Sword Beach was of one of the three British landing beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. "Sword Beach" was a codename for that British landing sector, which stretched 5 miles from Ouistreham to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer. It was also the easternmost landing sector of the six Allied landing points at D-Day and lay about 9 miles from Caen. The British I Corps, which was composed of the 27th Armored Brigade, the 3rd Infantry Division, units of the 79th Armored Division, plus British and French Commandos, under the command of General Sir John Crocker, had the task of establishing a beachhead which would allow other Allied military units to safely land on the beach along with the vital military supplies to wage war on the continent.
From West to East, Sword Beach had been subdivided into four landing points: "Oboe", "Peter", "Queen" and "Roger". The 3rd Infantry Division, which comprised the The 8th Brigade, 9th Brigade, and the 1rst Special Service Brigade, launched the initial assault on Queen at 07:25 on the morning of June 6, 1944. The British 1st Commando Brigade and part of the 4th Commando Brigade were given the mission to capture the bridges on the Orne River and the Caen Canal, then link up with the paratroops of the 6th Airborne Division who had to put the batteries at Merville out of action and take the nearby bridges. These actions would be followed by other landings on Oboe, Peter, and Roger zones.
As resistance was weak, the British units landed with relative ease. By 08:00 hours, the British I Corps managed to make their way inland; on the east flank the Commando units had seized the bridge on the Orne and made contact with the British paratroopers by 13:00. The British did not link up with the Canadian forces to the west until much later in the day. There were two German counter-attacks which started at 16:00 hours. The German 21st Panzer Division pushed all the way from near Caen to the beach between Lion-sur-Mer and Luc-sur-Mer, but it was thrown back by late evening.
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