大象传媒

An Account of D-Day from Ashworth William Howorth (G4LNE)(Known as "Sonny")
of Bacup Lancashire (deceased March 3rd. 2004)
鈥淎.W. Howorth鈥檚鈥�
鈥淒-DAY LANDINGS鈥�
One of my memories of WW2 was the D Day Landings. As a member of the Royal Navy I trained as a gunner and was transferred to the D.E.M.S. (Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships).

I had lots of adventures on cargo ships including Dunkirk, theAtlantic, Murmansk and Arkangel convoys, and several of the ships I served on being sunk by torpedo.

I had just returned from survivor鈥檚 leave, and done a refresher course on 鈥楬MS President鈥�, moored on the Thames, before being sent to Southampton to join a new ship.

All too quickly orders came for me to board a ship in Cowes Roads, it was S.S. Empire Arquebus, fitted out for troop carrying. Later in the day the gunnery officer sent for me, saying that they had a full complement, and didn鈥檛 really need me, but I couldn鈥檛 go ashore as I had obviously spoken to other gunners and the crew who knew our destination, so I would have to stay on board until our return.

Before I knew what was happening we broke anchor and joined the other ships on the way to invade Europe.

Wandering round the ship I visited some of the troops in the holds, where bunks and other facilities needed had been built in. Most of the troops were from the Carlisle Border Regiment.

A sergeant was having a shave, he lathered his face for ages, and then, using a cutthroat razor, he carefully scraped his beard then re-lathered and did it again. He said that he was having a good shave because he didn鈥檛 know when he would get another one. I felt that we both wondered if it might be his last.

On deck the guns crews were closed up and as night fell the sound of planes filled the night. When dawn broke you could see that lots of them were towing gliders, so there would be troops landing before we did. The sea was choppy and it made you think that they would have a better landing than us. It was now light enough to see that ships were all around us.

The gunnery officer told me that I would man an Oerlicon on one of the Landing Craft Assault Boat that we had slung from the davits; I can't say I was looking forward to it, as I had never imagined that I would be landing on the beach. In good time the troops took up their stations for the landing, by now the shore was in sight and you could see fighting in the sand dunes. Suddenly there was an explosion and everyone thought we had been hit. Lots of the troops were thrown to the deck and there were minor injuries. It seems that H.M.S. Ajax, about two hundred yards behind us had fired a broadside to the shore guided by spotter planes, and we had got the blast, I was glad we weren鈥檛 on the receiving end.

When the landing craft was lowered we found that the sea was nothing like as calm as it had seemed from the Arquebus, in fact it was rough. The soldiers had all their kit with them, looking like they had everything on their backs including the kitchen sink. As the falls were released, the engine took over and propelled us towards the beach. I fired the Oerlikon at a German plane, but he didn鈥檛 seem interested in us, for which I was thankful. It didn鈥檛 take long to reach the shore; tapes had been set up, making lanes that the troops and their equipment had to keep to, as they had been swept to clear the mines. Nice to know that we were not the first there! As we hit the beach the Landing Craft ramps were lowered and the soldiers poured out into waist high water, with their guns held high to keep them dry. I felt that they had a miserable day ahead of them, wet through and all their kit weighting them down. As they advanced between the tapes guns started firing on them from pillboxes on the sand dunes. The troops flung themselves on the ground until it ceased, but some of them didn鈥檛 get up. Asking our Sub Lieutenant about firing back, he said it was useless as they were out of range, but they might have guns that could reach us, and it would only draw their attention our way. Our main task was to get the troops ashore.

We had to return to bring another load.

After a few trips we were surprised to see that there were some prisoners to take back to the Arquebus. Most of them were pleased to be going to England, which wasn鈥檛 surprising as they were mostly Russian troops who had been captured and forced to fight for the Germans.

Eventually all the troops had been put ashore and we were on our way back to Southampton. The sea was still covered with ships going both ways, I don't think any of us had seen so many ships in one place at the same time; it was unbelievable. As soon as we arrived I had to report to the base, as I was no longer needed on the Arquebus. I was sent to another ship, the Empire Stanley, a coaster again, she was loading mostly general cargo, foodstuffs and daily necessities, with lots of boxes of ammunition too.

On D-Day plus 3 I was back on the beach at a small place called Port en Bassin, and I mean literally on the beach, at high tide we floated ashore and as the tide went out we were high and dry. Watch was kept around the clock with the occasional shot at the German fighters that came close. The Warships out at sea were still bombarding the coast, we felt very vulnerable with missiles going over us and hoping that none would fall short.

This was the pattern for the next few weeks. As soon as we were unloaded, the high tide floated us clear, and back to Southampton to take on more cargo. At Port en Bassin lorries drove alongside and using the ships winches the cargo was transferred. If the amphibious DUCKS were available work continued while the tide was coming in and out. The Merchant Navy crew spent a lot of time while the ship was high and dry painting below the water line with red lead. It was said that the Captain would be getting a bonus from the shipping line as he was saving dry docking time.

The weather finally improved giving us hot sunny days, so that we were able to sunbathe while on watch and apart from the fact that we were sitting ducks it was reasonably pleasant.

One day when I was off watch, one of the soldiers said he would take me into Bayeux (as long as I kept quiet about it), by now the Germans had been pushed back to Caen, and Bayeux was almost back to normal. Visiting the shops was fun, all the shop girls looked as if the had come straight from the Follies-Bergiers, so that I didn鈥檛 need any persuading to buy perfume and fancy soaps to take home.

At school I had heard of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicted the Norman invasion of England and was over 200 feet long. The lovely Gothic Cathedral seemed the likely place to see it, but I was told it was normally kept in the public library, but it had been stored for the duration. I managed to get to Bayeux again when there was a troop of traveling entertainers, the girls danced the Can-Can, but not like I had seen at the Windmill theatre and the Palladium. These girls gave value for money as they danced without knickers.

One day I managed a trip to Caen on the lorries but there was still lots of fighting going on, no matter where you went there were snipers taking shots at anything that moved.

As soon as I could, I got a lift back to the ship where I imagined it would be quieter, but I was wrong again. A German dive-bomber came overhead; all the ships off shore were firing at it without success. As we were high and dry I suppose we looked a sitting target. I fired the Oerlikon and seemed to be hitting him; at least I think I spoilt his aim. You could see a bomb leaving the plane and coming straight towards us, it landed almost alongside us, my face felt like it had been slashed with a knife but I couldn鈥檛 see any blood. I found out later that that it was sand that had peppered us and left a crater alongside, fortunately the sand absorbed most of the blast and in seconds it was all over.

Back in Southampton I was granted 7 days leave with orders to report back to Bristol to take a Gun layers course on the training ship HMS Flying Fox. But that as they say is another story.

Able Seaman - A. W. Howorth

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