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From June 1940 the whole of Western Europe was in German hands. There could be no victory until the German army was confronted face to face. Operation Overlord Normandy was chosen to land Allied Navies on account of the weaker defences, soft gradients of the beach and favourable weather conditions. The aim - to destroy German defences and artillery positions. American, British, Canadian and other naval and air forces cooperated to land over 150,000 men and many tons of vehicles and equipment. At dawn on 6 June 1944 Operation Overlord began. The invasion forces landed on 5 beaches along the Normandy coast: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. On the first day, 2,700 vessels and 1,897 landing craft sailed. The cargo was 130,000 soldiers, 12,000 vehicles, 2,000 tanks and 10,000 tons of stores.
D-Day
Map The operation was successful. Normandy was liberated and the assault pushed further through North-West Europe. In March 1945 Allied troops crossed the Rhine and in May of the same year the British and Americans entered Berlin. Operation Postage Able Prior to the invasion of Normandy it was vital that every detail of the coastline was known - the contours, whether they were mined, the nature of the beach exits. So five months beforehand HMS X20 spent four days off the French coast, under the command of Lt Ken Hudspeth DSC* RANVR. The crew consisted of COPPs - Combined Operations Pilotage Parties.
Lt Ken Hudspeth DSC* RANVRThe days were spent conducting periscope observations of the shoreline and taking bottom soundings using the echo sounder. At night the divers, Major Scott-Bowden and Sergeant Ogden-Smith, swam ashore carrying a shingle bag, brandy flask, sounding lead, underwater writing pad and pencil, auger (boring tool), compass, beach gradient reel and stake, torch, revolver and trowel.
Soil samples were collected in condoms. On two nights they went ashore to survey what would become the Omaha beach. C1940s
Condoms Worsening weather caused Hudspeth to shorten the expedition, but for this operation he received a bar for DSC. Operation Gambit
HMS X23 on D-DayThe first craft off the shore of Normandy on D-Day were midget submarines. Two X-craft, HMS X20 (Lt K Hudspeth DSC*) and X23 (Lt G Honour DSC RNVR) were chosen to play a hazardous part in Operation Neptune, the naval assault phase of D-Day. Codenamed Operation Gambit, the aim was to set up landing markers to guide the invasion force towards the beaches.
Lt George Honour DSC RNVR
HMS X23 Badge On 4 June 1944 the X-craft fixed their positions in front of the Normandy coast. At nightfall they surfaced only to be told that the operation had been postponed due to bad weather. On 6 June at 0445 the submarines surfaced in rough seas. They set up the 18 feet high navigation beacons that each were carrying and switched them on. These shone a green light indicating their position away from the coast, visible up to 5 miles away although undetectable to anyone on land. 
The X-craft panel on
the Overlord Embroidery. The embroidery is on permanent display at the D-Day Museum in Southsea, who have kindly given us permission to use this image. They used the radio beacon and echo sounder to tap out a message for the minelayers approaching Sword and Juno beaches. The incoming fleet appeared on time and roared past them.
The D-Day Invasion Fleet Lt George Honour DSC RNVR (HMS X23) recalled seeing the incoming invasion fleet years later:"It was unbelievable. Although I knew they were on our side it was still a frightening sight. One can only imagine what the enemy must have felt, waking up to this awesome spectacle and knowing that they were the targets".
D-Day painting by Guy Todd depicting George Honour on X23 watching the invasion fleet having completed Operation Gambit"To mark the approaches to the beaches for Forces "S" and "J", two X-craft were employed, as it was very important that Force "S" should not be too far eastward and the coast in Force "J"s section was not too distinctive in outline. These craft had sailed on the night of the 2nd/3rd June - being towed for part of the passage. Each submarine received at 0100 hours, 5th June, a message that the assault had been postponed for twenty-four hours and in spite of the difficulties of navigation for a craft of very slow diving speed in a cross-tidal stream, had maintained their positions off the enemy coast until daylight on the 6th June, when they flashed their lights to seaward from the surface in their correct positions as a guide to the oncoming assault craft. It is considered that great skill and endurance was shown by the crews of X20 and X23. Their report of the proceedings, which were a masterpiece of understatement, read like a deck log of a surface ship in peacetime, and not of a very small and vulnerable submarine carrying out a hazardous operation in time of war". Admiral Ramsey At sunrise their job was done, the lamps were taken down and replaced with the signal flags representing ‘D’ for D-Day.
The ‘D’ for Dog flag and white ensign flown by X23 on D-Day. Both are in the Museum’s Collection.
HMS X23 on D-Day. Lt George Honour and S/Lt H J Hodges RNVR on the casing X20 and X23 had led the way in the largest ever combined assault. Incidentally, the word ‘Gambit’, the codename for this operation, is defined in the dictionary as "the pawn you thrown away before a big move in chess". Combined Operations Pilotage Parties (COPPs)
Members of the Combined Operations Pilotage Party (COPP) in early May 1944. Includes Lt George Honour of HMS X23. (Front row, 3rd from left) COPPs were made up of volunteer naval officers, and were landed by canoe from submarines. Often the Party would be supplemented by members of the Special Boat Service (SBS) to handle the canoes. The highly dangerous job of these teams was to conduct reconnaissance on enemy shores prior to an invasion. Beach gradients, tidal effects, beach extent and the presence of underwater obstructions were all essential pieces of information to Amphibious Commanders.
Folboats being lowered through the fore hatch of an S-class submarine The penalty of not conducting such reconnaissance was particularly evident during the landing for ‘Operation Torch’ North Africa. A number of landing-craft hit a false beach just offshore, close to Oran, and disembarked their vehicles and crews into deep water, drowning them.
HMS
Seadog in the Indian Ocean, May-June 1945, transferring Once this part of the operation was complete, the COPP submarines were often employed close inshore under enemy guns as navigation beacons for the landing forces. Both full-sized and midget submarines were employed in this role. The parts played by HM Submarines X20 and X23 during the D-Day landings were of crucial importance, and they more than lived up to the COPP motto of Nobis Tutus Ibis (‘With us you go in safety’). Artefacts commemorating the important role of X-craft and their crews on D-Day.
Left: plaque showing
the badges of X20 and X23.
Cloth badge insignia of the COPPs |
