D-Day Landing Craft: How 4,126 ‘Ugly and Unorthodox’ Allied Craft made the Normandy Landings Possible

‘This is a marvellous book. The research is very thorough and it will answer all my questions.’ – RICHARD WILLIS, Normandy veteran, first lieutenant on LCT 898 on D-Day ‘Brings to life … the planning and execution of the largest amphibious landing which the world has ever seen … My grandfather… would have been most impressed by this detailed research.’ – CAPTAIN WILL RAMSAY, grandson of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Allied Naval Commander, Expeditionary Force 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 campaign.

About the 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 a regular public lecturer on the topic, with a number of TV and radio appearances about D-Day.

Review :
‘This is a superb book … Andrew Whitmarsh has produced a meticulously researched narrative that combines stories of personal sacrifice, bravery and achievement with a rigorous study of the development and use of the amphibious assault force that played such a fundamental role in the success of the D-Day landings. His text is a model of clear expression and coherent organisation … One of the best books about D-Day to appear in recent years: it deserves to be very widely read.’ ‘... uniquely brings together, in one place, hard to find information about the history of landing craft from conception to delivery and the myriad of constructional and organisational processes in between. By itself that is quite an achievement but, uniquely in my experience, the narrative includes observations from the veterans who manned the craft.’ ‘This is a marvellous book. The research is very thorough and it will answer all my questions.’ ‘Brings to life … the planning and execution of the largest amphibious landing which the world has ever seen … My grandfather… would have been most impressed by this detailed research’. ‘I would like to congratulate ... Andrew Whitmarsh ... for producing this record in such detail of perhaps one of the greatest days in our history. Early in the war we realised that transferring troops and equipment from sea to shore would be difficult but MUST succeed. D-Day was like no other and I was privileged to play a small part in that most memorable day. It was an honour that I shall never forget. We did have to pay a high price and many young lives were lost on that day, but we will remember them.’ ‘Andrew Whitmarsh’s D-Day Landing Craft is an essential contribution to the history of the Second World War and especially of the Cross-Channel Invasion. American readers in particular will find the discussions of Utah and Omaha Beaches enlightening, as well as the glimpse into the American industrial capacity that could produce such an armada. … We can’t fully know D-Day without an understanding of the role of landing craft; with this excellent book we gain a much fuller picture of how the invasion succeeded.’ ‘As surviving veterans of WWII become fewer there is a ticking clock to tell their stories. That’s what I do, and this book helps to get the stories historically accurate. … It is for every writer of military history, every junkie of military planning and execution and every family who had a loved one that participated in the invasion. … Finding a family member's unit, on a ship, at a beach, on a day and hour tells so much more of their story. That’s where this book will be valued most.’ ‘D-Day Landing Craft is an epic tale that explores not only the creation of all the different landing craft used by the Allies in the invasion of Normandy, but it also takes a deep dive into how the creation became possible. It also uniquely explores how each of those different landing craft contributed to ultimate victory on each of the five D-Day landing beaches. Whitmarsh's level of research in putting this story together is as staggering as it is impressive. It was only because of those "ugly and unorthodox" landing craft that the Allies were able to win the Second World War. By the ending, one thing stands out above all else to the reader: this masterpiece of a book is truly something special. This will no doubt be used as a valuable resource for WWII historians for generations to come.’