A Stern Reckoning

XXX Corps: From Gold Beach to the Seine

by Barrie S. Barnes

Imprint: Helion and Company

632 Pages, 6.7 x 9.6 in, 232 b/w photos, 8 maps

Paperback
9781804512586
July 2023
Temporarily out of stock. Ships in 2-3 weeks.

$79.95

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A Stern Reckoning: XXX Corps: From Gold Beach to the Seine - the story begins when the divisions earmarked for the invasion of Normandy returned to England in late 1943. Many men were not happy when they found out why they had been brought home and were quick to voice their displeasure. A large number had fought in France 1940, North Africa 1942, Tunisia and Sicily 1943 and thought they had done enough. In 1944 they commenced training hard for their new task, until in May 1944 they were moved into secure camps before embarkation. This is the story of the British Army’s veteran XXX Corps, commanded by General Brian Horrocks, that landed on Gold beach on 6 June 1944.

After the beaches had been taken it was then into the Bocage with its high hedges, small fields and sunken lanes - a landscape perfect for defenders and a nightmare for the attackers as they fought field by field and hedge by hedge in a bloody battle of attrition. Each village and town they encountered had to be taken by frontal assault until it was ground down to dust, and the German forces fought for every inch of ground, making the Allies pay a high price in blood. As XXX Corps slowly advanced they left behind them hundreds of mounds of soil, capped with a white cross or a rifle with a helmet hanging on it, in the verdant countryside. The stench of death hung on the warm summer air and hordes of black flies plagued the survivors.

After the breakout from the Bocage XXX Corps passed the hell that was Falaise and advanced to the Seine. It was here the 43rd Wessex Division would have to force a daylight crossing in small boats. The German troops held the high ground on the far bank and had full observation of the crossing sites. Many boats were riddled with bullets as they tried to cross the river, but eventually the men reached the high ground and a bloody battle ensued as they dislodged the Germans from their entrenched positions. As this battle raged sappers of the Royal Engineers started the construction of the bridges, David and Goliath, all the time under heavy fire. More troops entered the bridgehead on the high ground as the Germans brought forward reinforcements and Tiger tanks. Eventually the Germans were pushed back and began to retreat. XXX Corps then burst out of the Seine bridgehead heading for the Reich.

This is military history at its most dramatic and brutal, as viewed by a rich cast of characters who movingly relate their own experiences in great detail.

Barrie Samuel Barnes was brought up by his grandparents on a North Hull housing estate, his grandfather served in the Great War in the 2nd Hull Pals, 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, and the young Barrie Barnes would sit at his grandfather’s knee and listen to tales of his exploits in Egypt and France. It was these stories that fired Barrie’s interest in military history. After leaving school at the age of 15 with no qualifications, he led a rich and varied life, working in a number of unskilled occupations for the next 18 years. Eventually, after marrying and having three children, he took control of his life and gained a string of ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels in quick succession by attending night classes while working through the day. He eventually entered full time education and earned a BA (hons) and an M/Phil Degree at Hull and Leeds Universities. He then continued with his studies at Leeds University and gained a Post Graduate Certificate in Education which allowed him to join the teaching profession in September 1982. Barrie had at last found his true vocation in life and was to become a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher for over 26 years, rising to various management positions as he progressed. During his time working in the teaching profession, he wrote and had published eight books on Military history. In 2007 he retired from the teaching profession, left his beloved hometown of Hull, and moved to a small East Yorkshire Market Town, where he continues to work on his history studies. This, his 12th Book, has been years in the making and features many interviews he conducted himself over a period of 40 years. This detailed and brutally honest, no-holds barred, study of the bloody Normandy Campaign is by any standard a supremely absorbing story and the reader is left to make their own judgement of history from a book they are never likely to forget. Barrie is at present working on the second volume of the history of XXX Corps that follows their progress from the Seine, where this book leaves off, to the Reich.