Story: Overlord - Operation Neptune, D-Day - Part 2

OVERLORD, D-DAY

OPERATION NEPTUNE, June 6, 1944

By Clayton Marks, RCNVR and Combined Operations

Landing Craft, Flak (LCF) near France - D-Day, June 6, 1944
Photo as found in Combined Operations (page 108) by C. Marks

Introduction - The following story (presented here in several parts) can be found in Combined Operations by Clayton Marks of London, Ontario. The book was printed in 1993 (approx.), is extremely difficult to find, but is being reprinted by a London team. I present a short summary of Mr. Mark's 23-page-long account on this site.

OPERATION NEPTUNE, June 6, 1944 - Part 2

The planners of Operation Neptune hoped to accomplish much with their superior air power, i.e., "tenfold superiority in aircraft" - 5,900 Allied planes vs less than 600 German planes. Other mighty resources were available as well.

Some of the plans were as follows:

     Allied fighters were to provide cover for convoys of troops and all materials of war.
     Allied bombers were to drop overwhelming explosives onto the beaches during the night and early morning.
     Naval bombardment was to begin at first light. The assembled battleships, cruisers, over 100 destroyers, monitors, gunboats and rocket-firing ships were to blast concrete emplacements and gun batteries that were hiding among the dunes and in farmhouses near the coast.
     After the Naval fire power ended, amphibious tanks would go ashore on inflated canvas screens. "Gun-carrying craft, with army personnel and artillery, would follow the tanks, firing as they came."
     Then would go a fleet of assault landing craft carrying the first wave of infantry. ("Seven divisions of Allied soldiers were to be landed within the first twenty-four hours, followed thereafter by reinforcements...")

The actual simplicity of the invasion would baffle the Germans, as they had been led to expect a complicated series of operations. The Atlantic wall was to be breached midway between Le Havre and Cherbourg without the use of diversionary landings. One massive thrust would erupt from the waters off Plymouth, Portland, Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight, would drive southward across the Channel and pour liberation armies of liberation onto Normandy's shores. And an enormous stock of men and materials of war would maintain these vast armies. "The Allies had prepared themselves to land millions of tons of equipment and more than a million men on an open coast...."

German general staff believed such an invasion could done be accomplished without access to "one great harbour" (they were likely right), but the Allies planned to build, then bring two great harbours (aka mulberries and gooseberries, for some reason) with them to Normandy, including an enormous number of "blockships, concrete barges, pontoon piers and floating breakwaters." Each artificial harbour had a shipping capacity equal to that of Dover.

Operation Neptune, involving 6,000 ships, was governed by a rigid set of timetables, sites and speeds. And "any serious disorganization of the precisely planned assault movement might have the most disastrous results." Earlier plans considered a May 1st landing along a narrower front with a smaller force, i.e., three divisions. Further thought approved an invasion along a wider front with five divisions, and another month was added to the timetable in order to amass more landing craft and increase the amount of bombing of German defenses. A secondary drive from the Mediterranean area was planned as well, to take place after Allied forces were permanently ashore in Normandy and moving eastward.

Planners realized that bad weather would also present great challenges. High seas would surely prevent landing craft from going ashore; fogs and storms would ground aircraft and complicate navigation. Laborious calculations continued, at times with hope and prayer.

In the months prior to the cross-channel invasion, Allied aircraft battered German defenses, communications and production centres in Europe, and Allied Naval forces attacked German convoys in the Channel and along the Biscay coasts and successfully confronted attacks from German E-boats and R-boats against convoys travelling near England's coast with invasion supplies. By April, 1944, attacks, patrols and mine-sweeping took on a new intensity, in order to clear the way for the passage of the invasion ships.

The enemy, however, still had about 230 surface ships available "within striking distance of what was to become the cross-Channel highway for Neptune," i.e., heavily armed trawlers, minesweepers, 16 destroyers, 50 E-boats and 60 heavily armed R-boats, along with 130 U-boats ("which might be increased to 200 within a fortnight after D-Day") based on Biscay and Channel ports. German Naval resources appeared small in comparison to Allied numbers but they were still significant. Most of the Allied ships used to carry troops and supplies were not equipped to put up a fight against German Naval vessels, limited as they were to narrow, mine-swept channels. Enemy surface ships and U-boats could still wreak untold havoc by creating confusion and fatal delays to operations and reinforcement programs.

Allied forces therefore made plans to weaken Germany's Naval strength. The flanks of the Allied assault force would be guarded by a complex series of patrol ships and every type of German ship would be countered by similar ships belonging to the Allies. E.g., German E-boats and R-boats would face "their long-time enemies," i.e., motor torpedo boats (MTBs) and British gunboats.

Embarking in Southampton, just a few days before D-Day, June 1944

Photo as found in Combined Operations (page 139) by C. Marks

Allied ships completed all last-minute preparations by June 3rd but because of very foul weather, D-Day's initial start date, June 4th (to arrive in Normandy's beaches on the 5th), was aborted, "followed by sickening hours of uncertainty." One day later than planned, however, the die was cast. "The assault put forth... ."

Details related to Canadians in Combined Operations are noted below:

"At twelve o'clock on the morning of June 5th, seven landing craft of the 260th Canadian Flotilla slipped their lines from Southampton.... (and joined) a stream of similar craft threading its way down the crowded anchorage of the Solent.... on board the seven craft were 250 Canadian and 1,050 British troops, all attached to the 3rd Canadian Division."

"Two hours astern of them in the same stream followed the twelve craft of the 262nd Flotilla, carrying 1,946 Canadian and 148 British troops (3rd Canadian Division). (Also) making for the assembly area.... were the seven craft of the 264th Canadian Flotilla, carrying 1,227 troops of the British Northumbrian Division."

More to follow.

Please link to Story: Overlord - Operation Neptune, D-Day - Part 1