大象传媒

My father, George Brown, now deceased, was a 24 year old corporal with the 8th batallion of the Durham Light Infantry when they took part in the assault on Gold Beach on the outskirts of Arromanches having already taken part in the landings at Italy and Sicily. These are some of his quotes about his experience of the Normandy Landings when interviewed for an article which was printed in the Manchester Evening News on Friday June 1st 1984.
"Quite honestly, I was getting a bit sick of getting my feet wet. The top brass wanted people who had done that sort of thing before,so they wouldn't panic, so a lot of lads who had been in earlier landings went in first. There were a lot of people lost on the beaches. They were just dropping like flies. You just had to keep going. When we came out of Dunkirk in the first place, we said we'd be back and by God we were. We were and we weren't tense the night before. It was nothing much new to us. We had fought through the Libyan campaign, liberated Tripoli, invaded Sicily and now this, the big one. Some of the younger lads among us were a bit green. They were calm enough but subdued. They didn't know what to expect. But they weren't showing any panic, nothing like that. All of us were thinking the same thing. Will I come through it alright? Will I get back home? But once it started all that was forgotten."
"The flap of the trooper carrier opened. You were told to jump out and that was it. You were waist deep in water and about 60 yards from a most unfriendly shore. On the way towards it, I saw dead men floating upside down in the sea. The Germans were throwing everything they had got at us - machine guns, shells, mines, the lot. We were all loaded down with ammunition. Under the weight of it all some lads went under. Hundreds of men were drowned before they could get near the beach. We couldn't stop to help them."
"It was sheer murder going in. The Germans were in a good position you see. We were right in the open - easy targets. A lot of my friends dropped around me. I carried on obeying orders and pushing forward. It was the only thing to do and to make sure you walked in zig zags. By nightfall we were 50 miles inland but a quarter of my company were either dead or wounded."
"The memories of it never leave you. I saw people with arms off, legs off, heads off. You can't describe it really but at the same time you get used to it. The fear is with you always. You never overcome the fear. You were always frightened. You'd have been odd not to be. I am proud of what we did then and I hope people don't forget it"

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