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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by a volunteer from Radio Sheffield Actiondesk on behalf of John Gaughan and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Gaughan fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

We boarded our LST (Landing Ship Tank) at Gosport and the ship put to sea. We put on our lifebelts, which were tubes about 3 feet long placed over our shoulders, making sure it would hold your face above water and not force your face down. The next morning found us anchored off the Isle of Wight, waiting for the rest of the convoy and our destroyer escort to join us, and sail for the Normandy beaches at midnight. We were issued with an emergency ration, a tin of very hard chocolate, and a special heating stove and fuel which was very light in weight, and we were lectured on what to expect when we landed. As midnight approached, four of us were looking towards the English coast wondering if we would see it again. We were waiting to weigh anchor when an Officer came up to us and said we had to take turns down in the hold on Fire Picket, 2 hours each in turn. I was the first to go down through a steel door on the deck and climb down a steel runged ladder, which was fastened to the ships side, then into the front to rear space of the ships hold. It was full of our Company’s vehicles chained down by their wheels to the floor of the LST. The eerie noise of the stretching chains as the ship moved from side to side, and the waves striking the bow of the ship, was not a pleasant experience, and I walked around the hold to pass the time until my spell of 2 hours was up. I did not have a watch and was expecting my relief to take over at 2 a.m., but time passed and no one came. I attempted to climb the ladder, but one moment I was leaning against the ladder and the next my feet were in mid air and I was swinging with only my fingers wrapped around the rungs of the ladder. It was an impossible situation; luckily I had not gone far up and I was able to get back to the floor of the hold. I realised I could not get up and no one could get down to me. I climbed into the cab of one of the vehicles, and after a time, which seemed like an eternity to me, the swish-swish of the water and the rattle of the chains subsided .The roll of the ship steadied and I climbed up the ladder and daylight hit me as I opened the door. To the left of the ship was the coast of France and flashes of what seemed like gunfire came intermittently from the shoreline. The other ships of the convoy were in lanes with the destroyer escort in between the lanes, the shoreline moving as we zigzagged to our destination. For D-day the 6th of June has been cited the “Longest Day “ for me the sailing to Normandy a few weeks later was my longest night.

Pr-BR

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