大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jim Donohoe of the CSV 大象传媒 Coventry and Warwickshire Action Desk on behalf of George Pearson and has been added to the site with his/her permission.

D-Day landings
It was getting on to D-Day, there were lots of Air Sea Rescue and lots of destroyers. We took a trip to Portsmouth ... there was a huge number of ships, I've never seen so many. There were thousands and thousands of ships, but no battleships or cruisers, except for the command ship Largs that set off with them.
On June 5th we were briefed, and told to get some sleep. I was excited. In the evening, the armada set out. Everything was going to plan except for the weather in the Solent, and we went to sleep expecting a call in the morning. There was no call, and when we woke up the next morning, we were back at anchorage in the Solent. We spent a day not knowing what was going on, but we weren't really worried.
When we set off again in the evening, the number of ships seemed larger. I said to my mate "I bet we shall be for it now. No one could miss this lot." I was expecting a pasting, but we caught the Germans completely by surprise.
We got quite close to the beach (Sword Beach) when the enemy batteries opened up, but it wasn't long before our battleships silenced them. All hell broke loose. We were more concerned about our barrage falling short than we were about enemy fire. I never saw one enemy aircraft. We were told "Don't fire at any aircraft", because the R.A.F. had guaranteed one-hundred per-cent air cover.
There was a loud explosion at the front of the landing craft, and the ramp collapsed in two or three foot of water, close to the shore. We dragged off the few men at the front of the craft who had been stunned by the explosion to the waters edge, which was strictly against orders.
Our sergeant had told us "Get off the beach, leave the dead and the wounded. Don't stop to take the cigarette from behind your dead mate's earhole." My ears sounded muffled and I could hear ringing, but no one was seriously injured.
On the beach, I looked to my left, and I saw four dead bodies floating up and down in the water, there hardy seemed a mark on them. They were wearing the same uniform that I was - they were men from my unit. There were some horrible sights on landing. It made you realise what war is all about.

Back home
In September, we came home, were medically checked over then given ten days survivors' leave. Shortly before the leave was up, I received orders to make my way to Aberdeen, where I was to meet with the rest of my unit to receive more training. When we got there we were billeted in the Sailors Rest, where we were looked after marvellously by the staff. Although we had no money in our pockets for a while, almost everything we needed was given to us by the people of Aberdeen: theatres, cinemas, beer, cigarettes - we never wanted for anything.
After about a fortnight, we were formed into a new flotilla, and a tough training regime was started - probably to knock the cockiness out of us, and to remind us that the war was still going on.

George in the Far East
After a few weeks of this, we were on our way to the far east, the Pacific. It was nasty at times, but we were completely on top of the Japanese.
One time, in New Guinea, we were guided to a head-hunters' village and allotted two huts. The head-hunters looked very fierce, but they were very friendly al the same. We slept with our weapons handy, in case they forgot which side they were on.
On leaving the village, the heavens opened up, which was a wonderful relief, then the sun came out again, and after a short time we were almost dry, apart from our boots which were filled with water. While we were drying out, someone called out that it was my 19th birthday, so we opened a pack of rations, cut up some meat, stuck a sprig of something that looked like holly into it, then began to sing carols somewhat out of season.
Afterwards, we went to a number of islands: the Solomons, the Philippines, New Caledonia and Australia, before heading back to Ceylon to be re-equipped.
There were rumours on ship that we were going on for an assault on Japan. We'd heard stories of Japanese civilians committing suicide if invaded. We would be fighting women and children. I didn't mind fighting soldiers, but I didn't like this.
Four or five days out of Ceylon, we heard about a big bomb, then two days later, another bomb. The Japanese surrendered, so we skipped Japan, and returned home via the Panama Canal.
We went through the Panama Canal, then up to New York, then back home to Liverpool. There are three ports in the canal: Balboa, Panama in the middle, then Cellon. You could buy anything under the sun - watches for five shillings. When we got back to Liverpool, the excise men made us put everything in a bucket, then we could take just one thing back.
Then we went to Portsmouth and got demobbed. I would have stayed in, but the new government said there weren't going to be any more combined ops, and I didn't fancy hanging around barracks.
The discipline was very good for young people. It made you grow up quickly, you learnt to be self-sufficient.

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