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On D-Day I was in Rye and doing guard duty. At 3.30 I was awakened and called outside and heard the tremendous drone of aircraft. Something was going on! That was the Tuesday 6th. On the Wednesday the transport officer came in asking for a man from Shropshire, that was me. I was going to Dorrington to collect a car. Word got round and in the end 10 blokes came with me. Two were dropped off at Tunbridge Wells, three at Reading and three at Gloucester. I got home in the early morning for breakfast and a rest. I then went to Dorrington and collected the car. On the way back I called in to see my parents near Beaulieu. My sisters were swinging on the gate. I spent the night at my parents. I hadn’t seen my Auntie and Uncle in the New Forest and so I called to see them but they had gone to London for the day. When I got back to Rye, all the blokes I had delivered were back within the 24 hours. We were then to go to London docks to disembark. I was driving a Humber Snipe Staff car. My officer had already disembarked. In the convoy there was a funny light on the differential. Suddenly the light disappeared and I was up a lamp post. The officer and I clambered out, left the car and found another vehicle, a jeep. In North London it was early morning and people came out with tea and whatever they had to eat. I was grateful because it was so cold. The little girl with the mum who gave us tea asked for our autograph! I wrote, ‘You are near to God in a garden’ and signed my name and number.

When we reached the docks I had a new car and a wagon but they needed to be waterproofed. When we got to France there was a storm and we went up and down for 5 days. We existed on weak tea, biscuits and tinned salmon. I couldn’t look at salmon for years after. The story of the waterproofing reached general Morgan at Brigade HQ and he came to have tea with us. He told us this story; An argument about who could waterproof
The vehicles. General Morgan got fed up and said that 43rd Wessex Division could do it! That was why the sergeant and corporals had to go on courses with the Ordinance Division. They came back and showed us drivers how to do it. We went to Ventnor to test the vehicle out. I was told to strip off for the testing and the water was cold! We were taken out to Southampton to Selsey Bill for testing. Our vehicles were examined by REME to see if they were damaged. Some went down but most survived.

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Jacci Phillips of the CSV Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hereford and Worcester on behalf of John Rawlings and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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