Читать книгу Remembering D-day: Personal Histories of Everyday Heroes - Martin Bowman - Страница 9

Director of Movements for Continental Operations October 1943–June 1944.

‘Broadly, the requirements for the coastline and hinterland where the huge embarkation operation was to take place, were: no tide, so that loading at the hards or ramps could take place 24 hours out of 24 and hinterland which was hard and flat, with good road access or surface with no need for road building or improvement, with loading points where one wanted them and not dictated by inland access. The hinterland also needed to be suitable for construction of embarkation camps, with marshalling camps behind them where men and vehicles were to get into their craft loads and – further back – concentration areas to which units were to proceed from their home stations. Good road access from one to another was imperative. Added to that, good depth of water at loading points was essential, so that craft could load without danger.

‘North Africa for the Sicily landings was perfect: no tide, no road problems on the hard sand, and camps and areas could be established precisely where required. England, on the other hand, could not have been worse. The change of tide around our shores is so great (24 feet each 24 hours), our coastline is intricate and deep water rarely lies close in. Also, the coastal roads and lanes are so winding and the country inland from the coast so enclosed for creating camps or areas, which could feed from one to the other . . . The operation, which could have been mounted on 15–20 miles of the African coast, was spread from Yarmouth to Milford Haven . . . spreading well over 1,000 miles with its estuaries and inlets. Even with the large number of embarkation points the loading of vehicles for the assault and follow-up had to begin six days before D-Day . . . D-Day was not only the greatest combined operation ever undertaken: it was the greatest that ever will be.’