大象传媒

This is more or less a follow on from my first story where we took the scientists over to France on Christmas day.

After several missions, patrols and nightly action, we realised that something big was imminent when all shore leave was cancelled.

On June 4th all commanding officers and senior wireless operators were called on board H.M.S Scylla, flagship of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsey, to attend a briefing. We didn鈥檛 know it at the time but the subject matter was what we now know as D Day.

We were introduced to :-

o General Eisenhower.
(supreme commander of allied troops)
o General Montgomorey and several high ranking Naval Officers who were in command of different sections of the assault.
o Rear Admiral Sir Philip Vian, now in charge of the eastern task force, being the british and commonwealth force.
(who I served with in the Mediterranean before war started, when he was a captain, commanding officer of H.M.S Cossack)
o Rear Admiral Kirk, U.S Navy
(commanding the western task force being in the United States force)
o Admiral Sir Bertram ramsey
(allied naval commander in charge of all naval forces)

during the briefing we were informed that D day was being delayed 24 hours due to adverse weather conditions, and believe me we weren鈥檛 sorry, the weather was absolutely atrocious, especially for small boats. Anyway we were given our instructions and returned to our various places of duty.

In the next 24 hours Air Command dropped between 15,000 and 20,000 tons of explosives on targets in Northern France. During this time at least 30,000 allied airmen were in the air and on June 5th 1944 the assault was finally on.

We, in motor Gun boat 326 in company with other boats of our floatill, 4 boats in all, left H.M.S. Hornet, our base in Gosport and proceeded up The Solent to Southampton. It was a sight to be wondered at. I cannot remember seeing so many ships moored in such a small space. Each ship packed with soldiers of all nationalities, cheering like mad, not realising that the next 12 hours was going to be the worst they had encountered.

Our commanding officer, Lt Kempner lined us up, the best way he could, because most of us were injured in one way or another. We must have looked a sad sight hobbling along but he just said 鈥渃ome on lads, let鈥檚 show them鈥� and back went our shoulders and we were greeted with loud cheers from all around.

After being medically examined and kitted up we were sent on survivors leave. Although most of us were suffering from minor injuries, some later on turned out to be more serious than first expected. I myself was black and blue from injuries sustained in the explosinn, and couldn鈥檛 wear full uniform. I managed to enjoy a few days at home before returning to duty with some of my old crew to commission Motor Torpedo Boat 761.

We eventually joined up with the 52nd floatilla at Gt Yarmouth and patrolled the North Sea, attacking enemy convoys and doing our best to keep enemy shipping down to a minimum until V.E day.

鈥�.and that I鈥檓 afraid is another story.

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