S8 Ep192: The Chaotic D-Day Landing on Gold Beach — James Holland — Holland recounts the chaotic D-Day landing operations on Gold Beach, wherein the Sherwood Rangers' amphibious swimming tanks confronted severe sea conditions and rapidly shifting naval operational
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 14 December 2025
⏱️ 10 minutes
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Summary
GOLD BEACH
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| 0:31.4 | This is CBSI on the World. I'm John Batchel with James Holland, the historian, writing most recently of Normandy, again, |
| 0:39.9 | but from the point of view of one regiment, the Sherwood Rangers yeomanry, |
| 0:45.4 | organized as a National Guard-like unit, but now, because it is a veteran of the North African campaign, |
| 0:52.9 | and is equipped with Sherman tanks, American-built |
| 0:57.1 | Sherman tanks. It is part of the front line landing on the British Gold Beach, June 6, 1944, |
| 1:07.7 | and also part of the genius that we're going to get to shore, not by having the landing |
| 1:14.6 | craft run up on the beach and lower the ramp and flow out. No, we're going to swim to shore |
| 1:21.4 | with our tanks prepared to float 7,000 yards to the beach and then start firing immediately. |
| 1:30.3 | James, it always struck me as an unusual idea, and what you evidence in this is that B&C Squadron |
| 1:37.4 | recognized right away that the swell makes it impossible. |
| 1:42.0 | Did everybody recognize that, all the other tanks who were supposed to swim to shore? |
| 1:46.4 | Did they also run as close as they could? |
| 1:50.0 | Yeah, and that's not really the choice of the tank so much. That's more the decision of the naval personnel. |
| 1:57.9 | I mean, I should just say for your, for American listeners, that a squadron, |
| 2:02.9 | a tank squadron in the British Army is the same as a tank company in a, you know, in an armored |
| 2:07.9 | battalion, armored regiment in the US Army. So obviously, you know, when they're thinking about |
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