- Contributed by听
- loughton library
- People in story:听
- Mr J E Taylor
- Location of story:听
- Sheerness, Kent
- Background to story:听
- Royal Navy
- Article ID:听
- A2799093
- Contributed on:听
- 01 July 2004
J.E. Taylor. First Class Stoker. H.M.S. Dakins.
Roughly about 0200hrs on the 6th of June 1944 our ship rendezvoused with two 'Sun' tugs towing "Pluto" (Pipe Line Under The Ocean). Our destination was Aromanches in France - secret code of "PLUTO" was HMS Conundrums!
We arrived at about 0500hrs and our next job was to patrol the beach and keep off E boats or any other craft that were likely to interfere with the landings. When it got light we couldn't believe our eyes! all the ships and craft that were surrounding us. We were near the battleship King George V which was bombarding the gun emplacements on the shore.
What a lot of people didn't know was apart from using german frogmen to put limpet mines on our ships they also had radio controlled boats full of TNT which were remotely operated from the cliffs.
We then went up to 'Omaha Beach' and realised what a pounding the Americans were getting.
We continued with our patrols and escorted landing craft across.
I went to see "Saving Private Ryan" and it was so true to life that, even after all these years, it reduced me to tears.
Normal patrols continued around the south coast.
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