00:00We just landed in kind of two or three feet of water, very easy, very easy landing.
00:09The beachmaster was there shouting, trying to clear the beach. Don't forget that I'm only one
00:17boat really, one thing there. Don't forget that all along the 50 mile stretch of D-Day
00:24all these things were happening to thousands of other soldiers.
00:31I remember seeing a military policeman on the little road as we came off the beach
00:42and he said to us, where is 12th Ordnance Beach Detachment? And he told us where to go.
00:48So and then I met up with my compatriots there because they landed from an LCT Infantry,
00:55I didn't. We knew that it was an invasion, we knew it was a battle that had to be won
01:03to win the war and we all did our little, as I said before, we all did our little 130,000th bit
01:12and all those bits together made a gigantic effort.
01:18But the sorry part about it was, as I said before to many people,
01:27I'm grateful to be alive. I'm grateful to have survived. I'm so sorry so many had to die
01:38and there they lie in Normandy. Those are the heroes. I don't like the word hero at all because
01:50I'm not a hero. All the heroes are behind the gravestones in Bayeux and Rathkill.
02:00You can't describe the feelings that you think when you're walking there with so many
02:06so many other veterans and they're all saying to you, we're not heroes,
02:14we're simply here to pay tribute to and remembrance of. That's the main thought.
02:21All that every time I've been there and I've been back, I think I've been back six times,
02:25I'm not sure now. Last things I remember, how did you sleep? Where did you sleep?
02:36How did you sleep? How did you eat? And all these things come on and somebody shouts
02:45aircraft action and you dive into your slit trench.
02:51It was a funny life really. Work, work, work, work, work.
02:57Oh, as I said before, those drivers of those amphibious vehicles, they did a marvellous job.
03:07Ships all over the place, there was aircraft flying over, there was guns going off
03:12and all the time you were looking at thousands and thousands of cans of petrol,
03:21thousands of cans of petrol and of course we were in charge of all the ammunition as well
03:27and ammunition, you have to be very careful with ammunition.
03:31Trust me, I hope I make it anyway but as I say I'm 100 years old and I could just go like that but
03:41those thoughts never went to my mind. It's important that we remember because the
03:47the soldiers gave up their life, they gave their all and those are the people that
03:56we should not forget. Can I tell you the words? They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old.
04:05Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning
04:14we will remember them.
04:22Well in a way it's a sad occasion because it's going to be the last one
04:28I think because our members are dwindling
04:35so it'll be a moving occasion.
04:44Emotions will be over the top I suppose. Sometimes when I'm either watching telly,
04:52reading a book or a paper and then all of a sudden something will click up here.
05:00It takes me back to then. I've had those occasions but they're gradually dwindling away now.
05:10Oh it's very important, we stress too. Wherever we go to the schools and different
05:19people we talk to, the army cadets, navy cadets, air force cadets, we've spoken to those as well
05:28and we do the same with those what we do with the school children that we
05:35say to them when we've finished all these questions and answers
05:40we say tell them that it's up to them now to these youngsters to make sure that what we
05:49went through never happens again and that's what we stress that to them
05:56and you know there's some really bright pupils in these schools.
06:06I was employed at Greens and I was still studying after leaving school at 16
06:14and of course when I got to 18 and a half I could have been reserved but like so many others
06:21I thought I ought to be doing my part and so I volunteered to go in and we did some infantry
06:30training type bit drill and so on to begin with and then they asked what I wanted to do
06:36and I said well I was a qualified mechanical engineer but I wanted to learn something. I'd
06:41like something electrical and luckily I got put into the signals and we had a morse code test
06:51which I failed dismally fortunately and eventually I got appointed as a trainee
07:01electrician, radio electrician, well all electrical stuff really. Anyway after that I was then
07:08transferred to the artillery to this 20th anti-tank regiment. I say anti-tank either
07:16anti-tank or AK. I'm not sure which they're called precisely and that was part of the 11th
07:24armoured division and I stayed with them mainly up around Winsley doing trials and things exercises
07:33and so on. Then we moved down when D-Day area time just before D-Day moved down to Salisbury
07:42then across to Kent and from there on the 12th of June we set off for Germany and
07:51as I say it was a peaceful journey expecting to be torpedoed every minute nothing happened.
07:58We'd got command of the sea and the skies I think and when we landed on the beach
08:04there were a lot of fires and flashes and bangs and so on but we didn't actually get any fire
08:11ourselves and it wasn't until we got settled in and the first thing we had was a creeping garage
08:20barrage and that's a bit frightening because you can feel the clashes getting nearer and nearer
08:26and then going past you and you think oh still here. Anyway then after that it was a matter of
08:34when I had to go to the front at night where the tanks were doing the repairs and so on
08:44and it brought it back to me one time I went up there were three forts
08:50and we'd to be away by four in the morning otherwise we probably wouldn't be there next day
08:57you know you could see us travelling. I used to go in a three-ton lorry and this was a fault
09:06and a sort of, forget what you call it, but it was a hit and miss fault which is difficult to find
09:17because if it's a fault there you can't find it. Anyway I managed to solve it just as I got a
09:23message saying would you go to such-and-such a map reference camouflage up because German tanks were
09:29coming and I thought if it had gotten to go there without a radio what would it have been like you
09:36know stuck out and in the wild with tanks approaching and no warning of it and so it
09:43made me realise that it was a pretty important job as far as they were concerned.
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