Category: D-Day: The Planning

Describes the building and deployment of dummy landing craft - known as "Bigbobs" - with the aim of deceiving the Germans into believing that the invasion would take place in the Pas de Calais.

HUGHES-HALLETT, John ‘Jock’. From Dieppe to D-Day: The Memoirs of Vice-Admiral John ‘Jock’ Hughes-Hallett, CB, DSO. 256p., illus. Barnsley, Frontline, 2023. ISBN: 9781399045575.

Hughes-Hallett was Deputy Director of the Local Defence Division at the Admiralty in 1940 and 1941, before becoming Naval Adviser at Combined Operations HQ. Along with the head of Combined Operations, Lord Louis Mountbatten, he orchestrated Commando raids from Norway to Normandy. He became Commodore commanding the Channel Assault Force (known as ‘J’ Force) and Naval Chief of Staff (X) from 1942 to 1943 but is perhaps best known for being the Naval Commander of the Dieppe Raid. The concept of Mulberry Harbours was his. It was in the planning for D-Day that his experience came to the fore. Hughes-Hallett retired from the Royal Navy with the rank of Vice Admiral, taking up a new career as MP for Croydon East and then Croydon North East. A long overdue record published for the first time.

IZZARD, Brian. Mastermind of Dunkirk and D-Day: The Vision of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay. 288p., bibliog., illus., index. Oxford: Casemate, 2020. ISBN: 9781612008387.

The first major biography of Ramsay for over sixty years. During World War II he was a pivotal figure from his planning of the Dunkirk evacuation through to his role in planning Operation Neptune as well as operations TORCH and HUSKY. His mysterious death in a plane crash in 1945 has led to his seminal role being overlooked. A good account.

MACE, Martin & GREHAN, John. Liberating Europe: D-Day to Victory 1944-1945. xiv, 226p., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2014. ISBN: 9781783462155.

Reprints six despatches from the London Gazette with a brief introduction, namely 38045, the Dieppe Raid; 38110, the Assault Phase of the Normandy Landings; 38111, the Liberation of Europe (Operation Overlord), Operations of Coastal Command; 38204, Air Operations by the Allied Expeditionary Air Force in North West Europe 1943-44; 38171, the Final Stages of the Naval War in North West Europe; 37711, Operations in North West Europe from 6 June 1944, to 5 May 1945.

LEVINE, Joshua. Operation Fortitude: The Story of the Spy Operation That Saved D-Day. 316p., bibliog., illus., index. London: HarperCollins, 2011. ISBN: 9780007313532.

The story of the operation to persuade the Germans that the landings would take place in the Pas de Calais. There was a naval element to the deception. Republished in 2019 as Dunkirk & Operation Fortitude: Two Missions That Changed the Fate of World War II, published by William Collins (ISBN: 9780007978717).

MURCH, Muriel, MURCH, David & FAIRWEATHER, Len. The American Forces at Salcombe and Slapton in World War Two. 40p., illus. Plymouth: [authors], 1984.

A collection of annotated photographs, demonstrating the American presence in south-west England in the run up to D-Day.

WYNN, Stephen. Disaster Before D-Day: Unravelling the Tragedy at Slapton Sands. 224p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2019. ISBN: 9781526735119.

Retells the story of how some 750 American servicemen lost their lives on a pre-D-Day landing exercise, code-named 'Operation Tiger', on the evening of 23/24 April 1943 when attacked by German E-Boats off Slapton Sands.

CLAMP, Arthur L. Exercises Tiger and Fabius: An Illustrated Account of the American Forces Assault Exercises Held at Slapton Sands in 1944 as a Rehearsal for Part of the D-Day Landings in France. 16p., illus. [Plymouth, author, 1983].

An early account as much concerned with the effects on the South Hams as the tragedy of Tiger.

KHAN, Mark. D-Day Assault. 216p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2014. ISBN: 9781781593844.

An account of all aspects of the pre D-Day exercises carried out on and around Slapton Sands.

An excellent account of the strains and successes of the Anglo-American planning teams followed by an account of the plan's execution.

Although a small pamphlet, it is most informative on the fateful decision to risk the weather and land and the advice of the official government weather forecasting agency.

The planning of the cross-channel assault with a brief account of operations on June 6 itself.

Written by Eisenhower's chief weather expert, the book describes the plans and preparations to advise on the weather for the invasion of Europe. An interesting byway.

The Slapton Sands fiasco of Exercise Tiger by an author who crusaded for many years to uncover this concealed disaster. A second edition was published in 1993.

A historian attached to General Omar Bradley's staff gives an early account of the problems faced and solved in mounting the cross-channel assault. Takes the story up to the breakout from the beachhead and gives some background to the naval contribution to the invasion.

A journalist's account of the Slapton Sands Tragedy. Much concerned with the covering-up of the disaster, but makes good use of survivor's reminiscences. US title: Exercise Tiger, (ISBN: 0131277960).

An American Army autobiography but much concerned with the planning of Overlord.

An invasion rehearsal which went tragically wrong when German E-boats intervened.

Not strictly naval, but a useful and detailed background study.

A florid account of the American preparation for and action of D-Day seen by a staff officer with Admiral Kirk. Has the compensation of good photographs and some excellent drawings by American artists.