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D- Day eventually arrived after a 24 hour postponement and we went down to the Docks at Tilbury, having gone to a great deal of trouble to put wooden protectors round the paraboloids on the position finder. We got to the docks and found this great big landing ship tank which we proceeded to board, all the lighter vehicles including our reconnaissance jeep going on the upper deck together with some RAC transport. Quite interesting that, because the way to the upper deck was through the bow of the ship and up two metal channels and the RASC drivers either weren't up to it or lost their nerve, but our drivers had to back their lorries up for them. The last equipment was my radar, and we got it all on except the position finder which wouldn't go under the bow frame so I suggested we discard the wooden crates which we'd so laboriously put on. But our Major thought this might be using my initiative too much so he decided to go and ring the War Office. This is on D Day! So off he went and on his return, he quietly let it be known that as there were radar sets on the beach already, we'd better find a way of getting ours on the bloody boat and get it there. So off came those beautiful bits of wood which we threw in the docks and we got the position finder on board and slowly sailed down the Thames to Southend where we docked for the night.

Next morning, bright and early we were on the move again going down the Channel under a great thick smoke screen which we presumed was to confirm to the Germans on the other side that we were moving down the Channel. We couldn't understand why we hadn't gone through the Channel in darkness the night before, but being a bit older and wiser I now realise that this was probably due to the very complicated minefields that the Navy had laid and they didn't want any accidents and neither did we.

Anyway, we were proceeding down the Channel to our rendezvous somewhere near Southampton. I was on deck when I heard the sound of an aircraft and was quite surprised to see a Messerschmidt 109F flying by at about deck height and obviously having a good look as to what was in the convoy. I regretted that I didn't have my Lewis gun from the first day of the war, I might have had a pot shot at him, but it was all over so quickly that I probably wouldn't have been able to get one away.

We reached our rendezvous and later that night proceeded across the Channel to Normandy. I had the doubtful honour of being the first person in the battery to be sick on board the LST but it wasn't long before the whole ship was at it and we were not in a very happy state when dawn arrived and we were off the beachhead. Our rough crossing was the first inkling we had of the storms that were about to hit the Channel for the next fortnight or so.

I should mention here that American sailors manned the LST and they were very good to us, they fed us with their rations, which were very much better than ours because they didn't know what rationing was. Our compo packs were nothing compared to their meat and peaches and cream and anything we wanted.

Having arrived off the beaches we waited our turn to land and eventually pulled up to the beach ready to go off in about 5 or 6,feet of water. I was up on the top deck with our reconnaissance jeep and watched the radar and the guns go off first, as we couldn’t get down until the lower deck was cleared. This started quite well, my radar equipment went off and then the first gun went down the ramp and the gun-towing vehicle proceeded up the beach with two wheels whilst the gun and the other two wheels stayed on the ramp. The American sailors had forgotten to put out the ‘bananas’ which made up the difference between the bottom of the ramp and the beach, leaving something like an 18 inch drop. This was the cause of the gun carriage breaking across its pintle and as I subsequently found out, a problem with one piece of radar equipment.

By the time the Beach Master had got a crane and removed the offending gun from the ramp, the LST was high and dry on the sand and we had great pleasure in walking off without getting wet, we didn't even have to paddle, it was quite a relief. The LST had to wait for the next tide before returning to the UK with wounded from the beachhead who would be tended by the Canadian medical team on board, whose job was to treat and look after the wounded on the return journey.

With an American crew, British troops and the Canadian medics we really were part of the great allied invasion force.

After de-waterproofing, we deployed on a gunsite and started digging gunpits and quite early on, the Bombardier in charge of the transmitter came dashing across to report that he could not get to the operating voltage of 14000v. The voltage held up to 7000 volts and then went to earth with an enormous bang. I went over and found that one of the insulators under a large rectifying valve had cracked and of course we had no replacement and neither had anyone else. However we'd still got some of the waterproofing materials about so we put some Bostik on to canvas and tightly drew the insulator together where it had cracked quite neatly across itself. Crossing our fingers we switched on and wound up the potentiometer and lo and behold it worked, and worked for the rest of the campaign. We handed the unit in still in that condition at the end of the war.

We had to dig in our equipment and as our P.F. was 22' long, 9'3" wide and some 10'-11' high you can imagine this was some hole to dig by hand. In addition we had to have a ramp which meant digging out half as much again - where were the bulldozers? I suppose it took about 10 days to dig out then, surprise surprise we didn't need it for we were off. We never dug another.

I was given a map reference and told to report with the radar, plotting room, transport and a cook, to a LAA Bty . to do radial zone barrages which was easy to do at the time but would be a lengthy story here. This was to be our way of life in the beachhead, going from one unit to another and with all the movement we got very well organised for rations, for before leaving we collected 48 hours rations and on arriving at our new site did the same.

Our first solo site was near the village of Douvre la Deliverande just a little way inland and I deployed the radar in a field of potatoes bordered by a field of cabbages so we were again able to supplement our rations!

We also used to barter chocolate and soap etc for our eggs, and one day we were in the village at a farm and one of the chaps asked me to get some duck eggs. Until then I had been quite proud of my grammar school French but I couldn't for the life of me think what a duck was in French. It became quite a difficult moment but Walker, who dearly wanted those duck eggs got down on his hands and knees, flapped his elbows about and said quack, quack and the woman brought out some duck eggs. So much for education! Walker wasn't always so bright as he found out when he threw a cigarette towards a line of POW's being herded down the road from Caen and found himself being roughly handled by the Sgt. i/c. It was suggested that if he wanted to give fags to POW's he went down the road and caught his own.

It was also on this site that we awoke one morning to what we thought were 88mm airburst shells landing quite near and this turned out to be an accurate assessment. The shells had fallen on the BHQ to whom we were attached and I think there were something like 7 or 8 casualties. This had a profound effect on us because we immediately dug a little deeper than had previously been the accepted norm for our slit trenches and bivouacs. Our guns meanwhile were doing the same to the enemy being used as field artillery, generally in support of the Guards Armoured Division. Our wanderings included about 2 weeks, on the beach at Lions sur Mer, which was quite near where we'd landed. We were there with the radar to track German planes, which were coming over at night and laying mines in the beach approaches.

Our job was to track the plane and plot its course with both radar sets until such time as the mine was dropped, then one set would continue to follow the plane, it's course being plotted every 10 seconds whilst the other set followed the reflection from the mine. In this way we were able to produce on a chart the course of the plane and the range and bearing of the mine when last detected. This plot was then sent off by don-r the following morning to some naval HQ who proceeded to send out the minesweepers and generally they were able to find the mines and blow them up.

There were still large amounts of litter on the beach, infantry landing craft, capsized boats of all kinds and one really came to understand what price had been paid to get us all ashore and indeed was still being paid just inland. The fierce fighting around Caen and Carpiquet aerodrome eventually got its reward and we rejoined our Bty. to proceed to the next battle line. This meant us going through Caen, which was in a terrible state and my only memory, is of the convoy going round the cathedral, which was standing alone amongst a mass of rubble. Many years later I returned to Caen to find a marvellous city with a very wide "Avenue de la Liberation".

Then the breakout occurred and we spent many days chasing - going round the back of the Falaise gap where the stench was something terrible. Dead men, cattle, horses abounded and there were large piles of debris. But we were now seeing the plains of northern France, which was a great change from the hedgerows of the bocage country in Normandy. It probably wasn’t quite so pretty but there was certainly less opportunity for the Germans to hide a tank or a raiding party.

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