D-Day 6th Airborne 9th Battalion DZ V assembly point.

Hi everyone !

You certainly know the intersection now called « carrefour du 9e bataillon », in Gonneville en Auge (attached picture of the monument). It’s the place where Lieutenant Colonel Otway met the reconnaissance and demining team in charge of preparing the assault. But does anyone know where was the main meeting point where the bulk of the battalion was supposed to gather just after the jump ?

Thanks a lot !

 

Hi,

From the 9 Para War Diary:

DZ
9.
(a) Area of squares 1675, 1775
(b) Line of Flight NE - SW.
(c) Time of drop P minus 4 hrs 30 mins.
(d) Height of drop 500 ft.
(e) RV Area of Wood 169757 - For layout see diagram in Briefing Room.

So perhaps map reference 169757 ...?

The Coordinates Translator places it here but it is sometimes off and I don't see a woods.



Regards ...

 

Hi Cee !

Thanks a lot for your last reply.
I used the Coordinates translater too and I got the same result.
I tried other coordinates to see how precise the converting could be, and I noticed that it was very precise (between 20 to 50 meters). It’s a very useful tool !

Even is there are no woods there, the location of point 169757 seems coherent : it is on the western half of the « V » DZ, in the direction of Gonneville en Auge, and « Les Braux » Farm could have been a good landmark for the landed troops.
I checked old aerial pictures and there were no woods in the area in 1944. So, could « Wood » be a reference to a particular tree close to Les Braux farm ? What do you think about that ?

I red the 9th Battalion war diary but I did not find the info you report :

DZ 9.
(a) Area of squares 1675, 1775
(b) Line of Flight NE - SW.
(c) Time of drop P minus 4 hrs 30 mins.
(d) Height of drop 500 ft.
(e) RV Area of Wood 169757 - For layout see diagram in Briefing Room.

Where did you find these precise elements ? In a specific 9th Battalion war diary ?

I wish you a very nice day.

 

Hi,

Go down to Appendix on WD page to No. 9 or search for "169757" using browser (Firefox, for example, has a search function that can be set up.)



RV = Rendezvous

Regards ...

 

From Neil Barber's book (Chapter 4), "The Day the Devils Dropped In":

"The actual RV point was identified by a solitary tree in a hedgerow on the western edge of the DZ."

Maybe an unusual tree, otherwise not very clear?

Regards ...

 

Hi,

I came across a few references to a "bushy topped tree". See preliminary PDF for RV location possibilities.

9 Para RV Location.pdf - Icedrive

Regards ...

Note - The PDF has now been fully updated with current findings.

 

Wow ... Fantastic job.
Thanks a lot Charles ! Thanks a lot Cee !

 

Hi,

Found a NCAP aerial of area which I added to PDF. I thought I had found it but not sure now which tree is the bushy topped one?

Regards ...

 

MT,

Would you know anything more on the family that lived at "Les Braux" farm during the war? Did they by any chance have a young son?



Regards ...

 

Eh,

I'll float this out again as a possibility. A stitch of DZ 'V' with top arrow indicating the farm and the bottom arrow pointing to a field corner with perhaps a big "bushy topped" tree - not sure ...?



Regards ...

 

Hello,

The following still frame from an American D-Day newsreel is more a curiosity than anything as it's not sharp enough to catch detail in good definition. The brief clip was taken while flying over DZ 'V' and just catches the field corner that interests me. A big tree ... maybe?



Regards ...

 

Ho,

I am not aware of any official war photographers being assigned to the 9th Parachute Battalion on D-Day. However, war artist Albert Richards (1919–1945) did drop with them and produced a watercolour of the occasion. No idea where he landed but it's interesting to see bomb craters and a line of trees in the background.

The Landing: H Hour minus 6



It should be noted the 9th Parachute Battalion was allocated a red light (Aldis lamp) to denote their RV according to the Op Order No. 1, Appendix. Is the red splotch to be seen in a tree to the upper left just a coincidence ...



Regards ...

 

Hi Cee,
Unfortunately I don't know the family who lived at Les Braux during WW2.
I can go there and ask the actual owners, but I live in the Indian ocean 8 months a year and I won't be back to Normandy before the first days of May (to organize the Battlefields tours for the 2023 season).
So, if nobody else can go to the farm before the last days of april, we'll have to wait a few months ;-)
Kind Regards,
Franck

 

Hi Cee,
This picture is interesting. But it’s really frustrating to have no certainty !
Besides, I wonder how this meeting point was originally defined. Only based on aerial photos ?!?!
Kind Regards,
Franck

 

Hello,

A column of men under Brigadier James Hill were caught in a bombing raid near the big farm at 6 Rue de Varaville (just west of Les Braux Farm) at about 7:00 AM on D-Day. Quite a number were killed. The medic Roland Cracknell (Gant) was sent back down the line to look for other medics and survivors where he meets a French youth. A page from his post war book,"How Like a Wilderness":



My study of the Brigadier Hill party bombing incident can be picked up here:

Gonneville Bombing - Brig. Hill Party .pdf - Icedrive

Regards ...

 

A tree is an odd choice? It must have been distinctive in some way.

Regards ...

 

Hi Cee,
I don't think it's an odd choice, and you're right, this tree was certainly very distinctive. But I just meant that it's certainly very difficult to choose such a landmark (during planning) from the sky, exept if you have pictures taken at very very low altitude (to get a "good profile" and to be sure that it's really a good landmark...).

 

Hi.

It's curious. Don't know how they arrived at that choice? Perhaps Resistance intelligence

Regards ...

 

I don’t think it adds anything to what Charles has already offered, but I like maps!

From: GSGS 4250, 1:50,000, Sheet 7F/2, Troarn (1943)



From: Bogus Map Siam 1944 (Based on GSGS 4347, 1:25,000, Sheet 40/16NE, Dozulé). I couldn’t find the original map online.



169757 is actually about 100m south than the location given by the Coordinates Translator.

Richard

 

Brilliant Richard - thank you.