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Following the crossing of the river Seine at Elbuf by British and Canadian forces. They would now move along the coastline and clear the channel ports. On 10 September 1944, the British 49th Infantry Division and the 51st Highland Division were tasked to liberate the Le Havre area.
The First Canadian Army and the British 21st Army Group had crossed the Seine and were now clearing the remaining German troops as the allies advanced east. The Canadians from Rouen had pushed north to Dieppe. A small number of British units had been attached to the First Canadian Army to assist the task.
The 49th and 51st Infantry Divisions would move westwards and towards the area of Le Havre. They had begun to surround the city and the port. On 5 September the pre bombardment for Operation Astonia started with multiple bombing raids hitting the city and the defences. This intensified and on 10 September seeing the Royal Navy participant. HMS Warspite and HMS Erebus with up to 15inch guns.
The support of the Royal Air Force (RAF), Royal Navy and the 4th and 9th Army Group Royal Artillery saw a vast amount of ordinance bought down on the defences all around the city. A large RAF raid saw over 1,800 bombers drop nearly 10,000 tons of ordinance.
At 17:45 on 10 September, the Royal Navy ships opened fired on coastal defences and a final RAF raid saw a further 5,000 tons of bombs dropped. To the east of Le Havre units of the British 49th Infantry Division then began to assault the German defence lines and anti-tank ditches.
During this further bombardment of defences, the 1st East Riding Yeomanry were tasked to carry out a regimental shoot. The armoured unit in Sherman tanks would have numbered around 60 tanks in total. All tanks were deployed to fire onto targets. They had been ordered to fire 60 rounds each per tank. This was in support of the artillery. This would have seen around 3,600 rounds fired by the tanks onto German positions.
On 11 September the attack continued as the British forces liberated the villages to the outskirts of Le Havre. This forced any remaining Germans back to the outer defences of the city.
By 12 September, both the 49th and 51st Infantry Divisions had entered the city, it was now the task to clear the remaining Germans.
At 11:45 the German commander of the garrison surrendered to the British forces. The city of Le Havre was finally liberated. This also signalled the liberation of the region of Normandy. This was the last place to be liberated in the region where the allies had landed on the 6 June 1944.
Indirizzo
Fontaine la Mallet, route de Fontaine la Mallet, 76290, France