When did you sign up with the armed forces?
I joined the Royal Navy in December 1942 and was sent to HMS Collingwood in Fareham for a signallers course. I spent three months there before they shut the signalling school and I was transferred to Skegness. It was here that I became a signalman-trained operator until a draft came for combined operations on landing craft, and I was sent to an LCG (Landing Craft, Gun) ship for close-in work on beach landings. I joined a flotilla at Glasgow and we did gun-firing courses and then moved to the south coast to do full-scale landings at Studland Bay, aiming at on-shore targets with live ammo.
How were you involved in D-Day?
We loaded the armoury to its full extent and took on army gunners and wireless operators. On the morning of the landings we were assigned to Gold Beach, where the opposition wasn’t at its strongest.
We all took off from the south coast and, although everyone was fully aware that the landing was on, we only got the official sealed order when we were at sea. We’d practised for so long, D-Day felt overdue. I was on the flotilla leader so we gave signals to all the other craft using flags and Aldis lamps.
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Bu hikaye History of War dergisinin Issue 133 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
THE ANGELS OF BASTOGNE
In the middle of Germany’s final major offensive, a young nurse risked her life to help treat wounded American soldiers
REICH TO REPUBLIC
INTERVIEW WITH FRANK TRENTMANN From defeat and division to democracy, the historian examines Germany's struggle with post-war guilt, memory and reconciliation
THE SPARTACIST UPRISING
The fledgling democratic republic of Germany was forced to immediately fight for its existence against communist insurgents bent on its destruction
WHAT IF...MEXICO DEFEATED THE UNITED STATES?
Could Mexico have claimed vast swathes of territory, including the potentially gold-rich California, in a huge blow to US expansion?
THE MARCH ACTION
The final rising of the radical left during the Weimar period was followed by the sharp decline of communist influence in Germany
BALTIMORE
In the War of 1812, the Royal Navy launched an assault on the economic hub of Maryland, prompting an inspired American defence against the old enemy
THE RUHR UPRISING
After the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch, radical left-wing workers united in a violent bid to establish a Soviet-style government
THOMAS J HUDNER
This US Navy aviator fought a desperate battle against time, flames and the brutal North Korean winter in an attempt to rescue his trapped wingman
GHOSTS OF DYNAMO
Armed with the British Admiralty's battle summary, firsthand accounts and a 2023 seabed survey, it's now possible explore a number of Operation Dynamo wrecks to understand what was lost at Dunkirk
1944-45 BATTLE FOR EUROPE SNIPERS
These elite sharpshooters led the Allied advance in Normandy and eventually beyond the frontier of the Third Reich
