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Stephen Fisher
@seaspitfires.com

Men of 45 Commando come ashore on Sword Queen Red Beach at approx 09:10 on 6 June 1944. On the right is the burning Sherman Crab tank of Lieutenant John Allen, knocked out by the anti-tank gun in the bunker just visible in the very top left corner of the image. 📷 IWM A70 31-2

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Stephen Fisher
@seaspitfires.com

Allen’s tank was knocked out about 90 minutes earlier by the 75mm in the bunker some 200m away. Only one member of Allen's crew survived the hits from the A/T gun – when the remaining four men were recovered, it was impossible to bury them individually.

Stephen Fisher
@seaspitfires.com

It was actually an old French cannon repurposed as a 7.5cm FK 231(f). Thanks to the rest of Grant’s footage of the landing it’s possible to locate Allen’s tank precisely and the range was 200m. Today the Bill Millin statue is just to the left of the tank.

Stephen Fisher
@seaspitfires.com

That's because this is nearly two hours after the first landing. The fight for Sword was just as bloody and violent as at Omaha, the only difference being that the British broke through the defences faster thanks mainly to a better plan and 3x more armour on the beach in the first wave.