Letter written by Lieutenant (Torpedo) Officer R MacNab from the cruiser HMS Glasgow describing the landings on Omaha Beach, 6 June 1944

Omaha was the most heavily defended of all the invasion beaches. The massive Allied aerial and naval bombardments were largely ineffective here and the American troops faced stiff resistance from the experienced German 352nd Infantry Division. In many of the US rifle companies casualties exceeded 50%, but by the evening of D-Day the American soldiers were firmly ashore.

Ms letter (10pp) written to his parents and covering the period 14 - 21 June 1944, begun just over a week after D-Day and written entirely at his action station as Torpedo Officer in the cruiser HMS GLASGOW since January 1944, relating to his experiences since they received their final orders for the Normandy landings and including particularly impressive descriptions of the assembly of the invasion fleet - "a weird Armada, but we had all confidence in it" - of the naval and air bombardment of German strongpoints on 6 June, when GLASGOW was the only British ship with an American squadron off Omaha Beach, and of the appearance of the Normandy countryside after the landings. There are also interesting comments on the efficiency of Allied intelligence and on how the reality of the invasion, in which GLASGOW had not played a very active part since 6 June, had differed from his expectations.