Normandy
The Sailors' Story:
A Naval History of D-Day and the Normandy Campaign
Nick Hewitt
Cambridge, MA, USA: Yale University Press, 2024
Paperback 400pp RRP: $36.99
Reviewer: Michael Arnold, February 2025
Nick Hewitt is a British Naval Historian who was formerly Head of Collections and Research at the National Museum of the Royal Navy. Normandy – The Sailors’ Story is his fourth work on World War Two naval history. The book is an account of the Royal, US and other allied Navies’ vital and, as the author states, overlooked contribution to the Battle of Seine Bay, that is, the lead up and execution of the Normandy Landings; and the follow-up operations. The Battle of Seine Bay commenced with Operation Neptune, which was the naval support to the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944. It involved 7000 ships and nearly 200,000 sailors and it effectively concluded in late September 1944.
The book is a monumental work incorporating maps; orders of battle and other graphics; and photographic images, which show the incredible complexity and magnitude of the operation, while portraying the human cost. It is superb narrative that weaves the perspectives and memories of Battle of Seine Bay participants, including junior officers, NCOs and ordinary sailors into a comprehensive portrait of the planning, training, preliminary operations, execution of the naval aspects of the Normandy landings, and the herculean follow up operations.
Normandy – The Sailors’ Story is structured to reflect the sequences of events that led up to the allied invasion of France including attaining control of the English Channel, the planning, intelligence and deception operations, the massive task of assembling the armada, finding sufficient sailors and their comprehensive training, including the highly dangerous but vital landing rehearsals. It moves onto the immediate build-up to the landings, including the fraught decision-making regarding the marginal weather in early June 1944; the challenge of the crossing the Channel; and the naval action at the landing beaches of Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Hewitt lampoons many of the current myths, in particular, a number of those regarding Omaha, fostered by works of fiction and Hollywood films, most notably Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. He states that these narratives almost totally preclude the heroic efforts of sailors, both American and British, noting that naval bombardment was key in ensuring success at Omaha, Sword and the other beaches. The book also overviews the Normandy beachhead build-up, the incredible logistics effort to both sustain it and enable the consequent breakout and advance. Hewitt also details the extraordinary but ultimately doomed efforts of the German naval forces to interdict and disrupt the allied efforts.
I learned that much of the credit for the success at Normandy belongs to the senior allied naval commander, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, RN, a largely forgotten figure deserving of much greater recognition. It is clear Ramsay was a supremely gifted commander, meticulous planner and imaginative tactician and strategist, who more than delivered for Eisenhower and his senior army commanders. Ramsay did not get to write a memoir post the war as he was killed when his aircraft crashed on take-off as it was setting off from an airfield near Paris on 2 January 1945.
Hewitt’s writing style is engaging, precise and easy to comprehend. The book demonstrates extensive research and a mastery of the subject matter. I highly recommend this book as it fills an important gap in the historical analysis of the Second World War. I believe it would appeal to all readers of military history and not just those with a predilection for naval matters.
The RUSI – Vic Library is most grateful to the publisher for making this work available for review.
