Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Neptune comes ashore
ENGLISH CHANNEL, 1944
The stark simplicity of this map belies the complexity of the military operation that lay be-
hind it. This was the Allied plan to cross the English Channel and land in Normandy on D-
Day, 6 June 1944. Codenamed Operation Neptune in an allusion to the Roman god of the sea,
it formed the first step in the invasion of German-occupied France. The detail of the map is
stripped back to a degree that allows the essential features of the venture to be seen clearly.
Apparently extraneous pieces of information, such as place-names some distance from the
focal area, serve the function of orienting the reader more quickly than a bare outline of the
coast.
