Edited by Destroyer History Foundation from Naval Historical Center photo 88-199-ER.
“Destroyer Gunners ‘Get the Word’” by Dwight Shepler #144, 1944: watercolor. The great moment has come for these men two days before D-Day, when a destroyer gunnery officer briefs his gun director crews and main battery gunners. In a sealed ship, the secret was unfolded along with exhaustive maps, drawings and photographs of bombardment targets. The men had to know their objectives well, for there would be no time for error when they came into point-blank range off the Normandy coast in the gathering light of D-Day’s early morning.