Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part III)

An important Second World War D-Day D.S.M. awarded to Petty Officer E. Crook, Royal Navy: he commanded a landing craft in the first wave to “touch down” on Dog Green Beach on Omaha where, under devastating enemy fire, he successfully landed the H.Q. Group of the 5th U.S. Rangers Battalion

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (P.O. E. Crook, LT/JX. 196058), extremely fine £2500-3000

D.S.M. London Gazette 28 November 1944:

‘For gallantry, skill, determination and undaunted devotion to duty during the landing of Allied Forces on the coast of Normandy.’

The original recommendation states:

‘This rating displayed great coolness and skill in handling his landing craft in an outstandingly successful opposed landing in the initial assault on Dog Green Beach [on Omaha], under enemy machine-gun and mortar fire and in a severe sea and swell.

By his great skill he landed his troops, H.Q. Group, 5th U.S. Rangers Battalion, without loss, and turned his craft around inside the mined beach obstructions and returned safely to his parent ship.

This is the fourth successful opposed landing this rating has carried out and by his cheerful spirit he has set an outstanding example to the troops embarked and to his crew.’

Ernest Crook, a member of the Royal Naval Patrol Service, was serving in Assault Group O-4 at the time of the above deeds, while his Landing Craft was launched from the “parent ship” H.M.S. Prince Leopard. It is interesting to speculate where his four previous ‘opposed landings’ took place, for while he may have notched up two or three in the Mediterranean (North Africa, Sicily and Italy), it is also possible his first such operation was the Dieppe raid in August 1942.

Just what odds he and the other men assigned to Omaha beach faced are neatly summed up in Operation Neptune, by Commander K. Edwards, R.N.:

‘The German defensive system at Omaha beach consisted of strong points constructed in and on the cliffs to landward of the beach, with others at the foot of these cliffs. There were many pillboxes, partly buried in the slope and therefore gaining extra protection from their surroundings. These pillboxes were so sited that they could give a volume of fire across the beach to seaward and also provide cross-fire on the beach itself. Nor were these pillboxes isolated strong-points. They were connected by underground passages and were provided with an elaborate inter-communication system of zinc voice-pipes. Moreover, the beach and its seaward approaches were thickly mined, while all possible landward exits from the beach were blocked by ditches or walls and barbed wire. Along the 7500 odd yards of Omaha beach there were:

8 Casemate batteries with guns of 75mm. or larger calibre
35 Pillboxes, with guns of less than 75mm. calibre and automatic weapons
4 Field artillery positions
18 Anti-tank gun positions with guns of between 37mm. and 75mm.
6 Mortar pits
38 Rocket pits, each with four 38mm. rocket tubes
85 Machine-gun posts

The mere fixed defences of Omaha beach made it a very tough proposition indeed, and it must be remembered that these defences were manned, not by elderly and indifferent coast defence troops diluted with foreign conscripts, but by a fresh German Field Division.

As the landing craft carrying the first wave of American assaulting troops “touched down” [Petty Officer Crook at the helm of one of them], the 352nd German Field Division opened a murderous fire from their strongly armed positions. This fire knocked out the majority of the tanks which had accompanied the first wave of the assault, and caused very heavy casualties among the troops. Moreover, as a result of this fire the initial wave was only able to clear five lanes through the beach obstacles instead of the sixteen lanes which had been planned, a fact which, of course, hampered the landings of the subsequent waves.

Despite the terrific odds against them the remnants of the first wave of American assault troops clung to their small and precarious footing on the beach, and they continued to hang on, thus forming a tiny but invaluable beachhead for the landing of their reinforcements.’

A further insight into events immediately surrounding this first “touch down” of six Landing Craft (L.C.As) on Dog Green Beach on Omaha at 0635 hours, 6 June 1944, may be gleaned from the following statistics: one of them hit a submerged obstacle and sank with many men, another, loaded with U.S. Rangers, was hit several times and was lost with all hands, and only three of them managed to disembark their men - and only then by using the shelter of another smashed L.C.A. for cover (see D-Day Ships, The Allied Invasion Fleet, June 1944, by Yves Buffetaut, for further details).