大象传媒

What did you do in the War, Grandad?

I knew that sooner or later, someone would ask me, perhaps somewhat hesitantly, what I did so many years ago.

Perhaps my only claim to fame was landing, as a Private, on the Beaches of France on 鈥淒鈥� Day, 6th June 1944.

Preparation for D-Day started for me in April 1944 when I was posted from the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire regiment in Northern Ireland to join the Hertfordshire Regiment at Bournemouth. I soon discovered that the Battalion was scheduled to become a Beach Group when the invasion of Europe started.

My Army career had been rather mixed. I was not called up until June 1943 (at the age of just under 20, having been in reserved occupation since the beginning of the War.) Six weeks Primary Training, ten weeks Infantry Training, followed by six weeks Anti-Tank Gunnery Training, was the sum total of all of the training I received. From November 1943 I was employed in the Army as a clerk in the Orderly Room and this job continued until before D-Day, even though I had changed Battalions and Regiments. Pen-pushers were in very short supply. In April or May the Battalion moved to a tented camp at Hursley, just south of Winchester and from there, to our practice landing from Southampton to Hayling Island. On this occasion we had left Southampton Water on an American Liberty Ship, a troop-carrier capable of moving about one thousand soldiers. The first wave of troops away consisted of a company of Royal Marine Commandos in LCA鈥檚 (assault landing craft), each craft holding about 30 men. My lot was the second wave and we climbed down scramble nets into the LCA鈥檚 which by this time had landed the Commandos and had returned for their next load. Soon we were speeding towards the friendly shore of Hayling Island near Portsmouth. We landed with hardly a wet foot amongst us. Later the same day we were trucked back to Hursley 鈥� now a 鈥渟ealed鈥� camp with no further entry or exit permitted until the real thing. How different the 鈥渞eal thing鈥� was going to be.

The remainder of May was spent in checking kits, loading vehicles and trailers. In our case, anti-tank guns and the towing carriers were not going ashore until D+8 (i.e., 8 days after D-Day). Trucks and vehicles were painted on top with large stars contained in a circle 鈥� the official recognition symbol of the Allied Forces, so that they could easily spot our vehicles. By this time, the Allies had virtually total supremacy in the air and camouflage was no longer considered necessary. We were issued with ammunition and sufficient emergency food for two days, plus a sealed tin containing iron rations. I never did see inside one of those tins.

An excellent briefing was given to us, platoon by platoon, with the use of fantastically clear photographs of our designated landing area. Some of the photographs had been taken from the sea and gave us a full panoramic view of what we would see as we approached France. Other photographs had been taken from the air and a sand-table had been produced (with code-names for villages and towns up to several miles inland). One house above the beach area was to be our landmark and our first objective was to get to that house and open up a field for our tanks to use as an area for the removal of the steel intake and exhaust ducting. These ducts were to be used for air intakes and exhaust fumes to and from the tank engines and the outer openings of these ducts were higher than the tank, thus preventing flooding of the engine compartments with sea water as the tanks came ashore on the sea, driven by their tracks.

In our briefing also, we were told that we would not see a civilian for at least a month. The prior bombing and shelling of the coastal defences immediately before our landings would have driven the civilians miles away from the coast.

We were issued with new uniforms and soft berets and new respirators with corks to keep the sea water out of the containers. The uniforms were called BD Blouses and Trousers AV. The BD stood for "Battledress" and the AV was thought to be "anti-vapour" because there was a strong possibility that the Germans would start to use poison gas to repel the invaders. It later turned out that "AV" stood for "anti-vermin" and that the clothing contained white powder (presumably DDT).

At the end of May we again left the camp and were trucked to Southampton Docks. Whilst we were waiting on the dock-side to board our boat I decided to weigh my kit on some scales. My kit consisted of a steel helmet, large pack, greatcoat, blanket, spade, rifle, 100 rounds of ammunition for rifles, 4 full magazines for a Bren gun, 4 hand grenades, small pack, water bottle (full) 48 hours food, bayonet and respirator. That lot weighed 120 pounds.

We spent five days in the Solent, swinging on the anchor chain with each tide. All one could see were boats of all descriptions filling the Solent in all directions and turning in unison. It was a wonderful sight to see so many boats gathered together, not so many miles from German High Command.

On Sunday, 4th June 1944, we were told at a final briefing aboard ship, that the next day we would land in France, but we still had no idea just where. Later that day, we were told that, because of expected gales, the landing would be delayed 24 hours. Unless weather conditions worsened more than anticipated, D Day was to be 6th June 1944.

Monday was spent in doing again what we had already done on the Sunday - like writing last letters home and again cleaning our weapons.

During the night we up-anchored and moved out into the English Channel round the Isle of Wight and moved west, almost I think, to the Scilly Islands, where we joined many other ships to form a massive convoy. Imagine the amount of clear water needed to turn a convoy of such magnitude - the convoy was several miles wide and many miles long. Think of the work of the mine-sweepers to ensure that such an amount of water was clear of mines.

Those of us who had slept during the night were awakened before 5 a.m. and we washed, shaved and ate breakfast with a drop of rum in our tea. Our first wave of Commandos left our boat soon after 7 a.m. and was due to land at 7.30 a.m. All around us, warships, battle ships, cruisers, destroyers, were shelling the beaches and beyond in advance of our own troops. The noise was deafening, but at 7.55 we were told over the loudspeaker system that the Commandos had hit the beach. Almost immediately, the 大象传媒 was switched through the loud-speaker system and we heard that their listeners were being told that Allied troops had landed on the continent. The LCA鈥檚 were to return to the ship and take the next wave (ours) ashore and we were due to land one and a half hours after the Commandos, i.e., at 9 a.m.

Because of the very rough seas - the threatened gales had arrived - a tank landing craft (LCT) came alongside to take us off. The sea was so bad that, instead of going down the scramble nets, we were ordered to use the Jacob鈥檚 Ladder - a vertical steel ladder some three to four feet wide. Our Liberty ship and LCT were moving up and down some 20 feet. Two of our sergeants were standing on the LCT hanging on to stanchions and as the LCT moved up the side of the Liberty ship, they grabbed one of the soldiers on the Jacob鈥檚 Ladder and pulled him on to the LCT. Some 250 of us were transferred that way without loss or injury. A slip would have resulted in some unfortunate soldier being crushed between the steel plates of the two ships.

This transfer took some time and with the rolling of the two boats, almost everyone was terribly sea-sick, even the sailors. During this operation the rope holding the two boats together had parted and it seemed I was the only person who could accept a second hauser and secure it round a stanchion and tie off with a bowline. When we were able to move away, some Naval Officer asked where I had learnt that knot and I told him, "in the Scouts". He said, "Bloody good job someone knew." A blow from a felling axe was needed to part the rope.

We moved towards the shore, still very sea-sick and eventually met up with the LCA's. We were loaded about 30 at a time into the LCA's and headed for the shore. Right ahead of us was the big house seen in our briefings. We hit the beach at 12.55 and as I moved off the LCA I saw 4 rifles had been left behind. In addition to my own 120 Ibs of gear, I picked up the 4 rifles and walked down the ramp into the water which came up to my waist and was running fast (the water - not me).

I staggered up the beach, met my section leader and some of the section, handed over the rifles to their owners and started the usual job of a soldier in action - digging in. My trench was about a couple of inches deep when the ground near me was disturbed by two rifle bullets. Somehow I got into that shallow trench whilst my comrades rounded up the two Germans who had fired at me. It appeared when they were searched that they only had wooden bullets which they used for target practice and had no steel bullets at all. After some questioning the two Germans (one about 16) were escorted to the beach to go to England as Prisoners of War.

Our section was now complete and we moved up the hill behind the beach to the "Big House" which was our objective. Just off the beach, I saw a civilian. He told us that fields with black and white skull and cross bones did NOT contain mines but fields with black and yellow signs DID contain mines. (The German Commander had been ordered to plant more mines but hadn't any to put down, so he put up signs instead. However, with the German habit for working to a system, the empty fields were marked with a different coloured sign.) The civilian said that he was a member of the Maquis (the Resistance Forces) and wanted a rifle or other weapon. I thanked him for his information but gave him no weapon and we moved further towards our destination. There, behind the big house, was a row of smaller houses, with civilians in most of them. I spoke to one French woman of about 35 to 40 who had a daughter of about 12 in bed with a fever and could not be moved. I gave the girl some of the boiled sweets from my rations.

Our duty at the "Big House" was to mark out the field at the side of the house with tapes and when the tanks blew off the steel ducts, we were to collect them, move them to one side and keep them in case they were needed further inland on some river crossing. Not one tank arrived. We found out later that on touching ground on the beaches the tank commanders had jettisoned the ducts immediately as they were in the way of traversing the gun turret.

We were then moved back to the beach to gather the steel ducts and put them out of the way. The beach was a mess - many tanks had bogged down and as the tide had gone out, bodies were to be seen where they had fallen. Other troops were removing the bodies and we were able to dig the sand away from the tracks and the "belly" of a tank so that recovery vehicles could tow it away. Some three or four such tanks were dealt with in this manner.

All this time craft of all types were coming on to the beach, unloading men and vehicles and the amount of traffic heading for the beach exits was very heavy. The Royal Navy heavy ships were still firing from their positions out at sea and heavy shells were going over the beaches to fall eight to ten miles inshore.

That night, for some time, I slept in a concrete block-house containing an undamaged 88mm gun. The air raids and the naval shelling should have destroyed the block-house and gun but it had been very well built and only one corner of that particular emplacement had suffered any damage.

Early next morning at about 6 a.m. two German recce. planes came over the beach and every ship lying off-shore and batteries of anti-aircraft guns on-shore opened up. Both of the planes were shot down. (Over the next seven months I saw only one other German airplane and that too was shot down.) It was wonderful to be so safe from enemy aircraft and we were grateful for our air supremacy.

I worked on the beaches until 3rd August 1944, unloading boats and acting as part of the "heavy mob" to keep the beach clear of broken down vehicles. Much of the time was spent on handling large ammunition and the six weeks I had spent on anti-tank training had developed muscles that I was beginning to find useful.

I joined the 1st/5th Battalion of the Queen's Royal Regiment (Part of the 7th. Armoured Division - the Desert Rats) at Caumont on the night of the 3rd August - but what followed is a different story.

When asked about the D Day landings I always say that it was an experience in which I was proud to have taken part - but I didn't ever want to go through that again.

The planning for D Day had obviously been extremely well prepared and the putting into action of the plans was most successful. No matter how well the whole wonderful episode in the history of the war had been planned and implemented, it nearly failed. Not through shortage of men or materials, guns or ammunition, food, petrol and water, but through the fact that, for very good reasons, the landings had to take place in the throes of a gale. A second gale, later in June, again caused problems in getting men and materials (especially 25 pounder ammunition) from the ships to the front line.

It seemed to me then, and still does, that we were extremely lucky to "get away with it". I still feel sorry for all the soldiers who were so violently sea-sick then had to struggle to the beach and then immediately start fighting an enemy. I am glad that I have never been sea-sick.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.