Cracking Hitler’s Atlantic Wall: The 1st Assault Brigade Engineers on D-Day

Landing with the British and Canadians in Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, was the 1st Assault Brigade Royal Engineers, a specialised armoured unit tasked with removing obstacles and mines from Gold, Juno, and Sword Beaches. To support this mission, the engineers modified their tanks with ingenious innovations, such as replacing the main gun with a giant mortar or attaching a steamroller-like device to flatten a path in the sand. In the early hours of D-Day, the brigade landed under fire, took serious casualties in some areas, but achieved many of its key objectives and cleared the way for the infantry.