Exhibition and reconstitution of a 1944 base camp with authentic vehicles at WN 17, Hillman.
June 2009.
Widerstandnest 17 ‘Hillman’ was the objective of the first battalion of the Suffolk regiment of the 8th brigade of the 3rd division. ‘Hillman’ was the code name given to this position. Others in the area had names like ‘Daimler’, ‘Rover’ and ‘Morris’. Hillman was the regimental HQ of the 736th regiment of the 716th division. The commanding officer was Generalmajor Ludwig Krug. Caen was supposed to be taken on D day by the 185th and the 8th brigades. Several factors came together to make this impossible. The strong winds were pushing the tide in faster than expected making a narrow beach. This and the bad weather was hampering the unloading of tanks and causing traffic jams on the beach and roads leading off. The intelligence reports hadn’t pointed out the proximity of the 12th SS panzers and the 21st Panzers. The 21st Panzers coming through Caen in the afternoon engaged armored divisions on route for Caen. The third factor was Hillman. Hillman was sited between Sword beach and Caen. The Suffolk regiment had the mission to take Morris, then Hillman then the batteries on the Perrier heights. Morris was taken by 13:00 hrs with the help of naval gunfire directed by the radio of the forward observer. He, the forward observer, was killed in the attack on Morris so for the attack on Hillman there was no naval fire brought in. Hillman was a different kettle of fish to Morris. The site consisted of a dozen or so bunkers connected by trenches and the whole complex was surrounded by barbed wire and mine fields. The infantry were making no headway so they called on the tanks of the 185th who should have been heading towards Caen. Some tanks had tried to bypass the site but the accurate fire from the battery on Perrier made this impossible. The battle continued into the evening. The main bunker didn’t surrender until the morning of the 7th. Bunker A, where Generalmajor Krug was in attendance, had a cupola armed with a machine gun. The cupola was impervious to tank shells. A soldier by the name of Hunter attacked the cupola single handedly and put it out of action.