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My father, Leo John McCarthy, was a labourer at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead when he was called up in July 1940 at the age of 29.
He joined the newly-raised 7th Battalion of The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire), which started training at Coed Helen Camp, Caernarvon. Although the Loyals were based in Preston, most of the 7th Battalion were recruits from Merseyside, mainly Liverpool.
That September, the battalion moved to Great Crosby, near Liverpool, on anti-invasion duties. It was called into action that December when the first Blitz hit Merseyside, fighting fires and helping civilian services. One soldier was killed in the bombing.
In February 1941, the 7th moved to the North Yorkshire coast around Whitby, again on anti-invasion duties. That November, the 7th – an infantry battalion - was converted to a mobile light anti-aircraft regiment of the Royal Artillery, and became the 92nd (Loyals) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment. The following year, it was attached to 3rd British Infantry Division as the divisional LAA regiment.
After various stints in Hertfordshire, Norfolk, around London, and on the South Coast, the regiment moved to Castle Douglas and Dalbeattie in south-west Scotland in March 1943 to train for the Normandy invasion. In April 1944, 92nd LAA moved south with the rest of 3rd Division to a holding camp at Horndean, near Portsmouth.
One troop of the regiment, Fox Troop of 318 Battery, was chosen to land with the initial assault forces. It had been specially trained to deploy around the vital bridges over the Caen Canal and Orne River, near Benouville, on the extreme eastern flank of the invasion area. The bridges (later renamed Pegasus Bridge and Horsa Bridge) were to be seized by Airborne troops early on D-Day and Fox Troop’s task was to ensure they were not destroyed or recaptured by the Germans.
On June 6, the troop – consisting of six self-propelled 40mm Bofors Guns, ammunition lorries and a signals unit – landed with 3rd Division on Queen Red sector of Sword Beach, near La Breche d’Hermanville. My father was a gunlayer on one of the mobile Bofors Guns, number F3.
The troop made its way inland and reached the bridges around dusk. The following day, the guns were deployed and the first German air attacks began. The gunners' situation was extremely perilous because the rest of 318 Battery, which was due to land as reinforcements for Fox Troop on the evening of D-Day, was destroyed when the Liberty Ship carrying it was sunk in the Channel.
Over the next five days, the hard-pressed Fox Troop men fought valiantly, fending off wave after wave of enemy aircraft intent on destroying the bridges. Fierce shelling and mortar attacks added to the danger.
On June 9, my father was wounded in a half-hour mortar bombardment and evacuated to England. Back home in Birkenhead, a telegram arrived for my mother, Mary. She and my father had been married only three years and had a two-year-old daughter.
Fearing the worst, my mother refused to open the telegram and my grandmother did it for her. It told them my father was wounded and they should travel to a mental hospital in Leeds to see him. This caused more panic, because they thought he had gone insane. However, it turned out that the mental hospital had been commandeered for invasion casualties.
My father - who had been wounded in the back and spent some time walking on crutches - was patched up and sent back to Europe that September, joining the counter-mortar unit of 92nd LAA. The regiment fought on through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany with 3rd Division and ended the war in Bremen.
My father was discharged in December 1945 and came home to Birkenhead just before Christmas. He worked on the docks, in Cammell Lairds and as a civil engineering labourer before his death in February 1987.
I have written a history of 7th Loyals / 92nd LAA, which can be seen on www.geocities.com/lightackack
I am in touch with a handful of surviving veterans and would love to hear from any other veterans or from their families. I would also love to hear from anyone with any interest in, or information about, 7th Loyals / 92nd LAA or any relevant subject.

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