Sussex’s role in the D-Day landings

Sussex may not be the first place people think of when D-Day is mentioned.

But the whole county played an important role in training 156,000 troops and transporting them to the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944.

General Dwight Eisenhower, commander of the Allied forces, said the South of England became “one vast camp, dump, and airfield” in preparation for the invasion of Nazi-occupied France.

Now the Government has announced it is protecting rare undersea remains of the Allied invasion force that have been found off the coast of Sussex.

Two Centaur tanks, two armoured bulldozers, a 4x4, and a jeep have all been located on the seabed near Selsey.

They were due to support Canadian forces at Juno Beach, one of the five that were invaded by Allied forces on D-Day.

But the landing craft that was carrying them capsized, dumping the vehicles on the seabed before the boat was scuttled to prevent it becoming a hazard to other ships.

Now the war machines have been claimed by nature, inhabited by crabs and fish.

Mark Dunkley, maritime archaeologist for Historic England, said the submerged vehicles are a rare find – they are the only ones of their type located in north-west Europe.

He said: “The tanks and bulldozers would have been used in the very early stages of the landing. They would have been tasked with destroying the bunkers set up along the beach.”

Centaur tanks were cruiser tanks designed to move fast and were lightly armoured.

Though not many of them saw combat, Centaurs played an important role in Operation Overlord, using their howitzer cannons to destroy bunkers and pillboxes.

But tanks and bulldozers were not the only treasures found by divers off the coast of Sussex.

Remnants of Mulberry harbours, an important innovation during the Second World War, have been found near Pagham, west of Bognor.

These were crucial in the days after the Normandy landings as they acted as floating ports for ships to unload men and supplies.

Phoenix breakwaters, which were to be tugged to France where they would be sunk to protect docking ships, have been found by divers near Pagham.

This particular breakwater, nicknamed the “Far Mulberry”, was parked off the coast in preparation for Operation Overlord.

But after bad weather delayed the D-Day landings by two days, the Phoenix breakwater was swung around in the tide and was damaged, rendering it unusable.

But many other Mulberry harbours made it to Normandy, where they would be put to good use.

More than 2.5 million soldiers, 500,000 vehicles, and four million tonnes of supplies were unloaded in ten months at the Mulberry harbour on Gold Beach.

Archaeologist Mr Dunkley said Sussex played a “major role” in the landings.

He said: “The ports would have been big sites for building and stationing boats and ships.

“There are still likely plenty of things to be found on the seabed.

“It would be interesting to see if we could find any more landing craft that were scuttled or destroyed by the bad weather.”

The county was also pivotal in the distraction exercises used to mislead Nazi forces in the run-up to D-Day.

Fake tanks and soldiers were set up around Sussex facing east so spies would mistakenly think the Allies planned to invade Dieppe and Calais.

A fake First United States Army Group located in the county was also set up to confuse Axis forces.

Though port cities such as Portsmouth and Poole are remembered more for their role in D-Day, it is still clear that soldiers, workers and residents in Sussex were pivotal in its success.