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Introduction

This article has been written by Joseph Ritson, a volunteer story-gatherer for the “People’s War” website with the ����ý Radio Cumbria CSV Action Desk at the Whitehaven Maritime Festival on 25 — 26 June 2005. It is submitted with the permission of Mr Billy Pye from Whitehaven, Cumbria with his permission. The author fully understands the terms of the “People’s War” website.

Billy was born in 1925 and is now 80 years old. He is married to Margaret. During World War Two, Billy was in the Corps of Signals. Billy took part in the Normandy Landings, landing in France at ‘Omaha Beach’ on D-Day + 2, 8 June 1944.

60th Anniversary the Normandy Landings

In June 2004, Billy and his wife went to Normandy and took part in the 60th Anniversary Commemorations of the Normandy landings. Twelve months later, Billy told me this about that occasion:

“One of the proudest days of my life was last year at Bayeux on the 6th of June. It was a very hot day and I was standing with a lot of the others from the Normandy Veterans. First of all Tony Blair came by and talked with us. Then Cheri Blair came along and talked to us as well. She had someone with her who was taking photographs and later on she sent a copy in the post. It was really nice.

Then the Queen came by, followed by Prince Philip. Both of them spoke to me as well. Prince Philip said we could have done with a day like this when we landed 60 years before. I told him the weather on D-Day hadn’t affected me as I had landed on the 8th of June.

There was this fellow standing near to me called Tom Gilhooley. It was a sunny day and we had been standing out in the sun for over an hour by then. Prince Philip said to him ‘You’re going to pay for it standing out in the sun for a such a long time’.

Later on, the Queen and Prince Philip passed us by again. Prince Philip spied Tom in the crowd. By this time his face was going red with the sun. Prince Philip pointed over to Tom and joked with him, ‘I told you you’d pay for it standing out in the sun!” We all had a good laugh. It just goes to show that Prince Philip had taken notice and remembered us”.

During the Commemoration Ceremony at Bayeux, Billy was one of those who laid a wreath on behalf of the Normandy Veterans Association. After he returned home, he found out that someone had recorded a video showing him on the television. Over the weekend, Billy visited several other sites in Normandy with others from the West Cumbria Branch of the Association.

In July 2004, Billy and his wife Margaret were invited to attend a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace with two other couples from the West Cumbria Branch of the Normandy Veterans. The others were Jim Jolly and his wife Mary, and Pat Kelly and his wife Pauline. This was another tremendous day out.

A strange encounter in Normandy

Billy also told me a little about his time in Normandy during the summer of 1944:

“I landed with the Yanks on Omaha Beach on the 8th of June and we stayed with them for a while after that. We went to Ste. Mère Église, Valognes and Cherbourg. After landing, we slept in a tent in an apple orchard for six weeks.

Our job was to look after the telephone lines. I had a really strange experience one time in Normandy. There was this one night the line went down, so we went out in the middle of the night, towards Valognes, to fix it.

After fixing the line, it would be about 3 o’ clock in the morning and still dark. We drove back to our tent in our 3-ton Bedford truck and saw two Yanks on the road. We stopped and picked them up.

Then a funny thing happened. One of them said to me, ‘Are you from Cumberland?’ So I asked him, ‘How do you know that?’ He could recognise my accent. I thought it odd that a Yank would know that. He told me, ‘When I was over in Britain, I used to go and stay with my Aunt and Uncle in Maryport!’

That explained why he recognised where I came from. It really was funny that it should happen like that in the middle of the night over in France”.

The importance of remembering

Billy took part in the official county of Cumbria ‘Victory Parade’ for the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War Two at Whitehaven on 26 June 2005. This was another proud and happy occasion.

Billy has attended World War Two Memorial Services on many occasions over the years, and in every kind of weather. At a Memorial Service at Whitehaven in November 2004, which I also attended, Billy and his fellow Normandy Veterans took part despite heavy rain.

The weather in Whitehaven, Cumbria in November 2004 was rather different to that in Bayeux in June 2004! However, the weather for the Cumbria County ‘Victory Parade’ on 26 June 2005 was a warm, sunny day similar to that at Bayeux on 6 June 2004.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, due to the large numbers of people talking part in the Parade, I was unable to talk to Billy that day. However, we met a few days later, when Billy told me the above account of some of hiswartime memories. On the same day, we also discussed the relative merits between dance music during the war and the post-war period, and what the correct pronunciation of Caen should be!

Few people are probably aware that there were British servicemen who landed at Omaha Beach, which was officially one of the ‘American Landing Beaches’. Nevertheless, Billy was one of those who can rightfully say he landed on Omaha Beach.

“Thank you for sharing these memories!”

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