On March 7th 1945, Mr A.V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty, in introducing the Naval estimates for the ensuing year, described the creation of the shipping required and the actual part played by the Royal Navy in what Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay called “ the greatest amphibious operation in history”. Time may unfold a greater, but nothing like it had been seen up to June 6th 1944.
Here are some vital extracts from the First Lord’s speech.
The naval forces required for the assault landing consisted of four main classes, minesweepers to clear the way for all the ships and craft which would follow,landing craft and ships of all kinds to carry the soldiers and the guns, tanks, transport and other equipment with which they would fight, bombarding ships, whose task with the Air Force, would be to destroy the enemy’s opposition to the landing, and enable the Army to gain the lodgement which it requires before it can deploy its own weapons, and finally escort and anti submarine forces.
The minesweepers bombarding ships and escort vessels already existed, though they were required in exceptionally large numbers.
The landing ships and craft did not exist.
They have all had to be developed and provided during the war from our own resources and those of our Allies.
The process was started as soon as the armies of the United Nations were driven from the Continent, very many months before it became fashionable to chalk up on walls demands for a “Second Front”.
While the Fleet with which we are familiar ,was still being built and maintained, the strange new Fleet containing ships of all sizes and odd shapes each designed and developed for its special purpose, was brought into being.
It included ships and craft for landing tanks and infantry, for giving close support fire, for landing guns and transport, for making smoke, and even floating kitchens and craft fitted with extending fire escape ladders to put men up cliffs.
In all 4,066 landing ships and craft of over 60 different types took part in the operation.
Shore works costing several million pounds had to be provided before the assault could be launched.
Another massive enterprise was the creation of the two artificial harbours, upon which the success of the whole operation depended.
Assault against an established enemy port was certain to meet the most powerful opposition.
An assault over open beaches, much less strongly defended, offered by far the best hope of getting a large force ashore, quickly.
But this was only half problem, once ashore the Army had to be reinforced more rapidly then the enemy.
To rely on the quick capture of an established port was to run great risk of disaster.
The only answer was an assault over open beaches, accompanied by the creation of ports for rapid unloading and reinforcement.
The conception, like all great conceptions once made, seemed simple.
Its fulfilment was an immense task, it required the preparation and sinking of 60 old ships, which provided breakwaters for both the British and American forces by the fourth day of the assault.
In addition two full scale ports, the “Mulberries” were constructed from 60,000 ton concrete caissons towed across the Channel.
The British port alone used four and a quarter miles of these caissons, weighing approximately 550,000 tons.
On the twelfth day of the assault 1,600 tons were discharged at this port, and by the thirty fourth day an average of 6,000 tons a day was discharged.
One hundred and thirty two tugs, including British, American, French, and Dutch, were employed in towing the units of this harbour from sheltered anchorages in the United Kingdom to the Normandy coast.
Nearly one thousand tows were made for this purpose in June and July.
Tugs were mobilized from far and wide to accomplish this mighty task, made the more daunting by the rough and unseasonable weather in the Channel….
No single topic was more anxiously debated in the planning of the operation then the date and hour at which it should take place.
The appropriate choice depended on conditions of tide, conditions of light, the possibility of postponement for bad weather and other considerations, all of which were most carefully weighed.
The date finally chosen was June 5th with the 6th and 7th as possible alternatives…
No one however expected the decision to be as difficult as it actually was.
Even those of us who were in London remember the week-end before D Day , as we watched the low scudding clouds and heard the squalls of wind as a time of almost unbearable anxiety….
The first meeting to discuss the weather forecast for D Day was held on June 1st.
The outlook was not very good, and it was deteriorated during the next three days.
On the evening of June 3rd however, the Supreme Commander decided to allow the forces to move despite the unfavourable outlook, in order to gain the many advantages of launching the operation on the first possible day.
At 4-15 on the following morning it was clear that conditions the next day would not be acceptable, and a postponement of twenty four hours was ordered…
On the morning of June 5th the forecast, the irrevocable decision to make the assault in the early hours of June 6th was taken.
The decision was a terribly hard one.
Events leave no doubt that it was right.
Had the opportunity been missed, the operation could not have taken place for another fortnight, and by then the weather was even worse.
In its combination of high winds and cloud, June 1944 was the worst June of the present century.
Nevertheless, it seems likely that the wildness of the weather may have led the enemy to believe that we should not launch the assault, and it may therefore have contributed to his apparent unreadiness and hence to the astonishing success of the assault….
As our forces approached the French coast, without a murmur from the enemy, it was slowly realized that once again, almost complete tactical surprise had been achieved.
To the minesweepers fell the proud and dangerous honour of leading the assault forces to the beaches.
The sweeping of ten approach channels was the largest single mine sweeping operation ever undertaken in war.
309 British, 16 Canadian, and 22 U.S. minesweepers took part….
The minesweepers then had to widen all the approach channels and to sweep areas off the beaches for the reception of the vast numbers of ships needed to keep the Army supplied….
The operation was the greatest single achievement of a never ending labour, in which over 15,000 mines have been swept since the beginning of the war…..
The next forces to go into action were the bombardment ships, these forces took part in the drenching of the beach defences, immediately before the assault…
As one of the bombarding forces arrived in position at 5-15am four enemy E- boats and some armed trawlers from Le Havre made a half hearted attack, and sank one Norwegian destroyer by torpedo.
Our forces sank an enemy trawler, and damaged another, and the attack was not renewed.
Then came the moment for which the whole world had waited, the moment when Allied Forces again set foot on the soil of France…..
The outstanding fact of the day was that, despite the unfavourable weather, the Naval operations were carried out in every important respect as planned.
Tactical surprise, which had not been expected, was achieved.
Losses of ships and landing craft of all types were much lower than had been expected….
During the first three days of the operation 38 convoys comprising 743 ships and major landing craft were sent across the Channel for the build up.
This of course, excludes the assault forces…..
On June 19th a great gale blew up and at once stopped all unloading to the beaches. The sea did not finally go down until June 23rd , but it may be said that the position of the Expeditionary Force was never in doubt after the third day of the assault….
By the tenth day half a million men and 77,000 vehicles had been landed…
By the end of July over 1,600,000 men, 340,000 vehicles, and 1,700,000 tons of stores had been landed….
