大象传媒

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Neville Quirk, Royal Navy, sword beach
We commissioned, it's a Drifter, HM Stephens, and it had been converted into a mine-sweeper as you can see, hammer at the front, it goes into the water and it sends out side waves for acoustic mines. This on here is the magnetic er...it pays out to the stern of the ship for magnetic mines, but as I say we didn't do any sweeping, we were a support vessel. Now when we sailed the minesweepers were already gone. There was 122 minesweepers all in line, and they swept 10 channels across 10...across the channel, 10 separate channels, and they were marked by buoys with little lights on, you see. Our job was to follow in the minesweepers, keep to the channel, and if they got a mine, and it were very difficult with it being as black as night, we'd got to keep a sharp look-out in case a mine had come to the surface and then we'd to dispose of it. And the other thing is that we'd got to ...if a minesweeper hit a mine then we would pick up survivors, that was the main object, and ironically they called us the coffin ships. It was pretty quiet, and when the minesweepers got to the French coast, of course they broke up and they started sweeping across the coast of France and as I say then there was the battle fleets they were ...come one part from Plymouth which was the American sector, and we were from the Solent, and there was I think 6 battleships in all, I think there was 8 cruisers, and 28 destroyers, and the rest was all minesweepers and all support vessels, and everything like that. So when we got to the coast of France it was still dark, and our job was to ...run up and down the coast, we'd got an apparatus on board what we called `huff duff' and it was High Frequency Detection, and it were a marvelous piece of apparatus because it detected the surface craft as well as underwater craft, so our job was to screen, you see, to see whether there were any E-boats coming in, or any U-boats, and then when the battle fleet got into place and as I say we were seaward and just shadowing them ...and about 6 o clock then it was all hell let loose, because the whole of the battle fleet opened up, so you can imagine when you've got 8 battle ships, 8 cruisers and about 38 destroyers all bombarding the French coast all at once, 15 inch shells, 8 inch shells, 4.7...and we were there off Sword Beach, and there was a landing craft with rockets on, and it's the first time we'd ever experienced them! We wondered what was happening because we'd never experienced anything like it, and the Skipper said `We're getting out of this!' So we went at the side of the Warspite, and we tied up to the War ...we got permission to tie up to the Warspite, and of course this was later on in the day, when the landings had taken place, our job was, when the landings were taking place, was to assist the landing craft. Monty's orders were to get the men on the beach as many as possible in the shortest time, don't matter what it cost, get `em ashore, you see. So when the landing craft got into difficulties, we either towed the landing craft to a position or we took the troops off and took `em back to the sister ship so they could go out with the next raid, and unfortunately we had to pick up the wounded and the dead, you know, and take `em to a hospital ship, and this particular time, the day went on and the American side the Omaha beach, it was a shambles, and apparently what happened was they landed the troops, they couldn't get off forward onto land and they couldn't get back, so they had to abandon landings on Omaha, they, well they got the signal to go down to Omaha beach because they thought they might have to evacuate it, and if they did it would have been a complete disaster. But anyway, luck happened, they got them off the beach, so we had to come back again and this particular amusing incident was we tied up near the Warspite about 3 o clock in the morning she got the signal to bombard certain positions, and 15 inch guns thundered about 3 o clock in the morning, and it lifted us about 2 foot out of the water! They shouted to us `you'd better get out of here!' and we had to move fast! And as I say, then it was sort of support all the time, you know, and we were there about, erm, I think it was later on in the week, they had a very terrific storm in the channel, one of the worst they'd known in history, and we lost our sea boat, we lost the sea anchor and we were taking water into the engine room, so the skipper sent a signal to the C&C of the fleet, and they'd already got Muilberry Harbour established then, you see, and he asked permission to go into Mullberry Harbour, to get repairs, and the signal come back and said `if you're sinking, go out into deep water and sink because you'll be a hazard to us!', so we had to ride out the storm but with the grace of God we did anyway, and when it got calm they allowed us to go into Mullberry Harbour to get repaired, and we got .. well in with some of the troops on the landing craft, you know, because as we got on they were getting the troops and equipment ashore, and things were pretty quiet, and they had a couple of dive bombers come over, but it was just a sort of token, they just swept the beach and then off, they were never saw anymore, but other than that, as I say, we rode it out and...there's not much more to tell, as I say, because ...l think we were there about 3 weeks altogether, and then we came back to England and paid off, and that's when I went abroad.
Did you see the special armour they used to clear the mines and bulldoze and that?
Yes, I saw all sorts of things, yes, and Hobart's tanks and that, and the dukws that they used to...marvellous how they paddled ashore, and er the beach master, he'd got an ~Alsatian dog with him, he did, the troop were telling us, and he was quite a lad apparently and it they didn't move off the beach he was getting onto them!
So it must have been quite a sight when you saw the whole of the invasion fleet?
Well I mean you couldn't er...the Solent, the night before, it was jam-packed full of shipping, they couldn't move, they called it, nicknamed it Piccadilly Circus because it...then there was of course Plymouth weren't as big, but it was just the same, but when it got to where it said 19 00 hours, which is 7 o clock, that's when the signal from Portsmouth sent a signal up for all ships to weigh anchor and set sail, and that's the convoy we was in, the J15, and the Royal Marine band assembled on the Warspite's quarterdeck - `cos we were anchored there then - and they didn't play the usual naval things, they started to play 'There'll always be an England'. It was a stirring sight, you know, and you could hear the landing craft, there were accordions, bagpipes, they were singing, you know, they thought it was gonna...it was like a holiday! But they all wanted to get going, because it had been postponed, you know, because the American convoy which was the furthest to go, they'd been out the day before, and they'd got half-way across the channel and they ordered back again - if you can imagine, trying to turn all them merchant ships back, a mile long, to go back to port again, it must have been a terrific job, and how they kept the security I shall never know! Because the Germans thought that was a diversionary attack, they thought it was still coming from Calais and .. Dover, and they kept all the Panzer divisions tied up there, and they were lucky really.
The first time we seen a flying bomb was when we were anchored in the Mulberry harbour, we were stood talking to these guards, the horse guards tank regiment, and this big sergeant major I was stood next to him watching this flying bomb, and I said `by gum they can move can't they' and he says `yeah if your arse was on fire you'd move like that,' but they made a terrific noise, then when we got back to Lowestoft, er the drafting master at arms says `you can either go on a trawler up in Scotland or you can go abroad you've got a choice,'
and I said `well I'll have some leave,' he laughed and said, 'there's no leave for you, sorry' and he said `you must not talk to the public of what you've seen over there off Normandy,' well I thought that's stupid, because they're bringing troops back wounded, they're going to tell the story.
[Omaha] was terrible, when we got there, you know, you couldn't describe, it was like hell on earth, men crying, you know, crying out, wounded, nothing could be done for them, but we didn't stay long, as I say, we came back again, go round the Sword beach and that's just... There were a lot of young men never came back.

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