Lecture | Operation Neptune: Blitzkrieg From The Sea

Thursday 9th May
6.30pm-8.00pm

I count on every man to do his utmost to ensure the success of this great enterprise which is the climax of the European war. Good luck to you all and Godspeed. – Admiral B. H. Ramsay, Allied Naval C-in-C, 4 June 1944.

Dr Jeffrey’s lecture will follow Operation Neptune, the seaborne element of the D-Day invasion, from the start of planning in May 1942 to the landings two years later. He will chart some of the hard-won lessons learned as the Allies secured their first lodgements in North Africa and the Mediterranean and include an account of the seminal ‘Rattle’ conference of 1943, which brought much-needed coherence to Allied planning.

The lecture will chart the eleven months of feverish activity that followed the Rattle conference as, in the face of often strident demands from other theatres of operations, Allied naval planners led by Admiral Bertram Ramsay created and marshalled the vast armada of over 7,000 vessels required to land five divisions on a fifty-mile front.

Dr Jeffrey will detail some of training, often in Scotland, of vital elements of the invasion force ranging from landing craft personnel to the elite Royal Navy Beach Commandos and will highlight some of the intelligence gathering, minesweeping efforts and technical innovations that contributed to the success of the landings.

Dr Andrew Jeffrey has a history Ph.D. from St Andrews University. He has written extensively on military and maritime history and his published work includes a trilogy on Scotland’s role in the Second World War.  Media work has included British, Dutch and French documentaries. He recently completed a museum consultancy at Dundee’s McManus Galleries and is working with the Dutch Navy in their search for the submarine O-13 lost in 1940.

A former Royal Navy reservist and RNLI lifeboatman, Dr Jeffrey led the Dundee International Submarine Memorial project to completion in 2009. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064563436799

Dr Jeffrey’s latest book, A Taste for Treason: The letter that Smashed a Nazi Spy Ring, was published in 2022. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Taste-Treason-Letter-That-Smashed/dp/1780277881

6.30pm Drinks Reception (Drink included in ticket price), 7.00pm Lecture Commences

£11 non members | £9 Friends

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Why not Stay for a post lecture supper in the Castle Bistro (See menu)