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April 1944

All leave cancelled for troops destined for Overlord. Eighteen Allied air forces begin pre-invasion bombing of France. US 9th Air Force begins bombing targets in the Pas-de-Calais, railway marshalling yards and important bridges. ACM Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory remarks that the US 9th Air Force is by far the most effective force in knocking out these types of target. (From the beginning of May, the 9th dispatches more than a thousand aircraft each day, weather permitting, against targets in Normandy and the Pas-de-Calais).

10 April 1944

Naval Commander in Chief, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, responsible for Neptune, issues orders for the naval involvement on D-Day. The document stretches to 1,100 pages.

22–29 April 1944

Operation Tiger, realistic US rehearsal for Overlord at Slapton Sands between Plymouth and Dartmouth. On the night of 27/28 April two German E-boats in the English Channel find eight LSTs, sink two and damage others, and kill 441 soldiers and 197 sailors.

An Army Field Kitchen Unit is driven onto LST 506 of Force B that loaded at Falmouth and Plymouth and arrived in the Western Task Force area on 6/7 June.

National Archives