Two years after the Battle of Midway changed the course of the war in the Pacific, the Allies were ready to change the course of the war in Europe. Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Europe was about to get underway, but first they had to get there. While the Germans knew the invasion was coming, they did not know exactly when or where it would occur. This was due to an elaborate hoax undertaken by the Allies in the weeks before the invasion, but the lack of knowledge did not prevent the Germans from preparing for the eminent onslaught.

The first operation in the long process was to clear the many mines awaiting the invasion forces, one of the ships involved was USS Osprey AM-56. Osprey had been built at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia in 1940 and had been in the forefront during Operation Torch (the invasion of North Africa).

On June 5, 1944 Osprey and several other ships of MineRon 7 departed from Torbay and headed into the English Channel to clear the way for the greatest invasion force ever assembled in human history. Some time during the operation (Operation Maple) Osprey detonated a mine on her starboard side, a large hole was blown in the ship, her engines went quiet and she began to sink. A valiant effort by the crew put the flames out, but the damage was too extensive and Osprey had to be abandoned. All but six of the crew were removed by USS Chickadee AM-59 and Osprey slipped under the waves becoming the first U.S. Navy ship lost during the D-Day landings.