Royal Navy on D Day

[jeepster]

I am looking for info and pics on the Royal Navy and its involvment on D day.

I am well aware of its at sea role but does any one have anything on the RN coming ashore?

In particular the beach master role or artillery spotting?

[MilitantGraham]

I remember reading a book about wartime divers and midget submarines.

At one of the pre invasion meetings, one of the army bods was worried about the risk of his tanks sinking in the sand on the beaches.

At the next meeting the following day, the RN officer presented him with a specimen of Normandy sand to analyse to see if it would take the weight of a tank.

Overnight he had sent a midget sub and two divers across the channel, on to the beach and back home again !

[les freathy]

My father was on Motor Launches as a engineer on D Day at first they were off Dover acting as part of a decoy force that included bombers dropping windows they then were moved to the Normandy area to act as support against any possible German navy action. At one time they were floating between the Warspite and the shore when she let rip with a broadside, the skippers comments are unprintable and they buggered off as quickly as possible

[AndyFowler]

My father was on Motor Launches as a engineer on D Day at first they were off Dover acting as part of a decoy force that included bombers dropping windows they then were moved to the Normandy area to act as support against any possible German navy action. At one time they were floating between the Warspite and the shore when she let rip with a broadside, the skippers comments are unprintable and they buggered off as quickly as possible

What a shame the Warspite was not preserved as she was a veteran of both Jutland in the Great War and many important actions in the Second World War ! I'd love to have seen her in the Armour so to speak ! From a time when Britain was truely Great in my opinion !:cry::cry::cry:

[AlienFTM]

My father was on Motor Launches as a engineer on D Day at first they were off Dover acting as part of a decoy force that included bombers dropping windows they then were moved to the Normandy area to act as support against any possible German navy action. At one time they were floating between the Warspite and the shore when she let rip with a broadside, the skippers comments are unprintable and they buggered off as quickly as possible

 

The bombers were 617 Squadron. A year earlier they had been bombing the dams and since then they had become high-precision paragons of the Bomber Force. The crews were less than happy at being allocated such a mundane task on such a momentous day. But the fact of the matter was that the mission required hours of low-level, split-second formation flying.

 

The idea was that they flew in a column as wide as an invasion fleet and periodically (every few seconds?) the lead aircraft dropped a bundle of window - aluminium strips to light up coastal radar. The lead bombers then cycled back to the back of the queue, unseen by the radar behind the window. As the new lead bombers came up to and passed the position where the previous bundles had been dropped, they dropped their own window in front of the last. What displayed on the radar was an invasion-fleet-sized wall of contact advancing on the coast at the speed of an invasion fleet. The Germans saw what they wanted to see.

[AlienFTM]

What a shame the Warspite was not preserved as she was a veteran of both Jutland in the Great War and many important actions in the Second World War ! I'd love to have seen her in the Armour so to speak ! From a time when Britain was truely Great in my opinion !:cry::cry::cry:

 

ISTR that Warspite was deemed an unlucky ship, damaged during the Battle of Jutland, never fully restored to perfection and prone to sudden, unexpected swerves - presumably a bit like a car with a warped chassis.

 

I agree with your sentiment, but in the light of this, during the post-war disarmament I am not the least bit surprised that she got the chop.

[Tony B]

I am looking for info and pics on the Royal Navy and its involvment on D day.

I am well aware of its at sea role but does any one have anything on the RN coming ashore?

In particular the beach master role or artillery spotting?

 

Yes the RN Headquarters was at Ver sur Mer up from Goldbeach. We will be there in 2009. Try here. http://www.versurmer.fr/

[private mw]

when in normandy i met a veteran who sat and had a drink and meal with me and my wife . he was in the navy and was so upset they never get mentioned on d day . he said that they was the first there sweeping the mines in the channel before d day could take place he was a great guy with great stories and at the end of the night i gladly paid his bill and supplied him with plenty of drink . he cried and told me he thought no one cared .i assured him there are plenty of us that will never forget what they went through for us and how gratefull we are .:coffee:

[abn deuce]

So many people worked behind the those that went ashore was the number like 50 to one or ? As was already said like the mine sweepers , Air crews both in reconnaissance and attack aircraft , the explosives and demolition teams that swam ashore on the beaches to remove and destroy the beach obstructions and all the others that loaded the ships and handled the supplies that equipped the Allied forces. It could not have been done with out all of them .