大象传媒

Part 1 鈥� D-Day

It was the evening of 5th June, 1944. I was in H.M.S. Lawford, a modified Captain class frigate serving as headquarters ship for Assault Group 1, Force J. We had left our anchorage in Cowes Road and were heading south in the English Channel. Our group of telegraphists and coders were in the wireless office. The group signals officer unfurled a chart showing the coast of Normandy.
鈥淭he object of this operation, which will be know as Operation Neptune,鈥� he began, 鈥渋s to endeavour to establish a footing on the French coast of this area . . .鈥�
It was our first official intimation that the biggest seaborne invasion ever undertaken was about to begin, and we were part of it. Working four hours on watch at the wireless office and four hours off, I didn鈥檛 see much of the invasion as we led our group of assault landing craft towards Juno Beach. The first signal back from the shore was prematurely optimistic. 鈥淥pposition slight. Small arms fire only鈥�.
H.M.S. Lawford never came back. She鈥檚 still there, lying on some 30 fathoms off Arromanches with 26 of my shipmates who didn鈥檛 make it when the ship was bombed and sunk by enemy aircraft in the early hours of June 8鈥攖wo days after D-Day.
I was off watch and fast asleep when the bombs struck us. I was still only 18. A group of us spent about an hour in the water clinging to a rolled up scrambling net before we were picked up by the minesweeper H.M.S. Pique.
Wrapped up in blankets and warmed by a tot of neat rum we were subsequently transferred to the cruiser H.M.S. Scylla (flagship of Admiral Vian) and then to the cruiser Frobisher which was due to return to Portsmouth later that day.
At Portsmouth Royal Naval Barracks, we communications ratings were rekitted and sent on four day鈥檚 home leave with strict instructions to be back on time 鈥� 鈥淎nd don鈥檛 let anybody be adrift because you鈥檙e urgently required.鈥�
After a rather bizarre home leave in Manchester, I found myself with with other survivors of our communications group heading back to the Normandy coast in the frigate H.M.S. Waveney with our group senior officer Captain A.F. Pugsley R.N.
We spent a further fortnight patrolling the anchorage of the invasion fleet before returning to our shore base at Exbury in the New Forest. The estate had been commandeered by the Navy and was then known as H.M.S. Mastodon.

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