‘Phoenix Rising’.
U.S Navy Combat Art Collection
Brigadier Tom Collins
Director of Movements for Continental Operations October 1943–June 1944.
‘Broadly, the requirements for the coastline and hinterland where the huge embarkation operation was to take place, were: no tide, so that loading at the hards or ramps could take place 24 hours out of 24 and hinterland which was hard and flat, with good road access or surface with no need for road building or improvement, with loading points where one wanted them and not dictated by inland access. The hinterland also needed to be suitable for construction of embarkation camps, with marshalling camps behind them where men and vehicles were to get into their craft loads and – further back – concentration areas to which units were to proceed from their home stations. Good road access from one to another was imperative. Added to that, good depth of water at loading points was essential, so that craft could load without danger.
‘North Africa for the Sicily landings was perfect: no tide, no road problems on the hard sand, and camps and areas could be established precisely where required. England, on the other hand, could not have been worse. The change of tide around our shores is so great (24 feet each 24 hours), our coastline is intricate and deep water rarely lies close in. Also, the coastal roads and lanes are so winding and the country inland from the coast so enclosed for creating camps or areas, which could feed from one to the other . . . The operation, which could have been mounted on 15–20 miles of the African coast, was spread from Yarmouth to Milford Haven . . . spreading well over 1,000 miles with its estuaries and inlets. Even with the large number of embarkation points the loading of vehicles for the assault and follow-up had to begin six days before D-Day . . . D-Day was not only the greatest combined operation ever undertaken: it was the greatest that ever will be.’
US Supply Officer, May 1944
‘We’ve got a fairly big job on. Something comparable to the city of Birmingham hasn’t merely got to be shifted; it’s got to be kept moving when it’s on the other side . . .’
Trucks, jeeps, transports and staff cars caused a vast traffic snarl-up in the days before D-Day. In Andover, Hampshire, office workers were given 15 minutes extra at lunchtime to cross the street.
Pilot Officer
R. H. ‘Chad’ Chadwick
RAF Lancaster navigator.
‘The crew was fairly typical of those in Bomber Command. Although we were in a Royal Australian Air Force squadron, the pilot was the only Australian in the crew. I was the only officer. Mick was a flight sergeant and the remainder were all sergeants. This made no difference. We seven were firm friends with tremendous mutual trust and respect and rank or position had no part in our approach to the job. This was highly desirable, of course, in the making of an efficient bomber crew. As an officer, I felt lucky to have one or two privileges that the others did not get and to make up for this I tried to do a few extra chores around the aircraft, before or after a trip.
‘We all felt ourselves lucky to be on this particular squadron as we found that Australians were a wonderful race with whom to go to war. They had little time for anyone who pulled rank or position, and basic discipline was good, but it was a discipline coming from natural leaders with a team keen to get on with the job. As RAF chaps found, an Aussie could call a man “a Pommy bastard” and make it sound an absolute term of endearment! On the other hand, any officer who started to put on airs and graces – very few did – merited the derogatory description “He’s gone Pommy”.’
Mike Henry DFC
Boston air gunner, 107 Squadron.
‘When we lived under canvas at Hartford Bridge Stan Adams [the navigator] and I shared a tent. The tent site, with a large marquee for our messing, was a long walk across many muddy fields from the main camp. It was good fun in a novel kind of way but it had its drawbacks. For one thing I ruined one of my best suitcases which had soaked up the moisture through the coconut matting on the grass floor of our tent. However, it wasn’t for long and there was a good reason for preparing us in the event of a dire lack of accommodation when we moved across the Channel. As it happened we never saw a tent when moving to France.
Australian and RAF crews of 192 Squadron, 100 Group in front of Halifax BIII Matthews & Co. Express Delivery Service at Foulsham, Norfolk. Flt Lt Matthews RAAF, 4th from left. W/C David Donaldson CO, is to his left. S/L John Crotch, is 3rd from right. On D-Day, when 100 Group aircraft jammed enemy radars and made spoof attacks on the French coast, 192 Squadron maintained a constant patrol between Cap Griz-Nez and the Cherbourg area to see if the enemy was using the centimetric band for radar, all the known enemy radars being effectively jammed.
John Crotch
‘Apart from the three Boston squadrons at Hartford Bridge, we had two Dutch squadrons using the airfield for a short time – 322 with Spitfires and 320 with Mitchells. Their crews were dressed in the uniform of the Royal Netherlands Navy. When we found out how much they were paid, we gasped. Apart from their set pay scale, which was higher than ours, they received extra money for every flying hour. We didn’t see a lot of the Dutch chaps for they messed elsewhere, but we often saw in our mess Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Bernhard.’
‘Phoenix Afloat’.
U.S Navy Combat Art Collection
Countdown
June 1943
Americans are now living in 100,000 buildings in 1,100 locations in Britain. In December, 30,000 further acres of South Devon are taken over and 3,000 residents evicted from 750 properties. Landings are rehearsed in Devon’s Bideford Bay, chosen for its similarity to the Normandy coast.
August 1943
During Churchill’s voyage aboard the Queen Mary en route to Quebec for the summit with Roosevelt, professor John Desmond Bernal, a scientific adviser, uses a loofah as a wave machine and 20 paper boats as the D-Day fleet. With the PM and aides looking on he proves success would depend on vast floating harbours, Mulberrys – represented by a Mae West life preserver.
November 1943
Thirty directives for Overlord issued.
6 December 1943
General Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed to command landings in France.
1 January 1944
General Montgomery relinquishes command of 8th Army in Italy and flies to England to set up his invasion HQ at his old school, St Paul’s, Hammersmith. Montgomery will remain in command of ground forces until September 1944 when General Eisenhower will assume direct control. For the purposes of Overlord, RAF Bomber Command and the 8th US Air Force are placed under the operational direction of the Supreme Commander to add to the aircraft of the Allied Tactical Air Forces.
2nd TAF’s 11 squadrons of Bostons, Venturas and Mitchells in 2 Group moved to