大象传媒

I write this in honour of my father, Bob Orrell, and in celebration of the fact that 16 of his family will be going over to Ouistreham with him to commemorate D Day.

My father went over a couple of days after the landings as he was Royal Engineer. He was organising the support activities after the front line troups had gone through. He was slightly surprised when one of the French came and told him that there were still Germans in the largest of the bunkers. He and another soldier took some explosive and tried to blow off the door. They had to return for more explosive as their first attempt achieved nothing. Eventually the door was blown off and 62 rather drunk Germans were captured. This was the final liberation of Ouistreham.

Partly as a result of his many wartime experiences he became an indefatiguable campaigner for peace, being an active member of CND and a founding member of the Veterans for Peace worldwide.It was this that prompted him to go back and see the old bunker.

Since the war Brigitte and Fabrice Corbin have turned the bunker into a museum, Le Grand Bunker, Le Musee le Mur del'Atlantique [
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]. This is well worth a visit and contains my father's diaries from the time.

Many of the family travel with my father for the annual DDay celebrations. During the 50th celebrations there was a wonderful piecing together of history. During a particularly late and boisterous party at the museum, there was a knock at the door. There were three upright men in their seventies. They could only have been marines. They apologised for interrupting but said they they had always wanted to know what had happened at the bunker. They had come through and tried to blow the door off with their bren guns. My father was able to tell them how much explosive it actually took!

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