大象传媒

This is my father's WW2 story about training in a secret radio unit and surviving D-Day.

My father trained with a secret RAF unit, which bent the radio beams used by German bombers to locate targets. He worked all over England, notably on Porlock Hill, diverting German bombers to harmless areas. He was not allowed to show his insignia on his uniform, and he spent a lot of leave time in civvies, much to the annoyance of his father, as he was not allowed to divulge his unit's existance to anyone, even the military police.

On D-Day he was sent to France with a ten-tonne lorry containing heavy radio equipment to transmit messages back to Churchill in the War Office. His landing craft was hit in either the first or second wave. The craft lost steering, as well as the rear superstructure and the navy gun crew, before missing the British beaches completely. My father ended up crossing minefields and landing on the Canadian beaches, very close to the American sectors. Pinned down by snipers, he and the surviving crew used the lorry for cover, the only cover for some distance. The lorry survived as did the equipment. He was shot at by the Americans who thought that the RAF blue meant he was a German. A few days later, his job done, he left the beaches from the floating harbour just before it broke up.

He was sent back to France, Belgium and Holland to investigate German V rocket, radar and radio installations. He was in Belgium for VE day, where he witnessed people being dragged onto the streets where their heads were shaved and their personal belongings thrown to the ground from the windows above.

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