Battle of Merville Gun Battery

Battle of Merville Gun Battery
Part of Operation Tonga
Overhead view of the battery, showing the damage caused by a bombing raid in May 1944
Date 6–7 June 1944 Location Merville, France 49°16′12″N 0°11′47″W / 49.27000°N 0.19639°W / 49.27000; -0.19639 Result 6 June 1944: British victory 7 June 1944: German victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Terence Otway Major John Pooley  † (7 June 1944)	Raimund Steiner
Units involved
9th Parachute Battalion (6 June 1944) 3 Commando (7 June 1944)	716th Infantry Division Artillery Regiment 1716 1st Battery
Strength
6 June 1944: 150 (assault force) 600 (in total) 7 June 1944: c. 150 men	130
Casualties and losses
6 June 1944: 75 (during the assault) 7 June 1944: heavy	22 killed 22 captured
6 June 1944: 450 men failed to arrive at the battalion assembly area following the parachute landing

The Battle of Merville Gun Battery was a series of British assaults beginning 6 June 1944, as part of Operation Tonga, part of the Normandy landings, during the Second World War. Allied intelligence believed the Merville Gun Battery was composed of heavy-calibre 150 mm (5.9 in) guns that could threaten the British landings at Sword Beach, only 8 miles (13 km) away.

The 9th Parachute Battalion, part of the 3rd Parachute Brigade attached to 6th Airborne Division, was given the objective of destroying the battery. However, when the battalion arrived over Normandy in the predawn of 6 June, their parachute descent was dispersed over a large area, so instead of over 600 men with heavy weapons or equipment, only 150 with neither arrived at the battalion assembly point. Regardless, they pressed home their attack against an estimated German force of 130 engineers and artillerymen. Reduced to 75 men, the British succeeded in capturing the battery, only to discover that the guns were World War I-era Czech M.14/19 100 mm field howitzers, which only had an effective range of some 8,400 m (9,200 yd), just over 5 miles. Still, using what explosives they had been able to recover, they attempted, with only partial success, to disable the guns.

When the British paratroopers had withdrawn, two of the guns were put back into action by the Germans. Another attack the next day by British Commandos failed to disable the guns or recapture the battery, which remained under German control until 17 August, when the German Army started to withdraw from the area.