大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Margaret Walsh of The Royal Star and Garter Home on behalf of Louis Pengelly-Phillips and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

We trained down in Devon for D-Day. This involved practice shooting, one armed combat, etc. We went out once or twice on the moors and did survival stuff. That probably took most of the winter of 1943.

We stayed there waiting for D-Day and then about 3 weeks later we went up to a camp near Southampton. We were billeted there waiting for D-Day. We spent our time having the odd drink. We went on escorted trips to Southampton 鈥� because we weren鈥檛 meant to tell anyone about D-Day.

Then D-Day came but it was postponed from the 5th to the 6th of June because of bad weather. On the 5th we left Southampton at 9 or 10 in the evening and went down the Solent. I鈥檇 never seen so many ships in my life. There were hundreds of them and also things like the mulberry harbours and a rocket launching ship [with 500 rockets that were fired on shore just before we landed].

The weather wasn鈥檛 too good but I wasn鈥檛 seasick or anything.

Ahead of us were minesweepers and we were escorted by warships like destroyers.

Every night the Germans use to send E-Boats [torpedo boats] to do reconnaissance. They went to different parts of the south coast, from Brighton round to Southampton, to see what was happening.

The night we sailed for D-Day they didn鈥檛 come across the Channel 鈥� I don鈥檛 know why. It was good fortune for us 鈥榗os if they鈥檇 come they鈥檇 have come straight into us. The game would have been up! So we were saved.

Well, we made a haphazard crossing of the Channel. We had to keep stopping 鈥� probably because of the minesweepers doing their job. My brother was on HMS Belfast 鈥� they were protecting the flanks from German warships.

When we left Southampton we towed a small boat behind us 鈥� and in it was a bloke. I don鈥檛 know why he was there. Perhaps he was going to go ashore before us and mark the landing area. I never did know. Every few hours we sent him food across the line towing the boat.

BUT about midnight we lost contact with him. The boat broke adrift. We lost him. He may have been rescued 鈥� I just don鈥檛 know.

Eventually we got to the coast of France, about 2.30 - 3 in the morning. We were about 8 鈥� 10 miles from the coast on our landing craft. We were due to go ashore about 6 in the morning.

From about 3 the Royal Navy bombarded the coast with every shell. There was steady bombardment for about 2 hours, to soften up the defences 鈥� pill boxes etc. We could hear this going on from our landing craft. [There were about 20 assault craft on each landing craft, and about 10 men in each assault craft.]

On top of that we heard the aircraft going over in waves 鈥� but we couldn鈥檛 see them.

The major in charge asked if we would like to write any final notes to our families. He said they would be sure to be delivered safely. I didn鈥檛 write one actually.

At about 5 in the morning the bombardment finished. We waited nearly an hour before we were sent ashore on the assault craft. The initial assault was of 20 boats and I was in the first wave. I landed on Gold Beach.

We went ashore about 6 and landed about 8 miles west of Caen, in Arramanche. It was a bit rough, but not too bad. We got on shore quite easily 鈥� it was a sloping beach. We had to go a few hundred yards across open beach before we got to land and the pill box.

On Gold I remember on the left 鈥� east 鈥� there was persistent machine gun firing at us 鈥� probably 4 or 5. They would have a go at us as we landed. We lost a few 鈥� not too many, about 10 or 20.

The Americans landed at Omaha. They had to go up a small cliff, 100 feet high. They had to use grapples to climb. But the Americans not only had to go up the cliff, but there was the Panzer division - a very efficient German unit 鈥� on top of the cliff, half a mile inland. They decimated the Americans. On the first day they lost 4000 men.

We, in our sector, we shot or captured the Germans. The machine gun post was silent. I landed with a sten gun 鈥� you could fire single shots and a volley of shots. I landed with one of those, not a rifle. There was one sten gun to every 10 men. The others had rifles.

We cleared the beach. We advanced slowly inland. The major told us to be ready for any German counter attack. About a day after landing, about a mile inshore, near a French village the major said 鈥淕et ready for any counter attack by the Germans鈥�.

We dug trenches and manned the machine gun posts. In this village me and my mates found ourselves outside a lovely white house. It had not been damaged by the bombardment although most other houses in the village had been damaged.

We got talking with the local inhabitants 鈥� they spoke a little English and we spoke a little French. We asked them about the German occupation and how they had fared. They said that food was difficult to come by. They had to live by their wits.

We got talking but I wasn鈥檛 in a very good mood. My best mate Saunders 鈥� he got killed, shot through the head on the beach.

Actually I was lucky, 鈥榗os when I was landing, a bullet ricocheted off my tin hat. Otherwise I would have been like Saunders 鈥� dead.

The white house in this village was owned by an Englishwoman. She said to us 鈥淲e did not want you to come 鈥� we were quite happy under the Germans.鈥� I thought to myself 鈥� why did we bother?

However the French were very relieved and thanked us for liberating them.

So that was that鈥︹�e were about 10 miles from Caen. It took us 4 months to get to Caen. The reason for this was that the Germans surrounded Caen with every tank and gun in the book and they bombarded us and the invasion fleet just off the coast day and night. It wasn鈥檛 very pleasant I can tell you.

So what we did 鈥� we dug bunkers about 10 feet down. We stayed there and got a bit of a kip at night. So unless we had a direct hit we weren鈥檛 too badly off.

But the reason they did that was to stop us breaking out of the landings and advancing through France to Germany 鈥� but eventually we got to Caen, losing our people all the way.

We got into Germany in about October when I got hit in the leg. I was taken to Edinburgh for about 6 months. Then I rejoined the Unit. But I didn鈥檛 join them in France because they鈥檇 come back to England by then. They were training to go to Burma to fight the Japanese.

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