Merchantmen at Normandy

At low water on the grey dawn of the 6 June 1944 the greatest invasion force ever assembled lay off the Normandy coast. Among them were thirty six Infantry Landing Ships manned by the British Merchant Navy. During that morning they landed forty thousand soldiers, at all five beaches. They then returned to the south coast of England to reload and continued to ferry troops throughout Operation Neptune and beyond. That evening the first convoy of civilian coasters arrived; these small ships brought fuel, ammunition and more men. The next morning the Liberty ships, both British and American, came with vehicles, fuel and even more troops. Then the hospital carriers and salvage ships joined, as did more and more coasters, and so the build-up continued. Roy Martin describes this vital, but largely forgotten, part of the landings. He explains how the planning involved other civilian organisations and how the various types of ships evolved. He shows how the press correspondents reported the landings and how some of the crews remembered their involvement.
About the Author: Roy Martin joined the Merchant Navy in 1953, serving his four year apprenticeship on cargo ships. He then spent five years on the Baltic trade, gaining his Masters Certificate in 1962. From 1964 he was Chief Officer/Navigator of Risdon Beazley's recovery vessel Droxford, there he developed his interest in research. After gaining further experience he joined the Risdon Beazley management team, where his first job was to get salvage equipment to Brunel's Great Britain in the Falklands. By 1975 he was General Manager of the company, now a subsidiary of the Smit group; they transferred him to manage their Asian company in 1979. Having built that company into a World class salvor, he left Singapore in 1986 to resume recovery work with Lyle Craigie-Halkett. They found a Southern Sung wreck (Nan Hai No 1) off the Chinese coast and undertook a two year environmental clean-up of the whaling stations in South Georgia. Again with Lyle Craigie-Halkett he wrote, and self-published, Risdon Beazley, Marine Salvor. This book is now available through Amazon. He then wrote Ebb and Flow, Evacuations and Landings by Merchant Ships in World War Two. This was modified and republished as Merchantmen in Action. His next book told the largely unknown story of The Suffolk Golding Mission; when a team of four saved scientists, heavy water, diamonds and machine tools from the advancing Germans. He lives near Southampton with his wife, June; they have two children and five grown-up grandchildren.