shells weighed a ton or so, if anything would show up on landing they would. I was allocated HMS RAMILLIES. I had a couple of ranging shots; they were audible as they passed over our heads just before landing, causing some of our men to look askance, but I reassured them, the shell’s landing was very visible. The next shots were right on target, and the Germans came out of their bunker with a white flag.” By that time the jeep with a more powerful radio and spare kit should have joined, but had not. The party Tels heard on the grapevine that it was in some RN depot. It was discovered that the unnamed RN Tel who was to have driven it to join up with the party had refused, apparently saying that it was not his job to drive jeeps; he had enlisted to serve at sea! It was rapidly assessed that this young man would not fit in and he was ditched, but the party got the jeep.
An interesting tactical aside. The Germans played an old artillery trick here, firing on the Para soldiers a few seconds after the RN ship fired at them, causing our troops to think that the RN were hitting them by mistake. Vere had to stop firing because he could not convince them that he wasn’t. By the beginning of July, the Normandy battle had progressed beyond the range of ships’ guns and so Vere was withdrawn to the UK where, after some difficulty, he was reunited with his family. For their work in Normandy, Vere and Wilf Fortune were Mentioned in Despatches. Early in May 1945, Germany surrendered and 6 May was declared VE Day, and there was great celebration. However, for those who were faced with the prospect of fighting in Japan, VE Day was not entirely euphoric. At this time, life for Service families was very difficult: transport, accommodation, indeed just plain survival was always a problem. However a major cloud was lifted when on 14 August 1945 Japan surrendered and the next day was declared VJ Day. Another direct quote from the diary: “It was unbelievably wonderful. The two atom bombs seemed to us like miracles...... Everyone was just so happy that the war was really over. Those of us who had felt the shadow of Japan over us during the VE Day celebrations could now really relax and give thanks.” The demobilisation process now started, and Vere, having decided to enter the Church, started to make arrangements to go to Oxford University, and then to Theological College – but that is another story.
THE COMBINED OPERATIONS BOMBARDMENT UNITS
By Captain PN Clark RA
The Combined Operations Bombardment Units were first formed during the recent war, and although they remained quite small in numbers until 1942, they grew to considerable size by the time the invasion of Europe took place. Even so, there are many gunners, who will not have come in contact with the units, and who may be interested to read of their work and achievements. The guns of the Royal Navy have been used to bombard shore targets for centuries, but never before has a unit been formed to bring indirect fire to bear on the enemy from warships. In spite of the vast improvements in equipment and control of gunfire, the employment of naval bombardment has remained very static, and it was not until recently that this valuable weapon was used to its full advantage. This may have been caused by the advent of the aeroplane and radar, and these two inventions, coupled with the increased mobility of land forces, have added considerably to the problems of invasion.
Because, not long ago, complete mastery of the seas acted as a cloak to the movements of any invasion fleet, as likely as not the force could be landed with little or no opposition. Today an invasion fleet is likely to be discovered well in advance, especially if a long sea voyage is necessary, and
it may have to contend with reinforcements which can be sent very rapidly to the sector which has been threatened most. This means that the forces concerned are likely to have to fight a major engagement before a beach head can be established, and places the scale of assault on a par with an offensive of land based armies. Now one of the main disadvantages of the assaulting force will be the period between the touch down of the landing craft and the deployment of the field regiments, during which the infantry will not have the close support of the gunners, on which they so often rely. Therefore the COBU was formed with the object of replacing, as nearly as possible, the close support of the field guns, by the close support of the naval guns. It was necessary therefore to provide a means whereby naval gunfire could be called for and directed on to targets at the request of infantry commanders, and experiments were carried out to discover the best methods, organisation and equipment to fulfil this purpose.
Before giving an outline of the history of the units, it will be necessary to explain the workings of the unit as it was finally constituted, in order to overcome the difficulty of explaining the abbreviated terms used during the course
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