How were the huge risks involved in D-Day overcome, and if the D-Day landings had not succeeded, what kind of a Europe would have prevailed?
BBC Radio 4, 1 June, 2004
A few years ago I had the opportunity to cruise down the Dart river in Devon. At a bend in the river, still several miles inland from the town of Dartmouth, the tour guide announced that our boat had reached the beginning of the staging point for the American landing crafts that would carry troops and supplies to one of the Normandy beaches and described how the river from that point to its mouth was completely choked with traffic on DDay morning. Apparently it took something like 5 days to clear everything out of the river. The guide went on to make the point that this was only one of dozens of similar staging areas that were scattered all over the country. An incredible exercise in logistics and coordination.
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