Neptune: Allied Invasion of Europe and the The D-Day Landings

1058 Pages·2014·5.04 MB·English

by  Craig L. Symonds

NEPTUNE
NEPTUNE
THE ALLIED INVASION OF EUROPE AND THE D-DAY
LANDINGS
CRAIG L. SYMONDS
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© Craig L. Symonds 2014
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Symonds, Craig L.
Neptune : the Allied invasion of Europe and the
D-Day landings / Craig L. Symonds.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-998611-8 (hardback : acid-free paper)
1. Operation Neptune. 2. World War, 1939–1945—
Campaigns—France—Normandy.
3. World War, 1939–1945—Naval operations.
4. Military planning—History—20th century. I. Title.
D756.5.N6S96 2014
940.54'21421—dc23
2013036647
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For three great teachers:
Jeff Symonds, Susan Witt, and Carol Margaret Mason
CONTENTS
List of Maps, Charts, and Tables
Prologue
1. Germany First
2. Arcadia
3. “We’ve Got to Go to Europe and Fight”
4. The Mediterranean Tar Baby
5. Casablanca to COSSAC
6. Brits and Yanks
7. “Some God-Dammed Things Called LSTs”
8. SHAEF and ANCXF
9. Duck, Fox, Beaver, Tiger
10. “A Hum Throughout the Country”
11. D-Day: The Invasion
12. D-Day: The Beaches
13. D-Day: The Crisis
14. “The Shoreline Was Just a Shambles”
15. “A Field of Ruins”
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations Used in Notes
Notes
Bibliography
Index
MAPS, CHARTS, AND TABLES
Operation TORCH, November 8–11, 1942
Allied Shipping Losses vs. Construction of New Ships, 1942–1944
The Mediterranean Tar Baby, July 1943–January 1944
U.S. Troop Strength in Britain, June 1942–May 1944
Americans in Britain, December 1943–May 1944
Relative Sizes of Allied Landing Craft
U.S. Landing Ship and Landing Craft Production, January 1942–May 1944
Neptune-Overlord Command Structure
The Crossing, June 5–6, 1944
The Bombardment, 6:00 a.m., June 6, 1944
Omaha Beach, 9:00 a.m., June 6, 1944
The Plan for the Mulberry Harbor off Omaha Beach
Unloading of Men and Supplies on Omaha Beach, June 6–26, 1944
The Campaign for Cherbourg, June 19–25, 1944
The Naval Bombardment of Cherbourg, June 25, 1944
Neptune is a joint British–United States Operation, the object of which is to
secure a lodgment on the Continent from which further offensive operations can
be developed. It is part of a large strategic plan designed to bring about total
defeat of Germany by means of heavy and concentrated assaults upon German-
occupied Europe from the United Kingdom, the Mediterranean, and Russia.
—Top-secret Neptune operation order no. BB-44, May 20, 1944
PROLOGUE
F
OR MANY, and for Americans in particular, the mention of D-Day conjures up
an image of Omaha Beach, very likely that moment when the bow ramp of a
landing craft drops into the surf and young soldiers, some of them teenagers,
charge out to meet their fate. Whether because of Hollywood depictions or the
haunting and harrowing photos taken by Robert Capa that day, it is a moment
that has become etched in our national memory. And so it should. It reminds us
of the terrible cost of war and of the sacrifices of those who bear it.
But it is a moment with a long backstory, one that has been told only in
fragments and which is too often overlooked. Before the first landing craft
nudged up onto the sand, before the first soldier stepped out onto the beach to
face that merciless machine gun fire, a great deal had to happen. Men burdened
with the responsibility of strategic decision making had to order it; others
challenged to make it possible had to plan it; still others had to design and build
the ships that carried the men and their equipment first from America to England
and then, after months of training, across the Channel to occupied France. The
Allied invasion of the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944, bore the designation
Operation Overlord, but everything that came before it, including the surge
across the Channel and the landing itself, was part of Operation Neptune, and D-
Day could not have taken place without it.
Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, is traditionally depicted as a bare-
chested, muscular, white-bearded deity, often wielding a trident and driving a
chariot pulled by seahorses. At the Quadrant Conference at Quebec in May
1943, where the Combined Chiefs of Staff of Britain and the United States
confirmed the long-delayed decision to invade German-occupied France one
year hence, it seemed an appropriate designation to apply to the massive
amphibious operation that had just been approved. “Massive” is not an
overstatement. Operation Neptune was the largest seaborne assault in human
history, involving over six thousand vessels and more than a million men. This
book is a study of how the British and Americans managed to overcome