Our task in conjunction with the Merchant Navies of the United Nations, and supported by the Allied Air Forces, is to carry the Allied Expeditionary Force to the Continent, to establish it there in a secure bridgehead and to build it up and maintain it at a rate which will outmatch that of the enemy. Let no one underestimate the magnitude of this task.

Special Order of the Day, 31 May 1944 by Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay KCB, KBE, MVO, Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief, Operation Neptune