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Operation Overlord - The Silencing of the Merville Battery 6 June 1944 D-Day cover signed by Lieutenant Colonel Terence Otway DSO
JS(AC)88a RAF cover dual numbered AF15 as part of the Airborne Forces mini-series. The artwork by Tony Theobald depicts airborne troops being dropped by Douglas DC-3 Dakotas while beneath British troops are shown firing their Vickers machine Gun. Insert pictures show men of the 9th battalion and the Meville Battery during daylight. The cover bears Pegasus logo and Airborne Forces badge. The cover bears 25p D-Day stamp cancelled with BFPS 2420 postmark for the 50th Anniversary of the D-Day landings and the Silencing of the Merville Battery. The cover has been flown in a LXX Squadron Hercules during the D-Day celebrations at Portsmouth and Normandy.
Cover has been signed by
Lieutenant Colonel Terence Otway DSO
Terence Otway was born in Cairo in 1914 and educated at Owen College and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the Royal Ulster Rifles in 1934 and served in Hong Kiong, Shanghai, India and the North West Frontier. In September 1939 he became Adjutant and in 1940 the Battalion returned to the UK. In December 1940 1 RUR was warned that it was to become Airborne. Terence Otway was promoted Major to command an armoured reconnaissance unit and to convert it to 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron.
On going to the Staff College in June 1941 he handed over to Major Gough. In December 1941 he went to Iceland as Brigade Major of 147 Brigade which returned to Wale in June 1942.
He then went to MO1 War Office as Senior GS02 responsible for briefing the Director of Military operations and the CIGS for daily War Cabinet Meetings.
He rejoined 1 RUR in July 1943 and was sent to the 9th Battalion The Parachute Regiment as Second in Command. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and took command of the battalion early in 1944 and was immediately involved in planning the Merville Battery Operation.
He was wounded in Normandy and evacuated to hospital. IN October 1944 he went to the War Office and was responsible for the Army side of inter-service air training.
In May 1945 he went to India to form the 15th Battalion, the Parachute Regiment Indian Airborne Division.
In August 1945 he was GS01 and his time was taken up with organising the relief of Allied POW Camps all over the Far East and in planning for the partition of India.
He returned to the UK in 1947 and left the Army in 1948.
For his actions at the Merville Battery and in general throughout D-Day and beyond, Lieutenant-Colonel Otway was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. His citation reads:
For conspicuous bravery and outstanding leadership. This officer led 150 men of his bn on the successful attack of the SALLENELLES bty. He personally directed the attack and organised the successful cleaning up of the enemy strong points under heavy enemy mortar and MG fire. He led the attack on and successfully held LE PLEIN until relieved by another formation. On arrival in the LE MESNIL area he succeeded in beating off two major enemy attacks of several hours duration by his magnificent leadership of his numerically very weak and tired bn. His utter disregard of personal danger has been an inspiration for all his men.
The Attack on the Merville Battery
The Merville Battery defences were formidable. A 400-yard anti-tank ditch, 15ft wide by 10ft deep, wound its way around the west and north-western sides. Two belts of barbed wire surrounded the whole Battery, the outer not being too fearsome, but the inner was around 6ft high by 10ft deep. Between these belts was a minefield, while other mines had been sown in various possible approach routes around the Battery. The garrison was estimated to contain 160 men, manning 15 to 20 weapons pits, each containing 4 to 5 machine guns and possibly three 20mm anti-aircraft guns.
The 9th Parachute Battalion was to land on Dropping Zone (DZ) 'V', a group of fields 1¼ miles east of the objective. Beforehand, 'C' Company, 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, was to capture and secure the DZ and Pathfinder Paras of the 22nd Independent Parachute Company would then mark the DZ in order to guide in the main drop. ('A' Company, 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, was to protect the left flank of the 9th Parachute Battalion in its approach march and attack on the Battery). Between 12.30 and 12.50am, approximately 100 heavy bombers were to 'soften up' the objective.
The 9th Battalion had prepared with several rehearsals on a full size mock-up of the Battery, and every man knew precisely, his role in the assault. Several special groups had been formed to carry out the pre-attack tasks. A RV Party was to drop at 12.20am to prepare to organise and control the assembly of the Battalion on the DZ.
A Battery Reconnaissance Party was also to jump at 12.20am. Without waiting for rest of the Battalion, it was to head straight for the Merville Battery. It would then report by wireless to Colonel Otway on the position of any enemy encountered en-route, and on the condition of the Battery itself. Finally a Taping Party, using mine detectors, was to reconnoitre and clear gaps in the minefields up to the main perimeter fence, then mark with tapes the best approach to the Battery.
The main body of the Battalion was due to jump at 12.50am. One and a half hours were allowed to reorganise and get clear of the RV, and so the moving off time was set for 2.35am. The Battalion would then prepare for the assault at a pre-arranged 'firm base', about 500 yards from the Battery, at somewhere between 4.10am and 4.20am.
Part of the assault plan also required 3 Horsa gliders, ferrying men of 'A' Company, plus some 591 Parachute Squadron Engineers, to land within the Battery perimeter itself. These engineers carried the explosives that were to destroy the guns. At an arranged time, the gliders were to arrive above the Battery, and a mortar would illuminate the area around the casemates with star-bombs. After two and a half minutes, upon a bugle-call signal, fire would cease everywhere except for a diversion party at the main gate. A further two minutes later, at 4.30am, as the first glider was due to land, the bugler would sound another signal and the firing of star-bombs would stop. The attack would then go in. 'B' Company was to blow gaps in the inner wire and 'C' Company was to carry out the assault.
Exactly on time, the pre-attack parties made their jumps, but owing to the aircraft taking evasive action due to flak, the Canadians were dropped over a wide area. Only about 30 of them landed on the DZ and a further number within a one-mile radius. Fortunately very little resistance was met on the DZ itself, and the Pathfinders immediately began to set up the navigational aids. However, due to damage from the drop itself, only two of their signal emitting 'Eureka Beacon' devices were serviceable. The recon party landed satisfactorily, and headed off for the Battery.
Ten minutes later, the drone of approaching bombers gradually grew louder until suddenly, bombs began to fall on and around the DZ. Luckily there were no casualties sustained on DZ 'V', and Major Alan Parry, commanding the RV Party, found the RV point and placed his red Aldis lamp up a tree.
There were two nasty surprises awaiting the Brigade once it had landed. One characteristic of the area was wide, water-filled ditches which surrounded each field. The ditches had either not been noticed by aerial reconnaissance or just ignored. Either way, the men were not briefed about them, and they were to prove almost moat-like in their difficulty to cross. To make matters worse the Germans had opened the sluice gates to the nearby River Dives. This had flooded the fields over a wide area to the east of the DZ, to a depth of around 4 feet.
By 12.45am, 32 Dakotas carrying the main body of the 9th Battalion, around 540 men, were approaching the DZ. The transport pilots were met by a huge dust cloud caused by the wayward bombing raid, and the poor visibility caused difficulty in locating the DZ and made them perform their 'run-ins' at different altitudes and directions to those planned. There was also patchy cloud base at 1000 feet and a strong easterly wind.
Colonel Otway was travelling in the leading plane, which included the 8-man Taping Party to give them as much time as possible to carry out their task. The Paras stood up, ready to move towards the exit door at the rear of the aircraft in order to jump in their practiced quick succession. Flak began to rise, and many pilots, surprised by the sheer amount it, began to throw the aircraft about in violent evasive action. The effect on the drill of the parachutists was chaotic, the sudden lurches throwing them about the planes. Many ended up in great heaps on the floor. The effort of sorting themselves out was made even more strenuous by the weight of their equipment, and many were not ready when the signal came to jump. Virtually the whole of the 9th Battalion and much of the Brigade suffered the consequences, and they were spread over a wide area, with many landing in the flooded fields. Of those in Otway's plane, only 7 of the 20 men managed to disentangle themselves in time to jump while over the DZ, and the Dakota had to make three more runs to get them all out. The Taping Party landed in the water and although they quickly escaped, the tape itself was lost.
It was nearly 2am when Colonel Otway finally reached the RV, only to find that there was hardly anyone there. Gliders transporting the 9th Battalion's mortars, anti-tank guns, mine detectors, in fact all their heavy equipment had also not arrived. There was only one Vickers machine gun. Once again the smoke and dust clouds resulting from the bombing raid had caused the problems. Map reading had been impossible. With the strong wind, the pilots had struggled to control their gliders, and landed to the south-east of the DZ amongst anti-landing poles, causing seven deaths and many casualties. There was to be no support equipment for the assault on the Merville Battery.
By the appointed time of 2.35am only 110 men had reported to the RV, however, the Colonel had allowed a 'window' of 15 minutes for problems, and so waited a little longer. During this time about 40 others arrived to raise the strength of the group to around 150 men. They then began their journey to the Battery.
En route they met Major George Smith, commander of the Trowbridge Party. Some of his news was good, some of it bad. He had cut the outer wire fence, crossed the large minefield, and lain by the inner belt of wire for half an hour listening to the conversation of the Germans inside the Battery. The defences were no tougher than had been expected, but due to the loss of the mine-detectors and tape, a path had had to be cleared through the mines by searching for them with their bare hands and making them safe one by one. To mark the path they had dragged their feet to scratch two lines in the earth. The attack by the heavy bombers had missed the Battery.
In the meantime, not all had gone well for the three assault gliders, which had taken off from Brize Norton at 2.30am. Two of them had run into trouble. Assault glider No 28a flown by Sgt Arnold Baldwin and S/Sgt Joe Michie had entered a large cloud and lost sight of its tug. It suffered a very rough ride, but just as they thought the worst of it was over, the tow-rope broke. Fortunately they were still over the southern coast of England and managed to land at RAF Odiham.
In glider No 28, piloted by S/Sgts Bone and Dean, the arrester parachute cable had streamed prematurely and damaged the tail plane. The flying controls became sloppy and the starboard undercarriage was lost, but it struggled on towards the Normandy coast.
By 4am, Otway's 150 men had reached the position of the intended 'firm base'. The Colonel formed a new plan of attack. He decided to make two gaps in the wire and send two assault groups through each; these were split into two teams, one for each casemate. Another section was ordered to wipe out the German machine gun posts that were outside the Battery. The gliders would have to do the best they could, as there was no mortar to illuminate the area for them.
The first glider to arrive in the area was the damaged No 28. The tug, flown by Pilot Officer Garnett, circled the area four times under fire, and eventually S/Sgt Bone released the tow at 1800 feet. He could not see the Battery, and believing that the bombed village of Gonneville was the target, he descended to 500 feet, but realising his error, banked the Horsa away. They ended up landing in water, some distance to the east of the Battery. All got out unhurt, but they were not going to make it to the Battery.
In the final glider, S/Sgt Kerr cast off at 1200 feet. He could not see the Battery either, was hit by flak, and landed in an orchard 50 yards away. As they clambered out of the broken fuselage, fighting could be heard from the direction of the Battery, but then another noise could be heard approaching from a lane in the other direction. It had to be Germans. The Paras got down into the ditches on either side of the narrow lane and started firing. The Germans, about 30 yards away, did likewise.
At the Battery the gaps were blown in the wire and the men stormed straight in, firing from the hip. The diversion party rushed in through the main gate. It was 4.15am. Utter chaos reigned, as hand-to-hand fighting went on. The carnage continued for 20 minutes until the defenders finally gave in. The Paras entered the casemates and found 100mm Field guns. The main armament had not yet been fitted. Without the necessary explosives, the Paras did what they could to put the guns out of action. At 4.45am, the success signal was fired.
Only 75 men were still on their feet. 22 prisoners had been taken. Wounded were lying about getting wounded again by German shells. Many of the Battalion's casualties were dragged out on wooden ammunition sledges to a Calvary Cross which stood at a crossroads about 700 yards to the south.
His obituary from the Daily Telegraph of 25th July 2006
Lieutenant-Colonel Terence Otway, who died on Sunday aged 92, led the 9th Parachute Battalion in operations on D-Day and was awarded the DSO.
The 9th Battalion, part of 3rd Parachute Brigade, was given the task of destroying the coastal battery at Merville before the seaborne invasion began at dawn on June 6, and afterwards of occupying a key feature of the heavily invested defence perimeter on the Allies' eastern flank.
The battery was believed to be equipped with four 150 mm calibre guns capable of laying down fire on Sword Beach, which was the landing area for the British 3rd Infantry Division. It was guarded by a garrison of 130 within a 15 ft thick and 5 ft high barbed wire fence and surrounded by a minefield 100 yards wide. Twenty weapon pits had been counted in aerial photographs; there were also isolated minefields laid across all likely approaches; and an anti-tank ditch had been dug on the west side.
The assault, supported by three gliders with orders to crash-land directly on the battery, was to go in at 4.30 am, thus allowing the battalion one hour to destroy the guns before the assault-craft landed.
Otway divided his force into 11 groups, each with its own task. Among them was a reconnaissance party, a taping party, a breaching unit and the assault group. Four minutes from the dropping zone, the assault group ran into anti-aircraft fire and began to take evasive action. As a result, instead of being dropped in a concentrated area the battalion was spread over 50 square miles.
A shell exploded close to Otway's aircraft, and incendiary bullets went through his parachute just as he was about to jump. He, his batman Corporal Wilson and another man landed close to a farmhouse which was a German HQ.
Wilson fell through the roof of a greenhouse which attracted fire from the Germans but, with quick thinking, he threw a brick through one of the farm windows. This was mistaken for a grenade, which provided a moment of respite in which the three men got clear.
Much of the path-finding equipment had been damaged and smoke from a bombing raid reduced visibility. As a result few of the pilots saw the beacons prepared by the advance party, and there were parachutists who missed the dropping zone by 30 miles.
Some landed chest high in water and, weighed down by their 60 lb kitbags, were drowned. On reaching the rendezvous, Otway discovered that he had no radio sets which worked, no engineers, no medical orderlies and only a quarter of his men.
But as the attack went ahead, it was found that the reconnaissance party had penetrated the minefield. The taping party had also arrived, but without tapes or mine-detectors; they marked the route through the minefields by scratching heel-marks in the dust.
The plan had to be drastically changed. The men from "B" company were divided into two breaching teams. The assault was to be made by a composite force of "A" and "C" companies, comprising about 50 men. As they formed up, they were fired on by machine guns inside and outside the perimeter from both flanks.
At 4.30 am, two of the three gliders carrying the assault party could be seen circling low over the battery. The plan for illuminating this had gone seriously awry and one of the gliders landed four miles from the objective; the other crashed in an orchard and immediately engaged a German platoon which was trying to reinforce the garrison.
The enemy machine guns were silenced and Bangalore torpedoes were detonated to clear the wire in front of the assault. "The battery concentrated everything waist-high on the gaps in the wire," Otway said later. "Booby traps and mines were going off all over the place, fierce hand-to-hand fighting was going on inside the battery, and I had to keep dodging a machine gun in the tower which was shooting at me."
Twenty-three captured men were then ordered to guide Otway's force through the minefields as the Germans opened fire with shells and mortars from neighbouring positions.
Otway started with about 750 men, few of whom had seen action before; of the 150 who took part in the attack, only 65 were still on their feet at the end of an action, which saved a great many Allied lives. The citation for his DSO stated that his utter disregard for personal danger had been an inspiration to all his men.
Terence Brandram Hastings Otway was born in Cairo on June 15 1914 and educated at Dover College. After attending Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Royal Ulster Rifles in 1934 and served with the 2nd Battalion before joining 1 RUR in Hong Kong the following year.
Two years later he was sent to India before being posted to the North-West Frontier. Not a week passed, he recalled afterwards, without a skirmish with the local tribesmen, often hand-to-hand with swords and knives.
Otway returned to England and attended Staff College, where he passed out fourth among a class of 200. After a staff job at the War Office, he returned to 1 RUR in 1943 as a company commander. He transferred to the Parachute Regiment and, in March 1944, was promoted lieutenant-colonel on taking command of 9th Parachute Battalion.
After taking the Merville Battery, the battalion pushed into Le Plein, where they encountered stiffening resistance and, despite their depleted numbers, took the Chateau St Côme on the ridge.
Two days later, while making a routine tour of his positions, a stray shell landed close to Otway. He was diagnosed with severe concussion and subsequently evacuated, then graded unfit for a return to active service.
In May 1945, Otway took command of the 1st/5th King's Regiment in India with instructions to convert it into an airborne battalion. He was made divisional chief of staff in September and, in 1946, he was again posted to the War Office. There he wrote the official history of Airborne Forces, which became available to the public in 1990.
Disillusioned with the post-war Army, Otway resigned his commission in 1948 and joined the Colonial Development Corporation, for which he worked in the Gambia and Nyasaland. Deteriorating health brought him back to England the following year to go into business. He was general manager of the Empire News, a director of Trianco and Scotia Investments and worked in the life insurance industry. As deputy chairman of the London headhunting firm Korn-Ferry, he wrote a lucid account in The Daily Telegraph in 1984 of how to be headhunted.
After retiring in 1979 he remained active in promoting the welfare of soldiers in the Parachute Regiment and their widows. For almost 30 years he pursued a claim that he was being deprived of his full pension rights as a disabled officer, which was eventually confirmed by the Ombudsman, who declared that "Colonel X" (as Otway was known) and 24 others had been deliberately misled.
When he met the German commander of the battery in 1993 he admitted that he did not have the guts to refuse the proferred hand, but said afterwards that he could not forget his men, shot by the Germans as they hungle helpless in trees. He shooed away picknickers from the battery, which is now a memorial and museum, declaring: "I don't like people eating and drinking where my men died." In 1997 he unveiled a bronze bust of himself at the site; and in 2001, he was awarded the Legion d'Honneur.
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