大象传媒

Here is an account of my Grandfather Jack Moverley's experiences of the Normandy invasion

May 24th. Camp at Petworth closed to everyone, no-one allowed in or out. All tank crews briefed on the invasion plans, where and when.

June 1st. Moved out of camp and made our way to Gosport, via Portsmouth and Fareham. Streets crowded with people who did not know whether to cheer or not. One thing they did do, was make tea. Every time the convoy stopped, which was often tea was brought out. Finally reached Gosport and embarked on our Landing Craft.

June 4th. Laid off Southsea all day while the area between the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth filled up with craft and ships of all kinds. Instead of sailing that night bad weather meant a 24Hr postponement.

June 5th. Everything and everybody waiting for signal to go, weather improved slowly until finally 4.30 p.m. orders to sail and we were on our way. I doubt if I or anyone else will ever see such an armada again. The sea was completely covered with craft, and it seemed that an athletic sort of chap could have jumped fromPortsmouth to the Isle of Wight from ship to ship. Once out of the shelter of the island , the sea fairly hit us and we knew we were in for a rough trip. Then maps and final instructions were issued and we treid to settle down, but it was too rough and before long the ships rails were festooned with bodies, emptying their insides. Fortunately I was not affected and so escaped the misery of sea sickness

June 6th D-Day. In the early hours of the day we heard thousands of planes going overhead and before long we heard the first sounds of the invasion. The German Coastal Defences were being battered by bombs. By now it was daylight and the coast of France was just visible under acloud of smoke. Meanwhile the Navy had started their bombardment and shortly afterwards news over the tank woreless informed us that the first troops were ashore. By this time our ship had gone as far as it could, and we were still 2 miles offshore. Whilst waiting for some means of transport to take us off the ship we heard that the paratroops had been succesfully landed and were now advancing on their targets, bridges and radar stations etc. In the meantime we were sitting in the centre of bedlam, all the naval ships , from battleships to corvettes were firing every gun they had. I have never heard such a noise in all my life. It is hard to imagine anyone being left alive, but of course they were. At last some action for us, a kind of motorised raft had come up and we had to transfer to it. My tank had been selected to lead the way and I did not like the idea at all. The stern of ship had been lowered onto something like a wooden platform and we moved the tank onto it. As our ship was going up and down on the waves so was the raft. I had to judge when the raft would be level with us and then move quick. Any hesitation or wrong guess and we would all be going for a swim. Finally we made it and soon the raft was loaded and we set off for the shore.
As we moved inward on our port side a battleship was anchored and at that very moment it fired a broadside. I am convinced our raft lifted out of the waterwith the blast. As we neared the shore the noise became increasingly louder, shells passing overhead both ways, sounding like express trains, and us down below hoping none of them will stop. By now we were within a hundred yards of the shore when our raft came to a full stop, grounded on a sand bank. All around us were tank obstacle, steel girders sticking straight up with shells attached, barbed wire and quite a few other varieties of nasty surprises. We then had to drop off our raft and finish the journey by wading ashore with no trouble

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