The Map Room at Southwick House in Portsmouth was where Allied Supreme Commander General Eisenhower and General Montgomery spent much of early 1944 planning for D-Day. The walls of the Map Room were hung with huge maps of the English Channel. Maps that are still in place in the Map Room at Southwick House to this day.
In particular one wall of the Map Room is covered by a very large map of southern England and the west coast of Europe - including Normandy. On this map each of the landing beaches (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword), are clearly marked as well as the routes that the Royal Navy ships would take across the English Channel after mine-sweeping ships had successfully cleared safe routes.
Richard Osgood, Senior Archaeologist at the Military of Defence says that the map played a key role in the preparations for the Normandy Landings, “D-Day was a massive event, it changed history. And all of it was meticulously planned on this very map. That’s how important this map truly was, and still is today.”
The National Museum of the Royal Navy has now released an impressive interactive presentation which allows you to explore the map in detail. The D-Day Map - Operation Neptune is not only an interactive online version of the huge D-Day wall map at Southwick House, it is also as part of a chronological guide to the planning, preparation, operation and outcomes of D-Day itself.
The map is part of a guided history of D-Day and is used to explain how the Allies planned and prepared for the massive Operation Neptune. During this guided history of D-Day little model ships and planes are animated on the map to help explain troop movements, landings and the other important events of Operation Neptune.
Via: Webcurios
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