大象传媒

This story was submitted to the peoples war web site by Wendy young and has been added to the web site on behalf of John Marsh with his permission he fully understands the sites terms and conditions I was in the R.A.F. before D Day, then I was transferred to the mobile signals unit of 83 Gibbs tactical Air force in the February of 1944.
We sailed to France on the last day of the 30th June, the date had been put off due to the awful storms in the channel. We set off on a beautiful June day, clear skies, smooth sea and a big convoy, each landing ship had a barrage balloon. Half way across, the landing ship behind us had engine trouble and stopped. We were asked to stop and give it assistance. In the meantime, the rest of the convoy went off towards the coast of France, leaving us in the middle of the channel on our own. Within five minutes we saw a motor torpedo boat come speeding towards us, we didn't know wheter it was ours or German. Fortunately it was one of ours. It stayed to sort out the engine trouble then went off and we continued on our way.
Within 200 yds of the beach, a lot of dead bodies came floating by all in american uniforms. This certainly had a very subdued effect on us, because up till then we felt excited, but when we saw the dead bodies, it made us realise that this was war.
We landed on the wrong beach, it didn't matter. We made our way towards a small village called Cruelly. I was on a lorry with a broken gun on top of the cab. The lorry was being driven by Eric Sykes who became a friend to all of us. When we got to Germany I played football with him and drank with him in the Malcolm Club. Lady Malcolm put these pubs up in memory of her son.

Story submitted by Wendy Young

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