By 7619956, Cpl William Trask RAOC
My battalion or unit for the invasion of Normandy was formed in Cockfosters near London. It was a unit of the 21st Army Group under General Montgomery called the 11th L of C, which meant Lines of Communication, and was to supply the front line with everything apart from ammunition and food.
Days before the invasion we were moved to the south coast, to a wooded area near Bolney in Sussex, where we were to polish up on our training. On the 5th June it became apparent that something was going to happen. All the camp became alive, and in the afternoon we all knew that the invasion was to commence because we were told to pack our kit and be ready to move. Early in the evening we were taken by trucks to Newhaven Harbour. Upon arrival, our unit was split into about 6 groups and put on different landing craft, which was a precaution in case anything happened to one of the craft. We were then all given a letter signed by General Eisenhower and food that was so good it seemed to be out of this world. It consisted of such things as white bread and cheese; things unlikely to be had by the general public. At about 9 pm that night, we all set sail from Newhaven and started crossing the English Channel in our various craft. As England disappeared behind us, a good friend of mine, Gordon Snell, said to me, “I wonder if we will ever see this place again”.
It got quite cold overnight and the sea was quite choppy but unlike most, I didn’t get seasick. None of us felt cold in our open boats because we were all wondering what lay ahead of us. No one managed to get any sleep that night and as day broke, we were able to see the horizon and realised that other boats and craft of all descriptions surrounded us. There were hundreds of them and I can remember thinking that it was a most marvellous sight. We were at the rendezvous point known as “Piccadilly Circus”, and from there we made our way to the shores of Normandy.
Our destination was the beach head known as Gold Beach; the other British spearhead was called Sword Beach. As we approached the beach we could hear yelling and the noise of gunfire and shelling. It was quite frightening, especially when the time came for the officers in charge of our craft to tell us it was our turn to jump overboard into the water, and get ashore. I could hear the fellows saying that you should put anything you had of value under your helmet and as most of us smoked; cigarettes were one of the first things to go under. It was now about 8 am on the morning of 6th June 1944. Luckily the weather had turned in our favour and was quite good. The captain of the craft got as near as possible to the beach and when we jumped in, the water reached just above waist height. We waded through to finally come on dry land. We came ashore on the eastern edge of Gold Beach and I could see the Canadians just to the left of us had had a hard time. We were all very thankful to be in one piece, because so many didn’t make it.
All my pals from our craft managed to get together and our first objective was to advance inland away from the beach. As we moved along the roads, the sun came out which helped to dry our clothes, but we didn’t give that a thought. Our journey was very slow as we were always on the look out for snipers and believe me there were some about, not only men. It must have been early evening when we entered our first village. I think it was called Reviers. It seemed deserted but, one by one, the local inhabitants came out, some smiling, some with Union Jack flags, but most of them were very straight faced, which gave one the feeling they were not very pleased to see us. It was then that we found a field, adjoining a large Chateau, to camp in for the night; the first night of many which were to follow on foreign soil.
Over the next couple of weeks, we were held back from taking the town of Caen by the Germans’ best Panzer Divisions but when we did break through I think the German morale must have been damaged as their troops seemed to be in disarray and were pushed towards a pocket called the Falaise Gap in which hundreds were captured or gave themselves up.In the months that followed, we crossed the river Seine at Rouen, and moved into Amiens then through Brussels and onwards into Holland, finally crossing the river Rhine by pontoon bridge to enter our first German village.
Written 6th June 1994
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