大象传媒

MARCH 1943- Volunteered for RAF. ENLISTED AS A TRAINEE RADIO/WIRELESS MECHANIC.
1941/1942- "square bashing" boscombe. technical training northen polytechnic, london and RAF cranwell.
MARCH 1943-volunteered(for what was described as a "special unit") It turnedout to be the RAF servicing commandos which were then formed and trained for the prospective invasion of Europe.
1943/1944- we were incorporated in "Combined Operation" and intensively trained. We all had to swim, to drive trucks,to attend assault courses,e.g commando training school inverary, scotland, beaches of south wales, gas drills etc.Training also involved work experience on a wide variety of aircraft,hurricanes,spitfires,mustangs, mosquitos etc. to do so we travelled far and wide in the uk visiting aerodromes and airstrips. in all 31 different sites in 14 months.
3rd june 1944- moved to "holding" site old sarum (salisbury) along with thousads of others bound for normandy.
8am 6th june 1944- embarked (with transport) on LCT (landing craft Tanks)at gosport and set sail. we were in line three abreast. in mid channel, the LCT to our immediate left was attacked by German Torpedo boats and set on fire, one member of our unit died, others were injured. They were left floating in the channel untill being rescued by a US Destroyer. We arrived off the coast during the hours of darkness on the 6th june 1944 and hove to, to wait dawn and land on gold beach. Around 4.30am on the 7thjune 1944, landing craft were beached, the ramps lowered and we drove ashore. The army was a few miles in land but all credit to those who, a few hours before, had lifted the miles so we were able to drive along white taped paths to a field a mile or so from the baech. It had been occupied by germans who had been overcome. there were dead bodies about and what i remember particularly were their tents where inside the porridge was still in bowls on the trestle tables and a radio was still playing. we "commandeered" the battery radio for our own use. there were also battery operated miniature tanks with explosive charges which they had not had time to use. we disarmed them. that first night ashore, we had to "defend" our area. i spend my first night in Normandy in a ditch with a 303 rifle. Along side me was dead german who had been split in half by a shell and whose face was looking up at me between his legs. i didn't envisage this when i had joined the RAF three years earlier. next morning german prisoners were brought in to remove their dead. we also found out that the entrance to the field had been mined. our trucks had driven over them but thankfully they had not detonated. the royal engineers came in and made them safe and lifted them. all six units were now doing their jobs at the strips which had been laid down. because we had almost complete air superiority we were able to work almost unhindered but there was the odd ME109 on a strafing mission. Bayeux was captured early on and we visited, were made welcome by the towns flok and enjoyed tastes of camembert cheese and calvados (apple brandy). Talking of bayeux we were invited by the mayor to attend the bastille day celebrations (14th july), which we did and also arranged a football match between our unit and the towns folk. of all the aircrafts serviced, i was most impressed by the typhoons which were carrying out thier tank busting operations ahead, particularly in the Caen area.
We Returned to uk on 07.08.44 and were thanked for our contribution to the undertaking. what we didn't know was that the powers that be had other plans for us. Two months later we were on embarkation leave, then on to a troop ship to bombay. From there to burma where we took part in the re-conquest of that country and down to rangoon. There we were training for the assault on sinapore, which, thank god never took place because of the atomic bomb and the end of the war in far east.

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