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This story was submitted by Alan Welsh, a Radio Cumbria volunteer, on behalf of Ray Lisgo and has been added to the site with his permission.

551604 Ray Lisgo was involved in the American Utah Beach landing on D-Day. The RAF were there with Mosquito night fighters as, at that time, the Americans didn't have any night fighters.

Ray was in charge of a small mobile signals unit attached to 21 Sector RAF. After the landing, Ray's unit followed the Americans up to the capture of Cherbourg, though they were forced to pull back a few times by fierce fighting. There was very heavy fighting as they moved up to Vire and St Lo, which were just about completely flattened.

After taking Cherbourg, Ray鈥檚 unit moved quickly across France to Paris and his unit were the first English and RAF unit to enter the city. Ray set up the unit at Longchamps racecourse. It was from there that he watched the liberation parade through Paris.

Ray鈥檚 unit was quickly on the move again, this time to Chateau Dun to help the Americans with their first night fighter, the 鈥淏lack Widow鈥�. However, the stay was short lived as a signal from Wing Commander Reid of HQ 85 Group called Ray to a meeting at Amiens railway station at 3pm the next day.

Whilst this might be a simple journey now, it was anything but then! Unfortunately, nobody at HQ had given any thought to how Ray and his unit would get to Amiens as north of Paris many bridges were down, large areas hadn鈥檛 been cleared of mines and there were still Germans around! After a 鈥渄ifficult鈥� journey, somehow Ray made it, but 3 hours late.

From there, Ray鈥檚 unit was sent to Brussels and then Antwerp where he was involved in the liberation of both cities. As the signals unit for 85 EU, Ray suffered a period of bombing by V1s and V2s, until the big push started, which took Ray鈥檚 unit into Germany.

Towards the end of the war, Ray鈥檚 unit was involved in the liberation of another major city, Amsterdam.

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