With the 60th anniversary of D-Day being commemorated this year, the crucial role of the UKHO prior to the dramatic events of June 1944 is being remembered with a folio of five replica D-Day landing maps. His Majesty’s Forces required a variety of sea charts and coastal diagrams for D-Day and the Admiralty tasked one of its departments, the Hydrographic Office, with gathering the appropriate information, drawing the charts and maps, printing and then issuing them to the Fleet for operational use. A series of ‘Special Charts’, including these top secret maps, as well as charts of our minefields, wreck charts and enemy minefields were drawn by the cartographers at the Hydrographic Office to ensure that the British and Allied warships and merchant ships could navigate safely. Accurate and up-to-date intelligence was essential to the success of the planned assault on the Normandy beaches, and the information shown on these maps had to be gathered without a hint of interest in the area being disclosed. Hydrographic surveyors were sent by the Admiralty to make rapid reconnaissance surveys of the coast under the cover of darkness, though at the time they were kept blissfully unaware of the significance of their work. In August 1943 a special covert unit was set up to gather this information – codenamed Operation Neptune. Based at Cowes on the Isle of Wight, two hydrographic surveyors, Lieutenant Commander Berncastle and Lieutenant Glen, were issued with two 32-foot Landing Craft in which to operate. The low profile of these vessels made them difficult to detect by German radar and canoes were used when daring landings on the beaches were required. The surveying could only take place under certain conditions - when there was no moon and a high tide during the small hours. On dark nights the craft were towed halfway across the Channel (to save fuel, as there was little storage space on board) then motored quietly the rest of the way using silenced engines and underwater exhausts. The surveyors would begin their work just before midnight and were under strict instructions to leave the French coast by 04:00 hours to meet up with the gun boat and be towed back to safety. The Top Secret information they gathered was added to the charts and landing maps by draughtsmen at the Hydrographic Office. After D-Day the surveyors continued their work along the coast to ensure the ports and beaches were well surveyed for potential dangers to the following Fleet. New charts of Mulberry ‘B’ were issued showing the positions of the Phoenix units placed to form the port, as well as the new wrecks of landing craft where six weeks before the area had been littered with German sea defences. Lieutenant Berncastle has written an account of the activities of the survey flotilla, with the purpose of explaining the whole story to other members of the surveying parties involved 60 years ago, as they had all purposely been kept in the dark in more ways than one! There was even a suggestion at one point to disperse the whole flotilla to Iceland when the work was complete so that they would be well away from the enemy and it would be less dangerous if anybody talked – though to their credit nobody did. The missions to the French coast were carried out without major injury or attack, even though they were spotted one night, and flares were sent up by the Germans who must have heard noises from the off-shore activity. The only injury happened when someone burnt himself on the tinned self-heating soup which was supplied to sustain the men on the long dark nights at sea. Priced at £18.99 contact Helen Breeze at D-Day.charts@ukho.gov.uk for full details of where and how to purchase.
If anyone is interested in these maps (set of 5) the retail is £18.99 for the pack. I can do these for £14.99 plus P&P as a reseller. Thanks Ryan
