|
D-Day UK 100 Locations in Britain
Simon Forty
Swindon: Historic England, 2019 Hardback, 216 pp. ISBN 978-1848025400. £30
Reviewed by Hugh Clout University College London
This handsome volume was assembled to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Unlike numerous publications which focus of the Normandy beaches during June, July and August 1944, or on the cemeteries in Calvados and Manche where the fallen are interred, it concentrates on what happened on the English side of the Channel during the three years prior to the landings. As author Simon Forty explains: It was in Britain that the plans were developed, the logistics organized and the weapons prepared. It was in Britain that the soldiers boarded the ships to take them to France, from Britain that the air forces provided aerial cover and the armada set sail. It was in Britain that large numbers of young American, Canadian, Polish and French men and women spent so much time that they became part of the everyday life of the country’. [vi] This ‘friendly invasion’ had profound social repercussions with 60,000 war brides leaving the United Kingdom at the end of the war for a future life in the USA or Canada. In January 1942 the first Americans arrived in the UK. By May 1944 their total reached 750,000 and doubled in the next few months. They all ‘had to be housed and fed; they had to have places to train. They had to have equipment and places to practise using it. The supplies for the battles to come had to be stored. The details of the invasion had to include secure locations for final preparations, places to board ships and receive final orders’ [vi]. Airfields had to be built and naval installations enhanced. Work progressed relatively slowly until late 1943 but accelerated greatly thereafter. The complex story told in D-Day UK is organised by six major themes – command and control, practice, logistics, boarding, air operations, and operations at sea – and one hundred locations are selected to exemplify them. War museums are excluded from the list; arguably, they merit a volume in their own right. As an introduction to the main text, a two-page summary of critical events leading up to D-Day is provided, alongside a map showing marine assembly points and routes across the Channel, together with a valuable glossary and list of abbreviations used. The first eighteen sites illustrate aspects of command and control, with a brief essay on the magnitude of the operation preceding detailed accounts of buildings commandeered to house administrative and training facilities. Each site is covered by a 2- or 3-page spread comprising text and wartime and recent photographs. A presentation of General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters at Grosvenor Square in London is accompanied by discussions of schools in London and in Bristol that were taken over as training sites for British and American servicemen, or as special command centres for both air forces. Interior views of the code and cypher school at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire emphasise that many young women were involved in this intelligence work, as well as largely male mathematical ‘boffins’ who were recruited from universities. ‘Practice makes perfect’ is the title for the next seventeen sites that show where armies trained prior to D-Day and familiarised themselves with new vehicles, weapons and technology that had not been demonstrated in earlier basic exercises. Commandos and various specialists in combat were trained at castles and country houses on the west coast of Scotland, among other locations. Completely new amphibious vehicles were tested along the shores of Scottish lochs. Servicemen were given special courses in artillery fire, parachuting, capturing bridges and manoeuvring tanks across difficult terrain. They were also instructed on how to handle decoy boats, tanks and other vehicles that were positioned around the coast of south-east England to give the impression that the forthcoming invasion was aimed at the Pas-de-Calais. Many beaches in south-west England afforded reasonable sites to prepare men and equipment for landing in Lower Normandy. Exemplified by eleven sites, ‘Logistical challenges’ embraces the mission of the quartermaster corps to provide troops with ‘food, clothing, equipage, fuel, and all sorts of general supplies in the proper quantity and quality at the right time and in the right place’ [79]. At this point, attention is rightly given to the work of the Canadian army in wartime Britain and France, as well as their British and American counterparts. Special supply depots were installed in a wide variety of locations, with thousands of temporary huts complementing permanent buildings. Vital marshalling yards were created and a major base constructed to store supplies of fuel that would be needed for tanks, trucks, amphibious vehicles and ‘planes. Factories were requisitioned to make armaments, with women playing an essential role in assembling shells and other explosive devices. Elsewhere, vast quantities of concrete were used to fashion the components of an ingenious floating dock, known as the ‘Mulberry Harbour’. Other floating breakwaters and roadways were nicknamed ‘Gooseberry’, ‘Beetle’ and ‘Whale’. Existing hospitals in Hampshire and Dorset were commandeered to cope with wounded servicemen ferried back from Normandy. Many medical sites were greatly expanded by the construction of Nissen huts to accommodate extra wards and operating theatres. No fewer than thirty-two sites are selected to exemplify the fourth major theme entitled ‘All aboard’. Weather circumstances willing, 5 June was set as the target date for the start of the invasion, with the next two days being possible options. If these dates were missed the next opportunity was weeks away according to the meteorologists and experts in tidal conditions. Because of inclement weather, the first landings had to be postponed until 6 June. To allow the invasion to occur, special airfields had been installed at numerous locations across southern England. Great emphasis is placed in the present volume on the scale of that massive achievement. Fragments of many of these airfields are still to be found in the landscape, as are elements of the special embarkation facilities for sea-going vessels. The final two sections of D-Day UK are devoted to twenty-two sites that were critical in the command and control of operations by air and by sea. With attention being paid once again to airfields and coastal facilities, these examples build upon what is covered in the preceding section. Airfields in Essex and Cambridgeshire are shown to have been particularly important in accommodating air stations of the United States Army Air Forces, while the Royal Air Force used front-line sites in Kent, Sussex and Dorset. Sea operations were commanded from centres in Plymouth and Portsmouth as well as in London. Having presented one hundred sites, this fascinating and richly documented text stops abruptly. It offers neither conclusion nor overview, but does guide readers to a useful bibliography and an explanation of the main sources tapped for wartime photographs. Not surprisingly, these are the Imperial War Museum and the US National Archives and Record Administration. As one who has a research interest in the reconstruction of towns and villages in France following World War II, I found D-Day UK to be a valuable eye-opener on what was achieved during the months and weeks prior to June 1944. Its textual information is presented in a clear and not over-scholarly way, and its many photographs are of the highest quality. Some helpful maps assist readers to locate each of the hundred sites, but it is a pity that RAF Coastal Command HQ, Northwood, London is indicated as being south of the Thames, rather than in the outer north-west suburbs. The intriguing map of German defences around Calais on page 37 would benefit from an explanation of the cartographic symbols that can only be guessed at. But these are minor quibbles. D-Day UK offers an excellent addition to our understanding of the circumstances that led up to the Normandy landings and of many of the locations north of the English Channel that contributed to the success of the invasion. Very reasonably priced for such a well-illustrated volume, this book will appeal to a wide readership.
Cercles © 2020 All rights are reserved and no reproduction from this site for whatever purpose is permitted without the permission of the copyright owner. Please contact us before using any material on this website.
|
|
|
