Fulfilling her role of heavyweight bombardment reserve, the battleship HMS Rodney trailed behind the first wave of invasion shipping. She was to hang back during D-Day and conduct a bombardment only if called in by assault force commanders.
The Germans had laid extensive minefields off the Normandy coast and channels had been swept clear at both the eastern and western ends of the invasion front. HMS Rodney ended up entering the eastern swept channel, heading for Sword sector.
HMS Rodney at sea
The 16-inch gun-armed British battleship HMS Rodney in her distinctive late WW2 paint scheme, around the time of the invasion of Normandy. Midshipman Roger Morris was closed up in the port fore director and watched the bombardment unfold.
Junior rating Allan Snowden, working on the upper deck, was thunderstruck, thinking the sheer volume of noise and the blast of the guns was incredible. A convoy of landing vessels sails across the English Channel toward the invasion beaches on D-Day, June 6, 1944.