大象传媒

War borke out on the 3rd of September 1939 and I remember the sirens going off at 11am. I was in the Hale Assembly Rooms, near Altrincham, Cheshire. I was a messenger boy incase I was needed.

I was 15 when the War eventually borke out.

I went to UCNW in Bangor, staying at the men's hostel in Bangor. I studied Agriculture in Coleg Aelybryn for a year.

I volunteered to join the Royal Navy. I passed my medical and I was found to be colour blind (Grade 3 Colour Vision). I felt quite disappointed but a bit relieved as well.

There were plenty of opportunities available to me, I could become a steward, or a coder, and I chose to become a coder.

I got my training on HMS Cabbala in Warrington for 9 months. Learning coding and then eventually I got a comission and then becam a sypher by a rating.

I was posted onto LCH (Landing Craft Headquarters) in Combined Operations to take part in the D-Day Landings.

We were instructed to go to Gold Beach near Port Anbessin. We were posted to the centre of Gold Beach. The Americans to our left and Canadians to our right.

We went in at 5.30am in the morning, we were the first there followed by the Americans.

When the Americans arrived, we advised them not to float the tanks. They didn't listen, they tried to float their tanks and they sank. What a great loss of life and a loss of machinery.

So from Normandy, I was then drafted to go to a signal school in Portsmouth where I was promoted to Sub-Leituenant. The RNVRS (Royal Navy Voluntary Reserve Special). I passed my exams there.

Then I went to India. I remember celebrating my 21st Birthday in the Indian Ocean on my way to Bombay.

It was a long journey to Calcutta and then by train to Bombay.

Then I went to Bombay. I took part in the CCI with the Royal Navy in Bombay.

We were then supposed to be going to Japan, but luckily for us the Americans dropped the atomic bomb, and that was an end to all hostilities.

I went on to Singapore and spent a little time to be demobed there before taking passage on HMS Formidable - an aircraft carrier back to Britain.

It took about 3 weeks to come home.

I returned home in 1945. Back to Altringham in Cheshire.

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