大象传媒

Regiment: Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.
Date: June 16th, 1944
Location: Newhaven, Sussex
Today is my 21st birthday but no cards. Attended church service (six of us).
First V1 (Doodle Bug) over camp that night.
June 23rd: Embarked for Normandy pm.
June 24th: Arrived on beaches mid-day. Came ashore with the sea up to my chest. Flying Fortress in flames above our heads - seven parachutes. This was a good start of what was due to come. Marched five miles inland; clothes were now dry - a very hot day! Roads strewn with burnt out vehicles of all description.
June 25th: A day of rest, so they decided to hold a kit inspection, not enthusiastically received!
June 26th: Night time advance to the scene of action. Plenty of noise from tanks and gunfire. Not very much sleep.
June 27th: Reached our objective - a village called Cheaux. Our position in an orchard was then 'visited' by five German tanks; we thought they were British! I was in charge of a PIAT (Platoon Infantry Anti Tank gun). It was pretty useless against the Tiger tanks. We had a very lucky escape - the same tanks entered the village where the Battalion Commanding Officer was killed. I helped to dig his grave.
June 28th: Took up new position some miles further inland. Occupied German slit trenches were well dug.
June 29th: Pleasant surprise. Received 8 21st birthday cards. I had my first bath in eleven days - a large tarpaulin filled with three feet of water. Officers and NCOs first, then other ranks - the scum was about three inches deep!
June 30th: Plenty of German mortars. Refugees came through our lines. Many corpses of dead cattle in surrounding fields.
July 1st: Hige bomber raid on Caen. We were about four miles away. Not much sleep that night.
July 5th: Our objective was to capture a prominent hill called 112, now named 'Cornwall Hill'. After advancing with many casualties we held our position. The countryside was much the same as Somerset and Devon. Corfields were a big problem as they 'housed' many German snipers. All the time mortar bombs called 'Moaning Minnies' because of the noise they made rained down on us.
July 6th: Two of my companions and myself were hit by shrapnel. Managed to reach a field hospital and after examination were evacuated to Portsmouth hospital and later transferred to Glasgow where we were operated on.

For the record
Hill 112 was finally taken by our Division (43rd Wessex) on July 29the, having changed hands many times at a colossal loss of life. From my battalion of nine hundred men only 75 survived and I was of the lucky ones.

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