大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 war site by Forbes Inglis on behalf of William (Bill) McGregor and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

We landed on Gold beach on D Day. We were in about four foot of water and had to get the gun off the landing craft. As it was coming off the tow bar from the lorry snapped and the gun went into the water.

The gun crew and the lorry carried on to the beach. I stood there frantically waving to them. Three or four of them came back, chest deep in water and we manhandled the gun to the shore. We were pulling the wheels of the gun in the water.

All the time we were doing this we were under fire but we eventually got the gun onto the beach. An officer shouted to us to stay with the gun. We were left alone with the gun, cold, damp and wet.

Around us were other lorries, guns and tanks, all broken down on the beach. We spent the night on the beach with the beachmaster shouting to us to get the gun further onto the beach to allow other guns onto the beach. There was complete chaos all around us.

The other picked us up the next day and we rejoined our unit and carried on with the job.

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