Beach groups

After the Operation Torch landings, the need for a beach organisation became apparent for the larger planned operations. Beach Groups were formed in the UK and began to train in Scotland. In the Mediterranean, the equivalent organisations were called Beach Bricks and were formed in Egypt and trained at Kabrit. The Chief of Combined Operations Lord Louis Mountbatten described the functions of a beach group in late 1942:[1]

• Arrange and control the movement of all personnel and vehicles from the landing craft to inland assembly areas.
• Move stores from ships' holds and craft to dumps in the beach maintenance areas.
• Develop and organise the beaches and beach maintenance area in regard to defence, movement and administration, including the evacuation of all casualties and recovery of vehicles.
• Provide the beach signal organisation.
• The removal to the UK of casualties, prisoners of war and salvaged equipment.
• The creation of dumps to hold petrol, ammunition and rations that were being landed.
• Assembly areas for the arriving personnel and their vehicles.

For this, a tri-service formation was created around an infantry battalion, added to this were smaller units from the Royal Engineers, Royal Army Medical Corps, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Royal Pioneer Corps, Royal Army Service Corps and the Corps of Military Police. The Navy provided Royal Naval Beach Commandos and a signal unit, and the Royal Air Force provided for beach anti-aircraft defence. The complement of a Beach group or brick was up to 3,000 men.[2]

The beach commandos were composed of 76 officers and men, led by the one Principal Beach Master and three Beach Masters, who would land with the assaulting troops and have the following duties:[3]

• Marking the limits of the beachhead
• Set up a protected area for the beach commander to operate from
• Calling in landing craft to the beach via radio, signal lamp or loud-hailer.
• Unloading landing craft according to priority.
• Providing salvage parties to recover damaged landing craft, stores and equipment.
• Providing fire fighting parties, using modified DUKWs
• Ensuring personnel and equipment could move through the beachhead as quickly as possible
• Mooring landing craft correctly

Each commando, which was to control the landing area for a brigade, was subdivided into a headquarters and three sub units (Beach Parties), each controlling a battalion landing area. The men wore army battledress with navy headgear. Nine beach commandos were formed for Operation Overlord, designated F, J, L, P, Q, R, S, T and W, the latter was composed of Canadians.[3]

The Royal Navy Beach Signals units were to provide communications between the beach and the offshore forces. Included in the units were men from the army and RAF.

The infantry component was intended to be a fighting force if any pockets of resistance remained on the beach immediately after the landings.[4] After the beach had been secured, the battalion was to provide manpower for any other tasks, for example 6th Battalion Border Regiment was split up as follows,[5]

• A and D Companies - beach companies
• B Company - a labour unit of the ammunition section of the beach ordnance detachment
• C Company - reserve
• S Company - (the Universal Carrier, mortar and anti-tank platoons), to provide labour for the petrol depot.

As well as the treatment and dispatch of casualties back to Britain, the Medical Corps was also tasked with the provision of drinking water for the troops.[6]

The Military Police (MPs) were to be used to control the flow of traffic on the beach and to guard and document the prisoners of war collected in the initial stages and brought back to the beach. These units also included RAF MPs.[7]

The pioneer companies were called on to perform many duties; construction of roads, air-fields and stores, mine clearance, collection and evacuation of wounded, collection and burial of the dead, transport, guarding POWs and, where necessary, fight.[8][9]

The RASC was responsible for the transport and distribution of the supplies needed by the troops.

The REME was tasked with keeping the beaches clear of disabled vehicles, including the removal of stranded landing craft. Repairable vehicles were repaired in place or at a vehicle park. The men used normal and specialised recovery vehicles for the task, such as the BARV.[10]

The precise mix and number of units depended of the perceived need of each location.

Men of the Beach Groups and Bricks received the following awards during their service. This list is incomplete.

During the Salerno landings, the Distinguished Service Order was awarded to Wing Commander Rowland George O.B.E., and the Military Cross was awarded to Major Cameron (18th Durham Light Infantry) and Flight Lieutenant John Dobbin, who organised the beaches and cleared vehicle congestion while under fire.[29][31]

During the Normandy Landings, the following Beach Commandos of Nos 5 and 6 Beach Groups received Awards.[32]

Members of the Royal Navy beach signals sections won the following.[33]

On 8 June, a German fighter plane dropped a bomb on the petrol and ammunition depot on Sword, with the ensuing fire threatening to destroy large quantities of supplies. Men of 5 and 6 Beach Groups worked to save the supplies; seven of whom were awarded the George Medal.[34]

• Lt.Col. R D R Sale (1 Bucks)
• Maj. L Pepper (RAOC)
• Lt. E Fairbrother (RE)
• Sgt H Grant (Pioneers)
• Sgt J S MacGowen (RAOC)
• Sgt A G Wakeford (RASC)
• Pte A Catley (Pioneers)

Two Australian beach groups were formed in June 1944, and saw action in the Borneo campaign in 1945.

• Colin Maud

• Forty, George (1998). Companion to the British Army 1939–1945 (3rd ed.). Stroud: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-5240-1.
• Rogers, Joseph & David (2012). D-Day Beach Force: The Men who Turned Chaos into Order (1st ed.). Stroud: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-6330-8.