D-Day Landing Craft: How 4,126 'Ugly And Unorthodox' Allied Craft Made The Normandy Landings Possibl

D-Day, one of the most decisive moments of the Second World War, could not have happened without thousands of landing craft. Yet their role, and that of their crews, has often been overlooked. During a combined operation that involved aerial and naval assaults, as well as amphibious landings on a vast scale, more than 132,000 Allied troops landed on the Normandy beaches on 6 June 1944. Through their efforts, the tide of the war turned for the final time to favour the Allies. There is no overstating the contribution of the landing craft and their crews on the first day of Operation Neptune, and yet it is often overlooked. In D-Day Landing Craft, historian Andrew Whitmarsh turns his attention to these vital vessels that ensured the operation's success. He describes events on each of the five Allied beaches on D-Day from the perspective of landing craft, landing ships and their crews. He examines why there were so many different types of landing craft and how they were built over several years in both the UK and North America, despite many competing war production requirements and operational demands. This closely researched and well-illustrated account is essential to anyone who wants to fully understand the course of D-Day, and the nature of Allied preparations for the campaig AUTHOR: Andrew Whitmarsh has worked as a curator in military history museums for over 25 years, and since 2001 as the curator of The D-Day Story (until 2018, known as the D-Day Museum) in Portsmouth. He has written a number of articles and two books for The History Press, Portsmouth at War and D-Day in Photographs. He is also a trustee and the historian of the Normandy Memorial Trust, is a regular public lecturer on the topic, and has been interviewed for a number of TV and radio appearances on D-Day. 75 b/w illustrations