Aerial photos of FGH DD tanks

[Tony Viste]

The National Collection of Aerial Photography website http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk released an incredible amount of aerial photos of the Normandy area on 6 Jun 2013.

One of them is just absolutely amazing. It is an oblique view of the beach at Bernieres-sur-Mer from a height of a thousand feet on the morning of 6 Jun 44. On the beach can be seen men from the Queens Own Rifles running across the beach and crowding at the sea wall. There are also, from my count, 18 DD tanks of B Sqn FGH. Some are on the beach at the sea wall and others are still out in the surf. Seeing all the beach obstacles its a wonder how the drivers managed to zig-zag through them all.

The photo is Sortie US7/1730 frame P/0102.

Frame S/0053 shows the same place slightly later in time (the plane made a turn over Sword beach and is coming back the other way). The tanks haven’t moved much and there are more LCA’s and LCT’s coming in.

Its not just D-Day that is covered. Another incredible set of photos shows the second phase bombing of Totalize on the afternoon of 8 Aug 44. The reconnaissance plane is above the bombers, and in some of the photos formations of B-17’s can be seen below.

The website does charge a yearly subscription fee of about $28.00 to zoom in to the details of the photographs. But if you have any interest in aerial photos of Normandy it is well worth the price

[doug.lane]

Thanks for this post. This is a remarkable picture! Before I spend the money on a yearly subscription, can you confirm that with a paid subscription, when you zoom in on the map, you have much higher resolution than what is on the sample pictures? My Dad was in FGH B Squadron on D-Day, so his tank would be one of those on the beach.

[Tony Viste]

Yes, with the subscription you can zoom in pretty good. I would guess the picture is about 2500 pixels wide

If you private message me with your email address, I can send you a screen capture of part of that photo, then you can decide if you want to do the subscription.

Was your father H-26553 W.W. Lane?

[doug.lane]

Yes correct - my father is W.W. Lane. He was a tank driver in the FGH. That would be great if you could send me a screen capture of the picture. Much appreciated. douglas.lane@telus.net
It's interesting that most of the tanks appear to have landed on the west side of Bernières-sur-mer which (as I understand) was the correct intended landing spot to support the QOR. So the QOR 'A" Company would have had tank support, but the QOR 'B' Company who landed 250 yards east of its objective and directly in front of that nasty pillbox would have had no tank support.