Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

D-Day/Operation Neptune interest: two hand-drawn charts: the first covering the English Channel between the Straights of Dover and Dartmouth/Les Sept Iles (including the area of the invasion beaches) showing radar stations on both sides and marked in red and green ink with their zones of coverage, marked "TRACING FROM CHARTS F.0346, F.0347, F.0348 / D.C.P. WARD W.R.N.S. PORTSMOUTH JUNE 1944", 107 x 97 cm; the second covering The Solent and Southampton Water and marked with the positions of landing craft and other vessels, entitled inter alia "KEY DIAGRAM (TRACING FROM CHART No 2045)" and "State at 1400 D - 1", partial label verso ("Commander Branson" ?) 73 x 57 cm. [2]

Operation Neptune was the official code name for what is today remembered as the Normandy Landings of June the 6th 1944. Neptune was the main offensive component of the overarching strategy named Operation Overlord. The Normandy Landings, which will have their 81st anniversary in the week of this auction, involved an immense logistical effort on the part of the Royal Navy. This lot offers the buyer an original relic of those momentous days, as well as a direct insight into the planning involved.