Biographical Note
Royal Lovell
Royal Lovell was born in 1903 in Fargo, North Dakota. He attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and served in various Pacific Ocean postings throughout the inter-war period. During World War II, he served briefly in Samoa before being sent to Norfolk, Virginia to train for Landing Ship, Tank (LST) amphibious operations. In 1944, he served with distinction as part of the Operation Neptune landings at Normandy, France, as Lieutenant Commander of LST Group 50. He was eventually promoted to Commander and earned the Legion of Merit and the Croix de Guerre for his part in the landings. Commander Lovell died in 1985.
Operation Neptune
Operation Neptune is the name given to the naval component of Operation Overlord, the combined land, air, and sea invasion of northern Europe by Allied forces via Normandy, France. Operation Neptune was a feat of naval logistics and coordination that transported and supported the men and matériel that carried out the invasion. 6,939 ships participated in the landings as part of Operation Neptune, of which 80 percent were British, 16.5 percent American, and the rest from a mix of other Allies. Over 1,200 combat ships, 4,126 landing ships/crafts, and more than 1,000 other vessels manned by over 195,000 naval personnel from eight different Allied countries coordinated the landing of over 132,000 men and their supplies on Normandy's beaches during Operation Neptune.
Royal Lovell, the compiler of this archive, commanded a group of Landing Ship, Tank vessels to resupply sectors of Juno beach in the later waves of troops in the evening of June 6.