大象传媒

This story was submitted to the Peoples War site by Jas from Global Information Centre Eastbourne and has been added to the website on behalf of Mr Hoy with his permission and he fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions

At the outbreak of war I was evacuated to Harpenden in Herts.

On leaving school I became an apprentice carpenter to a building firm in London. During this time I was sent to East Keal to help construct a new aerodrome.

While there I met Eunice, who was later to become my wife.

On reaching the age of 17 I joined the R.N. and trained as a radar operator and joined H.M.S. Apollo, which was a new, fast mine layer.

We carried out mine laying operations off the French Coast, leading up to D Day Operations. While laying the mines we were spotted by the enemy and had to leave the area as quickly as possible.

Because of our speed at the time we were picked up by radar of a friendly escort who fired at us believing us to be an enemy E-boat.

It was recorded 96 shells were fired at us and didn鈥檛 hit us with one On June 7th 1944 General Eisenhower, General Montgomery and Admiral Ramsey were taken to the Normandy Beaches on our ship.

Unfortunately as we approached the shore we ran aground, and damaged the ship.

General Eisenhower left on an American ship, General Montgomery left on a landing craft and Admiral Ramsey stayed aboard as we returned to Portsmouth.

We subsequently returned to Hebburn-on-Tyne to be repaired by the original ship constructors. Because of the serious damage, we were granted long leave during which time Eunice and I were married.

The picture above shows General Eisenhower, General Montgomery, Admiral Ramsey on the way over to the Normandy Beaches.

After the ship was repaired, we went to Russia to lay mines, to protect the convoys, which were taking a good hiding from the U boats. Fortunately we went in February and the weather was a little kinder, even so we slept in Arctic Clothes.

We laid mines off Norway, again to protect vessels from U-boats. When the war in Europe finished we took The Crown Prince of Norway Olaf, back to Oslo, amid great celebrations by the local population.

After this we were sent to the Pacific and while we were there, the Atom Bomb was dropped on Japan consequently ending the war.

While in the area we went ashore to Hiroshima the devastation was enormous as the picture above shows.

I then returned to U.K. and saw my daughter for the first time and tried to adjust like everyone to civilian life.

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