HNLMS Soemba needed reliable 5.9-inch guns for shore bombardment during Operation Overlord, but one weapon repeatedly failed. An unusually playful chain of rhyming Admiralty minutes follows the problem through operations, plans, gunnery, dockyards, and senior officers. The humor does not obscure the operational requirement: a bombardment ship had to deliver all of its guns on the invasion day. The correspondence also shows how an allied Dutch vessel moved through British repair and planning systems before a combined operation. Soemba ultimately received replacement guns, preserving both her fire-support value and Dutch morale.
Notable Point · 1:08:09-1:13:39
HNLMS Soemba's guns for Operation Overlord
A chain of rhyming Admiralty minutes records the practical struggle to replace Soemba's defective gun before her D-Day bombardment mission.