Some testimonials about the book “D-Day Landing Craft”:
“This is a superb book about a subject which for eighty years has consistently failed to receive the focused attention that it deserves. Andrew Whitmarsh has produced a meticulously researched narrative that combines stories of personal sacrifice, bravery and achievement with a rigorous study of the development and use of the amphibious assault force that played such a fundamental role in the success of the D-Day landings. His text is a model of clear expression and coherent organisation. Finally, decades after the events of 6 June 1944, the men and women who built, maintained, and crewed the vessels without which the Allied invasion of Normandy could not have taken place have found their author. In short, this is one of the best books about D-Day to appear in recent years: it deserves to be very widely read.”
Dr Simon Trew (former head of the Department of War Studies, The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst)
“This is an excellent account of the amphibious fleet regarding the D-Day landings… Great detail, good depth, along with technical details make this work a must for anyone interested in this subject.”
John M. Curatola LtCol USMC (Ret), PhD, Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian, National World War II Museum, New Orleans
“This is a marvellous book. The research is very thorough and it will answer all my questions.”
Normandy veteran Richard Willis, 1st lieutenant on LCT 898 on D-Day
“Without sufficient landing craft, no D-Day; without D-Day, no victory in Europe. Extremely detailed planning was required in order to succeed in landing a mobile force able to defeat a static, land-based force. A key element was the procurement and production of sufficient landing craft, coupled with crew training. Andrew Whitmarsh’s 464 page work brings to life, with extremely detailed research (a Bibliography of over 10 pages, and Notes of nearly 50 pages), the planning and execution of the largest amphibious landing which the world has ever seen, and will ever see. My grandfather, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Allied Naval Commander for D-Day, would have been most impressed by this detailed research. His Operation Neptune Naval Orders for D-Day was only slightly only longer at 512 pages.”
Captain Will Ramsay, grandson of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Allied Naval Commander, Expeditionary Force
“I would like to congratulate the author… for producing this record in such detail of perhaps one of the greatest days in our history … D-Day was like no other and I was privileged to play a small part in that most memorable day … We did have to pay a high price and many young lives were lost on that day, but we will remember them.”
Normandy veteran Howard R. Wilkes, leading telegraphist on LCF 25 on D-Day
The book “uniquely brings together, in one place, hard to find information about the history of landing craft from conception to delivery and the myriad of constructional and organisational processes in between. By itself that is quite an achievement but, uniquely in my experience, the narrative includes observations from the veterans who manned the craft. The Bibliography and Sources lists will be a boon to those undertaking additional research.”
Geoff Slee, combinedops.com (the website dedicated to those who served in or alongside the Combined Operations Command, including British landing craft crews).
‘Andrew Whitmarsh’s “D-Day Landing Craft” is an essential contribution to the history of the Second World War and especially of the Cross-Channel Invasion. American readers in particular will find the discussions of Utah and Omaha Beaches enlightening, as well as the glimpse into the American industrial capacity that could produce such an armada. … We can’t fully know D-Day without an understanding of the role of landing craft; with this excellent book we gain a much fuller picture of how the invasion succeeded.’
John D. Long, Director of Education, National D-Day Memorial, Bedford, Virginia.
“On D-Day itself … we moved from the River Dart to an assembly point off the Isle of Wight. I was struck by the calm, just before sunrise the words of the American National Anthem came to me, ‘by the dawn’s early light’. As we sailed in convoy, I wondered what the rest of the day would bring in fact, I didn’t have time to be scared, I was far too busy receiving and transmitting signal communications. [This book is] …a detailed and descriptive account of the vessels and the events of D-Day. For those who took part, memories are refreshed. For those researching or interested in the events of D-Day and the concept/introduction of the landing craft, the facts accurate and are presented in an accessible, informative way.”
Normandy veteran George Carpenter, signalman on LCT 974 at on D-Day
‘As surviving veterans of WWII become fewer there is a ticking clock to tell their stories. That’s what I do, and this book helps to get the stories historically accurate. … It is for every writer of military history, every junkie of military planning and execution and every family who had a loved one that participated in the invasion. … Finding a family member’s unit, on a ship, at a beach, on a day and hour tells so much more of their story. That’s where this book will be valued most.’
Jeff Veesenmeyer, editor of Elsie Item, newsletter of the USS Landing Craft Infantry National Association
‘D-Day Landing Craft is an epic tale that explores not only the creation of all the different landing craft used by the Allies in the invasion of Normandy, but it also takes a deep dive into how the creation became possible. It also uniquely explores how each of those different landing craft contributed to ultimate victory on each of the five D-Day landing beaches. Whitmarsh’s level of research in putting this story together is as staggering as it is impressive. It was only because of those “ugly and unorthodox” landing craft that the Allies were able to win the Second World War. By the ending, one thing stands out above all else to the reader: this masterpiece of a book is truly something special. This will no doubt be used as a valuable resource for WWII historians for generations to come.’
Zach Morris, Editor in Chief, LST Scuttlebutt Magazine, U.S. Landing Ship Tank Association, and Author of When the Beaches Trembled
The author is grateful to everyone who has provided these testimonials.