大象传媒

This story is about the preparation for and events leading up to and including the d-day landings. The training was conducted in various locations and Lcpl Alex McVeigh was the driver/pilot of the royal marines landing craft or 'floating coffins' as they were affectionately known as. During the training his landing craft sank twice and he and his bosun managed to get out on both occasions before the boat sank with them in it. On these occasions they were also fortunate that there were no soldiers on board at the time.
On the lead up to the invasion, he told of a situation on board where the soldiers were playing cards for money. As he and others watched the game one marine won five pounds in total, and was anything but delighted. He started shouting and was heard saying that 'after this win i bet I don鈥檛 get to spend it' a fight then broke out on board the boat and after a few moments order was restored. And much later it was when he reflected on the incident they were aware that there were marines onboard that may well not come home.
When the order was given to go Lcpl McVeigh went into the bowels of the boat (that鈥檚 were the boat wes controlled/steered from) and moved off. He mentioned that on approach he couldn鈥檛 see anything and was relying on the bosun above for directions, and in the back of his mind he was aware that he had sank previously and he had a full compliment of marines on board.
As the assault unfolded the boat was hit, and began taking in water. He and the others got out and jumped into the water. They were not in the water long as they were picked up by landing craft that were coming back from deploying troops. On getting onto his feet on the boat he recalled that when he viewed the scene 'there were boats as far as the eye could see'
After the assault they got ready for other duties, and he and his bosun recalled and wondered how these men had got on.
It was soon after that the bosun began to think that Lcpl McVeigh was the jinx! But these men kept working and came through it ok

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.