Operation NEPTUNE was the codeword for the naval side of the OVERLORD plan for the historic June 1944 landings in Normandy. Massive in its scale, its tasks were wide-ranging and varied, from beach reconnaissance, minesweeping, shore bombardment as well as the organisation of loading, assembly and disembarkation; it was also responsible for positioning two 'Mulberry' artificial harbours and 'Pluto': the laying of the cross-channel fuel pipeline under the sea. Operation NEPTUNE may not have been a naval battle in the traditional sense, but it ranks as one of the greatest naval exploits in history. In this timeless book, Vice Admiral Schofield describes the great events of June 1944 which, as Captain of HMS Dryad, the Royal Naval shore establishment which housed General Dwight Eisenhower's Supreme Allied Headquarters before the landing, he witnessed at first hand. AUTHOR Vice-Admiral B B Schofield CH, BE (1895-1984) began his naval career at the Royal Naval Colleges of Osborne and Dartmouth. As a midshipman during the First World War , he saw action at Dogger Bank. At the outbreak of the Second World War he was Naval Attache at the Hague and Brussells and Assistant to the Naval Attache in Paris. In 1944 he was appointed Captain of HMS Dryad, the Navigation School at Southwick House, which became the headquarters for planning the invasion of Normandy. Towards the end of the Pacific War he took command of HMS King George V, a position which he held until 1946. In 1948 he was appointed Chief of Staff to the Head of the British Joint Services Mission in Washington. He has written The Russian Convoys, British Seapower and the Loss of the Bismark.
