09 September 2024, Starts: 19:30

 From Black Isle to Normandy

Online talk by Richard Jenner

Organised by Fortrose and Rosemarkie Local History Society. membership if £5 / year. Visitors can join but must register beforehand. For details see their website

Richard will follow the work-up of naval Force S in the Inverness & Moray Firth before the D-Day landings on Sword Beach in 1944. Kept secret at the time were a series of exercises designed to prepare troops for the D-Day landings in Normandy. It had been found that the coastline, beaches and road structure from Nairn to Burghead were similar to those at Ouistreham in Normandy, sometimes also referred to as Sword beach. The exercises involved driving tanks across the Black Isle to Fortrose where they were loaded onto amphibious craft moored to buoys on the Ness of Fortrose before sailing across the Moray Firth.