Do you have a D-Day story to tell? Were any of your close relatives involved in the preparation for D-Day or in the landings themselves?
By chance, Mrs B and I were in Cornwall today visiting Trebah gardens. Men from the 29th US Infantry Division had camped in their thousands close to Trebah in 1944. Concrete jetties were built from the gardens across the beach in order to load tanks and men onto amphibious craft for the assault on Omaha beach. The place is beautiful and peaceful today, and a simple stone memorial has been placed close to the beach which was today covered in poppy wreaths. It’s a simple gesture but one which never fails to move. Many people were standing there today in silent contemplation, no doubt in gratitude for the sacrifice that others made for the liberation of Europe.
My Mum and Dad both served during the war (army and RAF), but fortunately did not see any action. Many of you will have had relatives who were not so lucky. Hats off to all of them.
My father signed up the day war was declared, drove a tank, was evacuated at Dunkirk, and was then D-day+4 approx.
He always said the only anyone pointed a gun at him in anger was in Bingley (mistaken identity), and that driving through the Black Forest he thought “this is nice – I must come back later” – which he did.
He never mentioned that he was at Bergen Belsen until Schindler’s List came out, and then only the once.
Gone these 30 years.
D+4 must have been a hell of a sight. I’ve read several times that when the later arrivals hit the beach and then had a moment to turn back and look to sea the sight of all the logistics just blew their minds. The sea was almost black with boats.
Was just going to post something about the D Day memorial. Been
a bit dusty in my house so kept putting it off…
Lovely to see these incredibly brave and humble men enjoying what for
many of them – the youngest at today’s gathering was 98 – will surely
be one last moment in the sun.
Remember reading how a few years ago they re-enacted the landing
and several of the journos on the landing crafts apparently ended
needing counselling as a result of their suffering” PTSD,
Not a condition or course of treatment available to those who’d
made the actual journey several decades before
My Uncle Bill was at Dunkirk, never spoke about it to my knowledge and struggled with depression all his life, no counselling in 1944-5
My dad was in a Reserved Occupation. From the age of 16 in 1939 he spent his days fitting and refitting weapons systems to warships in Devonport dockyard, and a year or two later passed his nights on the roof of his local church on fire-watch duty during the Plymouth Blitz as a member of the Home Guard. So he was lucky, he only had to contend with the occasional strafing while surrounded by high explosives and hours in the dark sitting under hundreds of Heinkels.
The ceremony today was deeply affecting. I thought it was seriously well done, and watched it all.
My grandfather was a tank Engineer serving under Monty in Egypt. His only war wound was a burst eardrum, when a gun barrel he was servicing went off because someone had left a live round in it. He came back from the desert speaking fluent German as he’d spent his evenings teaching English to the the captured & surrendered prisoners. His post-war career in industrial printing machinery meant repeated trips to Cologne, a city he loved.
His brother, however, was captured by the Japanese and forced to build the Burma railway. He bore a lifetime grudge. I wouldn’t even tell him when Mrs F got a job with Panasonic.
More allied troops died practicing for D day than on the day itself.
At least 750 died at Slapton Sands alone.
Yep about 1000 and I presume their deaths were kept secret for some time
https://wordery.com/the-forgotten-dead-ken-small-9781472834492
Lots of things allegedly kept secret, including the real location.
http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2009/05/massacre-at-slapton-sands-the-great-portland-cover-up/
My late Dad spent the majority of WWII in the tunnels in Gibraltar, installing and maintaining The Rock’s military telephone system with the Royal Signal Corps. By the time the invasion of Germany was well under way, he was posted there, having risen to the lofty rank of Lance Corporal. The only excitement of his entire war was when two Germans came out of a haystack they’d been hiding in, to surrender, as he and his mates walked past. He never fired a single shot or even pointed a weapon at anyone.
My late mum worked in the Blaw-Knox bulldozer factory in my home town, which was turned over to tank production during the war. She had moved to England from the Irish Republic in the mid-’30s. She was born just outside Dublin in 1911, so was a British subject as well as an Irish one.
My late Mother in Law was at college near Torquay and was up on the roof of the college at night (D Day-1) and saw lots of boats in the harbour.
Getting up in the morning they’d all gone.
I thought the evening commemoration in Bayeux was pitched just right, deeply moving. As each one of over 4000 graves became individually illuminated I was badly struggling with something in my eye.
My BIL is the NW region head of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, so he might have had something to do with that. His turf extends from Knokke to either Dieppe or Le Harve and inland across the Somme.
He’ll be on the beach at Dunkirk today, if you see a slightly podgy Big Yin lookalike on the telly.
Edith: Ver-sur-Mer, not Dunkirk. Too early, not enough tea…
Talking of Cornwall as per the OP…the late Mrs thep and I were friends with Judy, William Golding’s daughter, and visited her at his old house just up the road from Trebah. The house was taken over by General Eisenhower as his headquarters in the run-up to D-Day. Judy took us up to one of the bedrooms, which had been Eisenhower’s, and showed us a bullet hole in the wall. Apparently a disaffected soldier on guard duty in the garden had taken a pot shot at the Boss and missed, fortunately. No doubt he was relieved of his duties.
We live near Trebah and spend a lot of time on the Helford.
If you walk down the hill to the Ferryboat Inn you’ll find the Tank Road, as it’s called locally, which snakes across the fields to the beach at Trebah. And on a low tide you can still see remnants of the old quays built for embarkation.
My Grandad didn’t make it to D-day as he lost an eye at Dunkirk. He was 19 I think. While in Moorfields eye hospital his nurse was my Grandma – a 30 something spinster (as was then) vegetarian teetotal (she’d signed the pledge). They were happily married for 60+ years. She made it to 99 and he followed just weeks later. They were lovely.
The BBC’s coverage of what has been a beautiful commemoration of one of the most important days of the last century has been simply stunning.
While not yet seen it, D-Day Unheard Tapes on the BBC/BBC iPlayer is apparently especially well worth watching.
Uses actors lip-synching the taped testimonies of some of the the incredibly brave – and then incredibly young – men and women who were either there that day or worked behind the scenes to make D-Day happen.
Not sure if it has already been on, but is apparently scheduled to run again over the next three nights when I’ll be watching.
Given what and why these men and women sacrificed so much and what their sacrifices achieved, it’s a bit sad that this thread only has 16 replies
We watched it the other night, very well done and very moving.
I did watch an episode of the Unheard Tapes but, great as it was, thought to myself “this is radio on the TV*”. I will be listening to the other episodes, but not watching the visuals.
(*) Nothing to do with Tommy Vance.
I see what you mean but I thought the syncing was very well done.
It was, but just a bit, and I say this with the greatest respect, pointless.
The important thing is people watch (or listen to) it, and telly viewers outnumber radio listeners, so here we are.
I know what you mean @fentonsteve
I was a bit disappointed in it and then felt bad .
It would make a fantastic Radio 4 series.
The commemoration, and the BBC’s magnificent coverage of it, have been an utter triumph.
Some of us here may live to see the 90th and possibly even the 100th, but it’s unlikely that any of the centenarians (or nearly so) who could be there this year will last another decade.
We should cherish this opportunity to say thank you once again for the things they did for us, for our children and our children’s children, before they can no longer hear our praise.
Yes, and before it becomes part of the modern scourge of history denial.
@jaygee
I’ve been meaning to contribute but do find it hard to find the words. I can’t begin to imagine how the troops felt as they poured out of the landing ships knowing full well what was out there. But they did it nevertheless. I am not sure I would have gone.
My dad was still at school but does have a memory of jumping into a ditch on the way home one day to avoid the Heinkels bombing the Vickers Works at Brooklands sometime in 1940.
Yes, the TV coverage has been excellent, with one moving moment after another.
I loved the Unheard Tapes – yes, in a way the actors lip-syncing was unnecessary, but it was very well done. One old soldier’s comment really struck home, about Lt Den Brotheridge, one of the first men killed taking Pegasus Bridge (and thus one of the first casualties of D-Day). He was shot soon after landing, and his comrade said: “All those years of training, and he lasted just 30 seconds.” Obviously all the deaths were a terrible loss, but the speed of Brotheridge’s made it seem worse somehow.
The illumination of the war graves was heartbreakingly moving, and then hearing the beautiful version of The Parting Glass (always a great song) while watching those cleverly programmed drones forming first a farewell letter and then the shape of a soldier finished me off.
Bravo to everybody involved, and RIP to the fallen.
My wife’s late Grandfather was part of the advance commando recce party. He merely mentioned that he would “Be away for a few days” beforehand and rarely mentioned it after.
Friend of mine is one of the actors in Unheard Tapes. I think it’s a fine piece of work though it’s very strange to hear another person’s voice come out when you know what they really sound like.
My great Uncle John was in charge of a company at the Anzio beaches. He was the only one who made it back alive. It turned his hair white and he never spoke about it. He lived a long life – I remember him being an affable but distant man. When his wife died he followed shortly after.
My dad was a “D-Day dodger”. Spent 1944 taking it easy in Italy, the soft underbelly of Europe.
Having read a fair amount about the Italian campaign over the last couple of years, I *get* the sting in your post.
The horrendous attrition allied forces endured in often appalling conditions is still criminally under appreciated by most.
I sincerely hope your Dad made it through in one piece.
He wasn’t at the fighting end – he was a Service Corps driver transporting tanks and big guns to the front, but got ‘blitzed’ enough times, including once getting strafed by US aircraft. Like many in the services, he never talked about it to us, except to say the ordinary Italians were poor, starving and often bombed/shelled out of their homes. He ended the war in Austria where he saw some terrible atrocities committed by ‘last stand’ Nazis. He came home with a well-developed dislike of extremism, violence, army ‘bull’ and the officer class. Never wore his medals and never went to a reunion parade.
Hats off – in my personal view his response is the only sane one a person can reach having been exposed to such madness.
My Dad was also part of the Italian campaign, where he got seriously wounded.
That may have saved his life, ironically, but contributed to his early death at just 44.
Worth a listen to a 98 year old Navy veteran, Stan Mincher, on Radio ‘s Today programme this morning – the calmness, matter of factness and modesty with which he talks about that day is very moving. So too the way in which he is very clear that they were nothing special, and that today’s generation of young people absolutely would serve in the same way if they had to. And also that there is no need for war – it can and shoudl be avoided. Great interview