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The following story appears courtesy of and with thanks to Harold F Plank and James D Plank

During this same time, I was taking quite a lot of written tests on Morse Code and radio operation. Lo and behold, on February 7th I was transferred out of the first division to 286 Joint Assault Signal Company in St. Austell, England. A week later, I was transferred to the 293rd Joint Assault Signal Company at Torquay England. There I studied Morse Code, all kinds of signals, flags, radio, lights, etc., and eventually was transported to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. There we went into intense training to know the difference between army artillery fire and naval gunfire, and how to spot targets. We were also taught how to zero in on the target and to fire at will when zeroed in close enough.

During this time, we were formed into various units. We were called the Naval Shore Fire Control Party. It consisted of two officers and 10 or 12 men. Our officers were Captain Jonathan Harwood from the Army Artillery and Lieutenant (jg) Kenneth S. Norton from the Navy. After our training was completed at Dartmouth, we were sent out to the unit that we would be with during the invasion of Normandy. My particular unit ended up back in Swanage, England, at the place from which the First Division had moved. There we joined the Second Ranger Battalion; and from then on, we were extensively trained in cliff-climbing. Near Swanage there were some cliffs that were said to be similar to where we intended to land in Normandy. To start with, we hung ropes over the edge of the cliff and climbed up and down just for practice. Later on, we got into landing craft; and we would see how long it took us to get off the landing craft and climb the ropes and get to the top.

During this time, somebody came up with the bright idea of putting rocket launchers on the top edge of the boat and hooking grapple hooks and ropes to them, having the rope coiled in a box in back of the rocket launcher. We practiced, and it worked pretty good. They would shoot the grapple hooks up over the top of the cliff; and when we鈥檇 grab the ropes and start pulling on them, they鈥檇 dig into the surface on top of the cliff and make a good place to start climbing. We had practiced in various places, on various cliff-heights, and on various types of cliffs. We even landed on the Isle of Wight and climbed cliffs there. This was quite rugged work.

When we were coming close to the time that the invasion would take place, our outfit was transported to Portsmouth, England; and it was here that I noticed a sign of a regimental command post that seemed familiar. I looked it up in my address book; and it was a cousin, Layton Miles. I did get to go in and locate his bunk, and eventually I got to visit with him awhile before I went back to my own outfit. My Ranger Battalion was mostly aboard the S.S. Amsterdam, which had been a coastal pleasure boat taking passengers throughout Europe. Here we waited orders for the invasion. The night before the invasion we were fed pancakes and bacon. The weather had been pretty ferocious, and the invasion was postponed for one day; but eventually it was decided that June 6, 1944, would be the day.

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