Douglas Sheldon Catlin
Douglas was born in April, May or June 1916 and was the son of Richard John and Betty Mable Catlin (Nee Grant), of Buckhurst Hill. He was a Lieutenant in the 9th Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, Service No: 90840, and is buried in Ranville War Cemetery, France. He died on 6th June 1944, a date people are familiar with. You will see, as is so often the case in the reality of war, what was planned does not always go strictly to that plan which was definitely the case here.
Once I was happy that I had found the correct Douglas Catlin, describing the events on the day he died became relatively simple, as second world war battles are reasonably well documented. The following is a snapshot of what happened to the 9th Battalion on that date. I can only give an account of the events of that day for his Battalion in broad terms as you will see, but as to where Douglas was or what part he took in the battles is not known, only that he was part of it and did not survive.
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. Allied intelligence believed the Merville Gun Battery was composed of heavy-calibre guns that could threaten the British landings at Sword Beach, only 8 miles away. To ensure the landings on D Day could proceed successfully, the German gun battery at Merville had to be eliminated.
The 9th Parachute Battalion, part of the 3rd Parachute Brigade attached to the 6th Airborne Division commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Terence Otway, was given the objective of destroying the battery. However, when the battalion arrived over Normandy, their parachute descent was dispersed over a large area, so instead of over 600 men, only 150 with no heavy weapons or equipment arrived at the battalion assembly point. Regardless, they pressed home their attack and succeeded in capturing the battery, only to discover that the guns were of a lower calibre than expected [French 75mm]. However, these still had the range (over 8000 metres) to hit targets on Sword beach. Using what explosives they had been able to recover, the surviving 75 men tried 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When the British paratroopers had withdrawn, two of the guns were put back into action by the Germans.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 recapture the battery, which remained under German control until 17 August, when the German Army started to withdraw from the area.
The Action
The battalion’s normal complement of 600 men was supported by a troop of sappers from 591st (Antrim) Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers, eight Airspeed Horsa glider loads transporting Jeeps and trailers, and stores including explosives, an anti-tank gun and flamethrowers. Three of the gliders, transporting 50 volunteers, were to carry out a coup de main landing onto the position to coincide with the ground assault.
In April 1944, the force was taken to Walbury Hill in Berkshire, where over seven days the Royal Engineers had built a full-scale replica of the battery, including obstacles and barbed wire fences. The following five days were spent holding briefings and getting acquainted with the layout of the battery. They carried out nine practice assaults, four of them at night. Due to the nature of the mission, the battalion was given additional medical support from No. 3 Section 224th (Parachute) Field Ambulance. Another unit that would be present during the attack but not directly involved was A Company of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion. This company was tasked to provide covering fire for the 9th Battalion’s approach to and withdrawal from the battery. The assault had to be completed and the battalion clear of the position by 05:00, when the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Arethusa would open fire on the battery in an attempt to destroy it with naval gunfire.
The Merville Battery was composed of four 6-foot-thick steel-reinforced concrete gun casemates. Each was designed to protect First World War-vintage Czech M.14/19 100 mm guns. Other buildings on the site included a command bunker, a building to accommodate the men, and ammunition magazines.
The battery was defended by a 20 mm anti-aircraft gun and several machine guns in 15 gun positions, all enclosed in an area 700 by 500 yards surrounded by two barbed wire obstacles 15 feet thick by 5 feet high, which also acted as the exterior border for a 100-yard-deep minefield. Another obstacle was an anti-tank ditch covering any approach from the nearby coast.
Assault 6 June
Just after midnight on 6 June, the 9th Parachute Battalion’s advance party landed with the brigade’s pathfinders, and reached the battalion assembly area without any problems. While some men remained to mark out the company positions, the battalion’s second in command, Major George Smith, and a reconnaissance party left to scout the battery. At the same time, Royal Air Force Lancaster bombers started their bombing run, which completely missed the battery, their bombs landing further to the south. The pathfinders in the meantime were having problems. Those who had arrived at the correct drop zone found their Eureka beacons had been damaged when they landed, and in the smoke and debris left over from the bombing, their marker lights could not be seen by the pilots of the transport aircraft. The main body of the 9th Parachute Battalion and their gliders were to land at drop zone ‘V’, located between the battery and Varaville from 01:00. However, the battalion was scattered, with a number of paratroopers landing a considerable distance from the designated drop zone. Lieutenant Colonel Otway landed with the rest of his “stick” 400 yards away from the drop zone at a farmhouse being used as a command post by a German battalion; after a brief fire-fight, their being helped by other scattered paratroopers, and reached the drop zone at 01:30. By 02:50, only 150 men had arrived at the battalion’s assembly point with 20 Bangalore torpedoes and a machine gun. The mortars, anti-tank gun, mine detectors, jeeps, sappers and field ambulance section were all missing.
Aware of the time constraints, Otway decided he could wait no longer, and the reduced battalion headed for the battery and joined up with Major Smith’s reconnaissance party just outside the village of Gonneville en Auge. The reconnaissance party had cut a way through the barbed wire, and marked four routes through the minefield. Otway divided his men into four assault groups, and settled down to await the arrival of the three gliders.
In England, one of the gliders landed at RAF Odiham as its tow rope had snapped during bad weather. The other two gliders, unable to locate the battery, did not land where expected. On their run in, both gliders were hit by anti-aircraft fire. One landed around 2 miles away, the other at the edge of the minefield. The troops from this glider became involved in a fire fight with German troops heading to reinforce the battery garrison.
Otway launched the assault as soon as the first glider overshot the battery, ordering the explosives to be detonated to form two paths through the outer perimeter through which the paratroopers attacked. The defenders were alerted by the explosions, and opened fire, inflicting heavy casualties; only four attackers survived to reach Casemate Four, which they disabled by firing into apertures and throwing grenades into air vents. The other casemates were cleared with fragmentation and white phosphorus grenades, as the crews had neglected to lock the doors leading into the battery. During the bombing raid, the battery’s guns had been moved inside the casemates and the steel doors left open for ventilation. During the battle, 22 Germans were killed and a similar number made prisoners of war. The rest of the garrison escaped undetected by hiding in the underground bunkers.
With the battery in their hands, but no sappers or explosives, the British gathered together what plastic explosives they had been issued for use with their Gammon bombs to try to destroy the guns.
The Follow Up
On the 7th June, 3 Commando having assisted the 9th Parachute Battalion in capturing the heights around La Plein was now ordered to perform its own assault on the battery.
After a stubborn defence, in which a number of Commandos, including Major Pooley, were killed, the Commandos took the battery, however, shortly afterwards they were counterattacked by a German force supported by half-tracks and self-propelled artillery. Casualties during this German counter-attack were high and eventually the Commandos were forced to withdraw back to La Plein.
The British never succeeded in completely destroying the battery, and it remained under German control until 17 August, when the German Army started to withdraw from France.
History of the 9th Parachute Battalion
The 9th (Eastern and Home Counties) Parachute Battalion was an airborne infantry battalion of the Parachute Regiment, raised by the British Army during the Second World War. The battalion was created in late 1942 by the conversion of the 10th Battalion, Essex Regiment to parachute duties. The battalion was assigned to the 3rd Parachute Brigade, alongside the 7th (later the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion) and 8th Parachute battalions, then part of the 1st Airborne Division but was later transferred to the 6th Airborne Division.
The 9th Parachute Battalion took part in two major parachute landings in the Normandy invasion, and the River Rhine crossing in Germany. In Normandy they were responsible for the attack on the Merville Gun Battery, which, if not eliminated, could pose a danger to the Normandy landings.
After the war the battalion was sent to Palestine on internal security operations with the rest of the 6th Airborne Division in Palestine. Post-war army reductions in 1948 saw the battalion being amalgamated with the 8th (Midlands) Parachute Battalion (which had served with the 9th in 3 Para Brigade) as the 8th/9th Parachute Battalion, but by the end of the year the new battalion had been disbanded.
