Pointe du Hoc - D-Day - World war II

	A tank bag sized guide to the 2 Day battle with 16 pictures from the ride, a map of the planned assault and a custom route map of the ride from Ouistreham to Pointe du Hoc and the surrounding countryside, including the American cemetery at Omaha Beach and the German cemetery at La Cambe..
USD $4.99 for electronic PDF	USD $9.99 for laminated hard copy by snail mail

I rode around the Suisse Normande back in March and had all kinds of plans to write up the whole ride, but work and family considerations have left me berating myself for not getting something up. With that in mind, I am putting up some info from the Battle of Mont Pincon. The battle for the area lasted a few days, but the interesting bit to me happened in the evening of 6 August 1944 and overnight.
A quick intro to the battle can be found here.
In short, British tanks from the 13/18 Hussars barrelled up the hill along an uncovered track and occupied the key communications node of a hill before the Germans knew what happened.

The map below shows many of the tracks on the hill and the track running from the southwest side to the west side of the hill was the one taken by the Hussars.

I'm including 2 short videos on Youtube.

The first is riding up the main road to see the 2 modern radio towers / antennae, which give a good idea of why Mont Pincon was so important to the German defense of this area. One could surmise that the loss of these posts led to some of the confusion that caused the Germans to get trapped in Falaise pocket not long after this.

The second video is to show the road (that is not shown on Google Maps), from the north, to the Hussars overnight leaguer area. They actually came up from the southwest, but, alas, I cannot find my video for that part of the ride. There is a battle interpretation board at the end and the monument to the 13/18 Hussars is nearby.

I'm planning on writing a lot more on Mont Pincon, Operations Bluecoat and Cobra and the great riding around the Suisse Normande, but this should hold you for a while. ;o)

Book and Map Recommendations

By early 1915, the lines in northern France had become static and the trench warfare that WWI is known for had commenced. Many soldiers and officers found themselves not only green, but found their senior leadership green in the tactics of the trench as well. New ideas had to be considered and new tactics developed to break the enemy lines for any offensive to succeed. The British First Army, under the command of the often maligned General Douglas Haig, was given the task of taking the immediate German positions, Neuve Chapelle and finally Aubers ridge. The First Army was made up of British, Canadians and Indians.

Although the battle is not often associated with the major battles of the First World War, it is highly significant in the analysis of the planning, technology and tactical advances of the time. The battle exhibited major breakthroughs in four key areas.

• The German lines were mapped extensively by aerial reconnaissance by a British air arm that was in its infancy. This allowed;
• Detailed maps to be distributed to the ground forces which contained phase lines and timed intervals for movements which were co-ordinated with;
• Air support in the attack and;
• Heavy artillery preparation of targets in advance with the lifting and shifting of fires in time with infantry movements. More rounds were sent skyward in the battle than in all of the Boer War.

These innovations paid off at first with Haig taking the immediate objective of the German line salient and then the village of Neuve Chapelle. However, the attack bogged down soon thereafter, well before reaching the final objective of the Aubers ridge. A competent German counter-attack was partly the casue, but unforced errors also came into play. There were several tactical explanations for the halt that are common to many battlefields;

• Poor weather on the second day limited aerial observation and support which contributed to;
• Poor communications that kept the leadership from knowing where things were progressing properly and where they weren't which led to;
• Bad tactical intelligence that led some areas to be allotted more troops than needed and others less than needed which led to;
• The fog of war where things tend to freeze on the senior decision level, but local fighting goes on, but is uncoordinated with the larger picture.

The battle was a limited tactical win for the Brits, but at a heavy cost of approximately 12,000 casualties. In the longer term Neuve Chapelle became the professional template for a new set of tactics that would become prevalent for the rest of the war.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

This is a great ride when you are going somewhere else in France. It is only 60 miles from Calais and can be seen on the way to the south of France, Paris or Belgium with only a minor detour. From Calais, head to Neuve Chapelle, then take the following circular ride of the area. This is not a spectacularly scenic ride, but you get to ride along the British front line from Neuve Chapelle to Fleurbaix (with a British Cemetary in Fauquissart), then see the Aubers ridge objective, then down to the pivot point in the line at La Bassee.

Book Recommendation: The Battle of Neuve Chapelle - French Flanders from AbeBooks.co.uk

Map Recommendation: Michelin Map No. 236 Nord de la France from AbeBooks.co.uk

Accor Hotels in the Lille area

On 12 February 1941, General Erwin Rommel arrived in North Africa as the leader of the German Africa Corps. The most celebrated German tanker amongst modern U.S. tankers was actually not a tanker for most of his long career. Before World War II, he was famous for Infantry Attacks.

Rommel came to North Africa under the command of the Italians, but immediately made his mark for his initiative and taking the fight to the British. Rommel went after the force led by British General Richard O'Connor that had made such a feast of the Italian incompetence in Lybia in 1940. Rommel quickly smashed the British force, captured O'Connor and besieged Tobruk. It wouldn't take long until his name would become synonymous with the Axis effort in North Africa.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

This is the ride I want to do in Lybia. Burdi (Bardia) to Tubruq (Tobruk).

Book Recommendation: Together We Stand: North Africa 1942-1943, Turning the Tide in the West from AbeBooks.co.uk or Amazon.co.uk

Map Recommendation: Map of Lybia from AbeBooks.com

With the war on the Western Front stalemating, Paul von Hindenburg, Commander-in-Chief of the German armies in the East, and his Chief of Staff, Erich Ludendorff, came up with a plan. The idea was to decisively defeat the Russians in East Prussia, so that overwhelming power could then be transferred to the Western Front. The battle that ensued was called the Second / Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes.

On 7 February 1915, Hindenburg attacked attacked in the south lakes in a blizzard. He quickly pushed the Russians back by 70 miles and out of most of east Prussia. Two days later he attacked in the north lakes and had the Russians on the run. However, one corps of the Russians fell back into the primeval forests around Augustow(present day Poland) and held on for another 10 days before surrendering. This delay allowed three other corps to escape the German encirclement. Shortly thereafter, the Russains counter-attacked and ended the German initiative. The Russians took horrendous numbers of casualties and captured, but their willingness to take great pain had stopped a total rout.

Hindenburg was a viewed as the saviour of East Prussia to a weary German nation, but his grand plan of delivering a crushing blow that would remove the need for heavy forces in the east had not been completed. In the south, near the Carpathian mountains, the offensive had stalled early. The Germans had to continue on two fronts for most of the remainder of the war. Hindenburg's great rival, Falkenhayn, the German Chief of Staff, was against the plan, but had to concede under a withering attack on his reputation by Hindenburg himself. Eventually, Hindenburg would ascend to take Falkenhayn's place, with Ludendorff becoming the Quartermaster General.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

I have had a great ride in this area, but I was lost worse than Cooter Brown somehwere west-northwest of Suwalki, near the Russian border, in the area that Hindenburg's northern prong would have attacked through on 9 February 1915. A buddy and I spent 3 hours riding through some beautiful country, but I can't tell you where exactly. However when we did find ourselves again, we travelled through the Augustow area, then west through the middle of the lakes and can highly recommend it as well.

Book Recommendation: Hindenburg: Icon of German Militarism from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Map Recommendation: Michelin Poland Map from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Accor Hotels in the Olsztyn area