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Lt Greig was a platoon commander in the first wave to go ashore on 6th June 1944. In the lead up to the invasion he had stopped drinking, however he had decided to take his hip flask with him and celebrate once he felt safe ashore in France.

As a platon commander he had a radio operator who followed him around everywhere, with orders never to leave his side, so that various units could keep in touch at all times. Lt Greig's radio operator, who carried the large radio weighing about 50 pounds on his back, was a small man from Glasgow.

Th platoon waded ashore after a fairly unpleasant crossing, they ran up the beach and Lt Greig and his radio operator dived into a large shell hole for cover. At this point Lt Greig decided he was safe for the time being and it was time to take out his flask. He unscrewed the top and being the gentleman he was he passed it first to the radio operator and offered him a drink. The reply was instantaneous.

"No thank you sir, whiskey makes me too brave".

Lt Greig won his MC in Normandy, he died last year. He told me this story at a lunch I attended a few months before his death. His daughter said to me that it was the only time she ever heard him talk about his D-day experience.

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