大象传媒

My name is Jim Dapre, I was a staff sergeant in the R.E.M.E. (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Although I originally joined the Hampshire Regiment I eventually worked with the Armament Artificer Instruments. (Ack-Ack Guns)

I was stationed in Sittingbourne where there were two naval forts based in the Thames Estuary, they were there because German bombers used to travel up the River Thames to bomb London. The forts were on the sandbanks of the river. Royal Marines manned these forts although we did all the repair and modifications work on the guns because they were not qualified to carry out repairs. There were heavy AA and light AA guns on these forts as well as Predictors. When Jim was called to these forts for any work he was taken from Sittingbourne to the fort by drifters, which came from Sheerness. Jim went to each of the forts about 3 times while he was there, sometimes to do repairs and other times to do modifications.

One of the forts was about 10 miles north of Margate and was called HMS Tongue Sands Fort, the other was called HMS Knock John Fort, both were under command of the Navy.

I saw the ships setting off for D-Day and later saw some of the ships returning with the wounded. As a staff sergeant I was ranked the same as a Petty Officer and therefore was allowed to use the Petty Officer鈥檚 mess.

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