Operation Neptune - Assembly in the Solent

I’ve been reading Normandy The Sailors’ Story by Nick Hewitt. On pages 130-133 there is a map of ‘Final assembly anchorages in the Solent, June 1944’. Over an area of sea between Lymington and Portsmouth it shows roughly 400 symbols, each corresponding to a certain vessel and showing her ‘final assembly anchorage’. The majority of the vessels are named (eg Royal Ulsterman, Prince David, Scarborough etc), but some are not (eg a group of six landing craft together, a group of seven minesweepers together).

I could have done with some explication of this map by the author. I worked out for myself that the vessels on the map made up Assault Forces G and J (thus two out of Neptune’s five Assault Forces, so roughly 40 percent of the whole armada). If so, they must all have come out into the Solent from Portsmouth or Southampton or nearby places (such as Gosport).

The map seems to imply something interesting that was new to me. I had always understood that most of the Overlord vessels left their departure points and (following a carefully made schedule, of course) simply went straight to a great meeting of most of the armada at the point named Piccadilly Circus in the Channel south-east of the Isle of Wight. But the map in the book shows each of the vessels of Forces G and J being assigned her own unique place in the Solent where she was to anchor before setting out beyond the Isle of Wight. This seems to imply that there was a moment of time (probably not a long period, but still at least a moment) in the night of 5/6 June when all the many hundreds of vessels making up Forces G and J were stationary - assembled together at anchor in the Solent. Only after that did they set out for Piccadilly Circus - the Force-G vessels going to the west of the Isle of Wight and the Force J vessels to the east. At Piccadilly Circus they met up with Forces S and O.

I had never heard of such an assembly in the Solent before, so I’m hoping that someone familiar with Overlord can comment on it. For that it probably isn't really necessary to see the map.

 

Solent? Isn't that where Mr. Midshipman Hornblower got seasick?

 

This chart is Neptune Plan 2 from ADM 234/366-367 Battle Summary No. 39 - Operation "NEPTUNE", Landings in Normandy June, 1944 (1947).

It shows the allocation of the Pre-Sailing Berths to ships and craft of the three Assault Forces "S", "J" and "G" of the Eastern Naval Task Force.

Quoting from the ONEAST/G orders:

PROGRAMME FOR MOVEMENT FROM ASSEMBLY BERTHS TO PRE-SAILING BERTHS​

Prior to the commencement of the loading programme (given in Appendix "A" to this order) ships and craft will be in their Assembly Berths as outlined in G.A.B.O.'s and arranged in detail by Assault Group Commanders and Senior Officer Support Group.

2. Ships and craft who load on, or before, D - 3 are to return to these Assembly Berths on completion of loading.

3. On D - 2 ships and craft will take up Pre-Sailing Berths, given in Appendix "C" to this order, in readiness to proceed for the operation on D - 1.

4. Ships and craft not already in these Pre-Sailing Berths which are in some cases identically the same as assembly berths, are therefore to take them up on D - 2 as follows:-
(...)​

In summary, ships and craft were first to take up their assigned Assembly Berths, then load up, then take up their Pre-Sailing Berths, either directly from the point of loading or via their Assembly Berths.

As noted in the above extract, the Assembly Berths and Pre-Sailing Berths could be the same, or might be different.

An example of the detailed allocation of Pre-Sailing Berths may be found in this thread.

Michel