7pm – 8pm Thursday 8 May (Doors Open 5.30pm)
Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine Harbourside
The Scottish Maritime Museum on Irvine Harbourside will host a special VE Day talk by author Nick Hewitt at 7pm on Thursday 8 May.
The hour long talk, which will focus on Scotland’s significant contribution to D-Day the year prior, will conclude in time for guests to join the VE Day Parade which will depart the Museum at 8pm and travel to Irvine beachfront.
Nick will draw on his book Normandy - The Sailors’ Story: A Naval History of D-Day and the Battle for France. The book, which is the first account of sailors’ experiences during the Normandy campaign and their vital contribution to Allied victory, was featured in the ‘Best History Books of 2024’ lists in the Daily Telegraph and Britain at War and is currently shortlisted for Military History Matters Book of the Year.
A naval historian, who currently works for Orkney Islands Council, Nick will bring to life the story of Operation Neptune, the complex naval campaign which ensured the success of D-Day.
During the talk, he will debunk the belief that the preparations for Operation Neptune took place solely on England’s south coast. He will show how, to the contrary, the UK turned into a vast armed camp incorporating bases, dockyards, anchorages and harbours, supply and maintenance depots, training and accommodation camps and much of this infrastructure was in Scotland. Scotland’s mixed terrain was used in particular for personnel training, invasion rehearsals and bombardment training along with harbourage at Scapa Flow and along the River Clyde.
Announcing the talk, Christopher Woodland, Commercial Manager at the Scottish Maritime Museum, says:
“We’re thrilled to welcome Nick Hewitt to the Museum. He is a seasoned and riveting speaker who has appeared on Dan Snow’s History Hit, BBC’s HistoryExtra and many podcasts.
“We are particularly delighted to host Nick’s talk on the 80th Anniversary of VE Day. His book, which features personal accounts and after-action reports, is comprehensively researched and fascinating. His talk will give visitors a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in what happened on D-Day before joining the celebratory VE Day Parade which leaves from the Museum Courtyard.”
Nick Hewitt adds:
“Operation Neptune, the assault landing phase of Operation Overlord, the Allied liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe in June 1944 - better known as ‘D-Day’ - was arguably the largest, most complex and most challenging military operation in history, requiring extraordinary levels of planning and preparation, and enormous resources.
“There are many misconceptions about Operation Neptune though. One of them concerns the role of the Allied navies and the importance of sailors to the overall victory in Normandy, which is why I wrote this book - Sailors are almost entirely absent from most popular literature on the subject.
“Another misconception concerns the preparation for Operation Neptune. When we think of D-Day, we tend to think of fleets of landing craft setting off from the south coast of England, but the reality was that the operation was far too big to be confined to this relatively small and congested strip of land, and it was only the relatively short-ranged assault shipping which set off from there. In reality, much of the infrastructure, harbourage and training took place across Scotland.”
Nick was formerly head of collections and research at the National Museum of the Royal Navy. He is also the author of ‘Firing on Fortress Europe’, ‘Coastal Convoys’ and ‘The Kaiser’s Pirates’.
Tickets for the talk are priced £4.
Nick Hewitt’s book Normandy - The Sailors’ Story: A Naval History of D-Day and the Battle for France will be available at the talk priced £10, a saving of £2.99 on the recommended retail price and can be pre-ordered.