大象传媒

At the time of D-Day I was 16 years old, and I was working as an apprentice boat builder at Old Portsmouth, Portsmouth, and living in Paulsgrove and cycling to work each day. During the course of our daily work our workshops overlooked the harbour mouths and we were able to view the activity, landing craft and naval ships entering and leaving the harbour.

Prior to D-Day barbed wire barricades had been erected at Cambridge junction (this is at the top of the high street, Old Portsmouth) with armed sentries and we were issued with a security pass to go to work within the barricades. There was work going on there prior to D-Day to reinforce slipways to accommodate the heavy vehicles needed for D-Day such as tanks, bren-gun carriers, etc. This reinforcement comprised of heavy duty steel mesh to give a better grip for the equipment being loaded because the old slipways were cobbled.

We saw the tanks and vehicles lined up in the streets prior to D-Day, security was quite strict, military police discouraged fraternisation with service personnel, to make sure that relationships were kept to a minimum. Where equipment was parked in residential areas fraternisation did take place to a degree as house wives would make tea and officers would arrange for their men to take a bath where possible.

Progressively the vehicles were loaded on to their respective landing craft, there were different types of landing craft for different vehicles, personal etc. As the loading was complete they moored in the Solent in readiness to leave. The troops themselves embarked from piers and Jetties along the south coast and in Portsmouth temporary embarking piers had been built along Southsea beach.

I remember on the Monday evening on the 5th June before going home in the evening looking across to the Isle of White and a thought struck me that I could have walked across the Solent to the Isle of White due to the armada of vessels that were present.
I was quite moved the next morning when I arrived at work at 7.15 going down to the beach looking out across the Solent and noted just one landing craft (obviously broken down) being attended to by a Tid Tug. We then heard later that morning (the 6th June) on the radio that the invasion had begun also the amount of aircraft activity made it obvious that things were happening over in France.

It was sad to see several days afterwards the wounded being disembarked from landing craft into ambulances which were parked the full length of Broard Street, Old Portsmouth.

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