The Great Adventure
Operation Neptune. By Commander Kenneth Edwards, R.N. (Collins 12s. 6d.) OPERATION Neptune was the title given to the naval section of the Normandy Invasion, and Commander Edwards has written a most excellent and complete record of the undertaking from start to finish. The first third of the book deals with the preliminary planning from its very earliest stages, and is, perhaps, the most interesting part. Much information has already been disclosed about the actual course of events since D-Day, and although it is here brought together and put into order, the remaining sections of the book lack the additional advantage of being entirely fresh material.
The description of the problems of planning, besides being really well done, contains much that is new ; it emphasises the magnitude of this task by reference, one after another, to some of the many contingencies that had to be foreseen and allowed for. Commander Edwards discusses the difficulties and their solutions, and gives you the satisfying (but wholly illusory) feeling that, at a pinch you know enough about it now to do it yourself next time. This book told me more about the planning stages of the Normandy Invasion than I learnt in six weeks on the staff at Supreme Headquarters at the time of D-Day ; which is a tribute both to the lengths the author has gone to obtain and set out his facts, and to the degree of security maintained within Shaef itself, whereby I was told no more than it was good for me to know.
This full description of the planning and organisation has not been made at the expense of, interest, which is held throughout ; in truth, even in a hundrefl pages, a good pace is needed to cover the whole story, and the author really pauses to go deep into the details. The book is restricted in scope to the naval side of the invasion, and this inevitably makes it seem a little out of balance in places. Also, it has been extended- to carry the story up to VE-Day by including the capture and clearing of the ports, the Walcheren land- ing, the naval operations along the Army's left flank and the crossing of the Rhine.
On the day of the invasion and those immediately following it there were so many things of importance all happening simultaneously over hundreds of square miles of water and in thousands of vessels of every kind, that the problem of describing it adequately is in- superable. To deal with each aspect separately quite destroys the reality and the sense of everything happening at once ; equally, to jump hither and thither, trying to mention a hundred things at the same time, leads to chaos and confusion—and Operation Neptune was never that, except, perhaps, for the three days of the great gale. Commander Edwards has adopted the former method, dealing with each thread in turn and completing it before returning to take up the next. This was the proper decision, since his intention is to give a sober presentation of the facts rather than a vivid impression of the scene. If it makes his account seem a little leisurely for those hectic first few days, the mass effect gives a real insight into the vastness of the enterprise. There are many things that could be picked out of the book as specially worth mentioning—the story of the Mulberry harbours, particularly—but all of it is excellent ; it will not easily be surpassed as a historical record. The author has usually been content to give the facts with some explanation but few comments ; indeed, there is little need for interpretation as they speak for themselves. He does stress the point, however, that shipping was the limiting factor in the scale of the invasion, and that the Germans realised their most effective defence would not be on the beaches, but in the open sea during the months before the assault. The failure of the U-boat campaign, in spite of all efforts to intensify it, made the landings possible. Some good illustrations, an index and a synopsis of each chapter make this book a standard work of reference on the
Previous page
