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UK's D-Day heroes set sail for France ahead of 80th D Day anniversary

04 June 2024 , 09:06
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Normandy veteran Jimmy Justice is joining the Royal British Legion (Image: PA)
Normandy veteran Jimmy Justice is joining the Royal British Legion (Image: PA)

There are 21 brave veterans travelling with the Royal British Legion to France today ahead of the 80th anniversary of D Day.

Fred Ayton, Harry Birdsall, James Forbes, Roy Harrison, Ronald Hendrey, Douglas Hyde, Donald Jones, James (Jim) Justice, Charles Henry (John) Kavanagh, Albert Keir, Alan Kennett, Jim Kelly, John Life, Joe Mines, Bernard Morgan, Jack Mortimer, Eugenius Nead, Peter Newton, Arthur William Oborne, Arnie Salter and Richard Trelease.

Some were decorators, factory workers and schoolboys before they were involved in the greatest invasion in history 80 years ago. Fred Ayton, 98, from Harrow in London, was told he was “making history” when they set off across the English Channel on board the HMS Sweetbriar.

He said he was “just a kid” when he was a Seaman Torpedoman, transporting troops from England over to Arromanches. Fred recalls “It’s exciting when you’re a young boy. They give you a nice talk from the Lords of Admiralty - the skipper has to read out ‘England expects everyman to do his duty’.

UK's D-Day heroes set sail for France ahead of 80th D Day anniversary eidekiqtiqrtprwRichard Aldred (centre) salutes from the deck of the Brittany Ferries ship Mont St Michel (PA)

And then they give you all that. ‘Today you’re making history’ and that’s a bit frightening then. I must say it made a man of me. It was very well planned and the enemy had no idea we were going to do it.” Harry Birdsall, 98, from Wakefield was in army between 1944 and 1947 serving with the Royal Army Service Corps and helped evacuate prisoners from Belsen concentration camp

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Harry was a Private and supplied equipment to the docks in the run-up to D-Day. He himself needed medical treatment afterwards: "I just couldn’t get the horror of it all out of my mind. They did some nasty things. I was having nightmares and I could not sleep and I saw the medical officer and they said we are going to send you and some more people to Hanover for a bit of respite.

"All they said was ‘don’t think about the bad things, think about the good things’." He says he now always says ‘it’s the water coming towards you that’s important, not the water that’s gone.” Roy Harrison, 98, Amersham in Buckinghamshire served in the Royal Navy between 1942 and 1945. He served on HMS Diadem and was anchored off Juno beach and was on the bridge with the Admiral and skipper.

“I could see almost everything and I think it was really panic stations, planes going this way and that way, boats going this way and that way and the poor soldiers wading in the water, half swimming and half wading. There was constant firing and pandemonium, and we were action stations for most of the day. Landing craft alongside…dropping their fronts…I couldn’t do anything…

“I still feel it now but we started bombarding the shore making a pathway…I was an air defence officer at the time…” Talking about the one memory that comes back all the time, he says: “Seeing all the soldiers in the water. It still comes back now. I am emotional about it. Seeing it, I couldn’t do anything. I was doing my job telling gun positions but I couldn’t go down and get them out of the water, I was up on the bridge.

“I could see all the smaller boats going out and trying to get to shore and we just tried to keep as much enemy fire away from them as possible and clear a path. It was all such a blur; I couldn’t tell you how long we were there for, but we did our bit to help those trying to get on land and ensure we could limit the damage of enemy planes coming in.”

Ronald Hendrey, 98, Clacton-on-Sea (Essex) Royal Navy (1942-1946). On D-Day Ronald was an Able Seaman. He still bears the scars of the war with tinnitus in his left ear. “On the eve of D-Day, we picked up two cruisers just off the Isle of Wight, including the HMS Belfast. I will never forget the captain’s words. He said, ‘You are about to go into France to begin the liberation of Europe – I want you to give 101% to our efforts in the next 24 hours.’

UK's D-Day heroes set sail for France ahead of 80th D Day anniversaryMore than 20 veterans are heading to France (PA)

“We were terrified, I have never known a ship go so quiet because everyone was thinking the same thing: ‘Is this my last day on earth?’ I remember seeing my first body, a US airman floating fully-clothed, and he looked so damn smart. We wanted to pull his body out of the water, but the bridge wouldn’t have it.”

Ron’s ship attacked Gold Beach, one particular section called King, and had to fire constantly on the German pillboxes for several hours. Pillboxes are concrete huts with holes for weapons to fire from. Ron was a cordite loader, on the port side of the gun, reloading quickly to maintain the bombardment.

Donald Jones, 99, from Mold in North Wales, Royal Navy (1943-1946). He was just 17 when he presented himself to the Royal Navy’s recruitment office in Wrexham. Donald was a gunner on board a Landing Craft Tank (LCT) which transported 100s of troops to the beaches. “You could’ve stepped from ship to ship across the sea,” he recalls.

He recalls: “In one incident a shell from a German shore battery passed me by six to eight feet…It went straight through the closed wheelhouse door, and out of the bulkhead on the starboard side before hitting the guardrail and disappearing into the sea.” He landed on Sword Beach at 8am on D-Day as part of the first wave. He completed approximately 20 trips from the UK to Normandy over the next 4-6 weeks, shipping troops over the Channel, landing on all 5 beaches during that time. On the return journey’s they would sometimes transport German prisoners.

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Albert Keir, 98, Derbyshire, Royal Navy. D-Day. Months prior to D-Day, Albert patrolled the sea area around the beaches before the army landed. On D-Day itself, Albert was part of the crew ferrying US troops onto Utah beach: “At night when it was dark, the sky was lit up with all different sorts of colours, tracer bullets and different things. And the noise was colossal… And the firing from the sea over our heads blasting the beaches was very bad. Took some standing that did. It’s very difficult to try and get it out of your mind. It took some time to get it more or less out of my mind.”

Alan Kennett, 99, Lichfield in Staffordshire was in the RAF between 1942-1946. Alan was aged 18 when he volunteered to join the RAF. He said of June 6th: “At this point we were still UK-based and ensuring the aircrafts were being serviced and refuelled when coming into Ford. There had been lots of aircraft activity over Ford, mostly heavy four engine bombers towing gliders out over the channel. The gliders were carrying airborne troops, who were the vanguard of the ground forces, and would be landing or dropping, as well as hopefully capturing specific targets.

“When we went into the mess for breakfast on the morning of the 6th June, there were a number of tough looking commandos in khaki combats. Apparently during the night their glider had broken loose from the towing plane and believing that they were in France, landed at Ford.”

UK's D-Day heroes set sail for France ahead of 80th D Day anniversaryThe veterans gathered on the deck of the ship (PA)

Jim Kelly, 97, from Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham, Army – 1st Battalion Royal Ulster Division, 6th Airborne Division D-Day. Jim applied three times for the Army – first time at 14 and a half when he was turned away, then again at 15 years old. That time his mother fetched him home and a third time at 17. He’d even tried to change the date on his birth certificate.

Jim was in 1st Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles, 6th Airborne Division as a machine gunner. "I wasn’t frightened before D-Day as I was brought up on films where when people were shot it was only a scratch! I thought I was untouchable!” He was just 17 on D-Day when he landed a glider near Pegasus Bridge. A vital site that needed to be taken to allow progress into France. “I’ve done nothing special,” he once said.

John Life, 100, from Greatstone in Kent was a 20-year-old bombardier in the Royal Artillery on D-Day. He suffered such bad sea sickness on the way over he was relieved to land on Sword Beach, despite recalling shells landing around him. “I was sick as a dog coming over. “ As he came down the ramp of the landing craft something whistled past him.

“I casually looked back to see who was coming next and I saw the lad behind me stop and clutch his throat…he was shot in the throat and killed straight away. That was the closest I got to not making it. I was lucky.” He remembers the bagpipes being played and the noise of the guns. Joe Mines, 99, from Hornchurch in London, was a Private in the Army when he landed at Ver-sur-Mer on D-Day. His first job was clearing mines, before bringing supplies ashore.

“The crossing went OK but when we arrived a mate of mine that I was called up with came ashore with me, and he got machine gunned and was cut in two pieces soon after we landed. There were five people in front of me who all got gunned down, and he was one of them, I just got lucky. I was a reluctant soldier, I got called up, but all the bombs, the gunfire and all the injuries, it didn’t bother me, and it hasn’t affected me since.

“I remember we were under machine gun fire at one place, and I just stood up, I really didn’t care. I just did what I was told to do. It’s only recently I’ve started talking about the War.” Bernard Morgan, 100, from Crewe served in the RAF. Bernard landed on Gold Beach at 6.30pm on D-Day becoming the youngest RAF sergeant to land in Normandy during the War. He still has the original telex which he received two days before VE Day to tell him that the Germans were surrendering.

Bernard has refused to hand the document to any museums and kept it secret for 50 years. Bernard was a codebreaker during the War, and the equipment he used was so sensitive that he couldn’t risk it being captured by the enemy. "Gold Beach was one of the better landing points on D-Day, but I can still vividly remember seeing dead bodies scattered all over the beach as I came ashore, and that is a sight that will stay with me forever.”

Jack Mortimer, 100, from Leeds in West Yorkshire served with the Royal Army Ordnance Corp. D-Day Jack was just 20 when he landed on Sword Beach and has vivid memories of D-Day: “There were thousands and thousands of ships on either side of us, loads of vehicles, tanks and artillery,” he said.

“I volunteered for the 12th Ordnance Beach detachment, because they wanted a driver and despatch rider.” Jack drove onto Sword Beach as shells and mortars flew overhead, before advancing on to Caen. He said: “It was dangerous, there were snipers all around. It was noisy, smoky, and smelly, and I saw lots of casualties.” The Royal British Legion also supported Jack by funding a visit back to Normandy for D-Day 75. He said: “When I go back there now, I cry. I saw bodies being brought off that beach.”

Eugenius Nead, 100, West London. Army. Eugenius is of Polish nationality and was deported to the former USSR in 1940. After being released, he joined the Polish Armed Forces and was posted to the 7th Infantry Division. He came under British Command from 1942, after being evacuated to Iran, and was subsequently assigned to the 10 Mounted Rifle Regiment, 1 Polish Armoured Division. Eugenius served in Belgium, Holland and Germany between 1944 – 1945, notably arriving in Normandy mid-June.

As part of the Armoured Division, Eugenius was part of the 5-man crew inside the tanks whose role was to break German lines out from Caen (Caen had just been liberated). Eugenius would eat and sleep in these tanks for weeks on end, with not a lot of respite. He has vivid recollections of what this was like, including artillery fire everywhere, Germans hiding in the woods, a near sniper miss and burnt out tanks and bodies.

Peter Newton, 99, Romsey (Hampshire). Army (1943-1945) - British Assault Force 3rd Division, Royal Norfolk Regiment. D-Day Peter recalls how the British 3rd Assault Division was to land on Queen Beach, the third sector of Sword Beach at the eastern end of the invasion and was ordered to take the high ground north of Caen, and if possible, Caen. “As dawn broke on the 6th June, my battalion could see the land. Waterproofs were donned over boots, equipment adjusted, and weapons gripped tightly as the run-in was made.

“The Captain had been primed to drive hard for the shore and he was as good as his word. Apart from the bodies lying in the water and on the beach, the landing was similar to the exercises we’d be practising. We ran across the beach under heavy fire from the Germans.” Arnie Salter, 98, from Bedworth, Warwickshire. Royal Navy (1944-1953) said D-Day felt like a “bad dream”. He helped ferry hundreds of troops across to the Normandy beaches.

Arnie was part of a striking force on the destroyer, travelling in treacherous waters and seeking out U-Boats. “I saw some smaller ships go under and poor chaps floundered in the water, but we couldn’t stop them. Then everything started happening, troops leaving the ship and going on to the beaches and we had to man the guns and began to shoot at anything we could – including planes regardless of who they were as we couldn’t identify! It seemed over within a few hours. Suddenly the beach was empty, except for the bodies. It was like a bad dream.”

Richard Trelease, 99, from St Hillary in Cowbridge. Royal Navy (1942-1946). Richard was a radar operator and navigator on a motor launch (a smaller military vessel). Firing onto the shore, Richard’s crew would fire ashore to support the Canadian troops that were landing onto Juno. That night, the crew were appointed deputy manager of the Defence of the Eastern Flank, which was German territory. They did this for a couple of weeks, supporting the troops as they landed ashore, patrolling the Eastern flank and ensuring the landing crafts were in line.

Veterans were stopped throughout the seven hour ferry crossing and respectfully asked for selfies and offered a pint. Others queued up to shake their hands. Just before we arrived on the Normandy coast a wreath for those who didn't make it ashore was dropped at sea. One veteran commented that we were in France, adding: “I can just feel it!”

After the ceremony Joe Mines said it is also his first time back to Normandy since 1944. "There were too many bad memories but I felt I owed it to everyone to come back before it was too late. I saw five men in front of me killed. Today they don't know what a good time they've got. I'm not a hero or a sir. I'm just an ordinary bloke from Bethnal Green."

His daughter Sheron Easter, 63, said: "I've cried a few times today. He didn't used to talk about what happened during the war until he started selling poppies. This will be his first and last time going to France. " Albert Keir, 98, told how seeing the navy salute them "pulled him back" to 1944. In tears, he told The Mirror: "They looked like me all those years ago. I saw myself in them and can't help but think 'what are they are going to meet in the future?'."

Lucy Thornton

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