ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

In 1941 I went to work as a cinema projectionist at the 'Prince of Wales' cinema in Lewisham, South London. Also working there was a girl called Peggy. She was an usherette and had recently spent four months in hosital. She had been caught in the blast of a delayed action bomb which had exploded behind the Marks & Spencer's store. She suffered a fractured spine & arm & was in plaster from neck to thigh. Anyway, we fell in love & did our courting amid the blackout & air raids.

Late in 1941 I joined the Royal Navy, why the navy, well I have two brothers, one older & one younger than me, & we used to listen to stories our dad told us about the 1st world war. He was in the artillery - he told us of the mud, filth & slaughter they went through in France. As war was now looming in 1939, he told us if we went in the forces we should join either the Navy or Marines, because he said "If you die in action at least it would be a clean death". Well, my older brother was already in the Navy on a destroyer HMS Eskimo & my younger brother later joined the Marines. When I enlisted I was told that I could claim to join my brother on Eskimo which I thought was a good idea, but our mother vetoed that, saying if Eskimo were sunk she would probably loose two sons. The risk was too high so we droppped the idea. I did my training at HMS Ganges, a shore base at Shotley on the river 'Orwell' in Suffolk.

After training was complete I was drafted to 'HMS Pembroke' the Naval base in Chatham, Kent. From there I was drafted to combined operations HQ in Scotland. It was there I joined my first ship LCT 863 a tank landing craft. Training then started for the big assault which was to come sometime in the future. Before leaving civvy street, Peg & I decided to get engaged & set a date 25th June 1944. By then we thought the war would surely be over. Well, by the end of May 1944, all our training completed, we arrived at Portsmouth and started loading tanks & army troops.

Peg had meanwhile been preparing for our wedding. Friends & family had donated their clothing coupons so Peg could have her wedding dress made. The Church had been booked as had the photographer. I had kept in touch with her by phone & letter & sometimes leave, but when we arrived at Portsmouth all communications with family ceased. We were a "closed ship" which means no one can go ashore, no letters are sent or received, no phone calls or leave was allowed. Peg had no idea what was happening, until the news broadcast on June 6th informed the world that the 'Big one' had started.

My craft LCT 863 was due to land on Sword beach, the extreme left flank of the 'Beachhead', at 07:30 & on the voyage over to France the night sky seemed to be full of aircraft on their way to bomb the beaches we were soon to land on. The distant horizon we were heading for seemed to be alive with fire & flashes as naval big ships bombarded the beaches. We arrived off our beach right on time. I was in the starboard focsle winch house waiting orders to lower the seven ton door. As we neared the beach the order came "Lower door!". Defensive fire from the beach was quite heavy & we could hear the shapnel peppering our sides. The door started to lower & then suddenly stopped, a loop of mooring wire had snagged the door & stopped it half way down. Our skipper shouted over the noise "Ingram, clear that door!". I grabbed a boat hook & doubled up to the bow. Tracer bullets & shapnel was buzzing all around as I struggled to clear the wire, suddenly the door was free & started to lower. I doubled back to the winch house just as the tanks started to roll off. As each tank beached a number of soldiers followed close behind. In the winch house with me, was a young soldier waiting to dart behind a tank for cover. As his hand gripped his rifle I noticed his knuckles were white & he had a look of fear in his eyes. I said "You'd better get out Tommy or you'll have no cover". He said "OK & thanks Jack" and out he jumped. I looked out & saw him running behind a tank. I often wonder if he was lucky. Once we had unloaded, the order "Up door" was given. We kedged (this means an anchor was dropped over the stern on approaching the beach so we could pull ourselves off after landing was completed) then, with engines full ahead we started for home.

We had come through the landings safely, but we quite a bit of minor damage. All our Portholes were shattered as were our fresh water tanks which were peppered with holes. After hosing down the well deck, we noticed a lot of blood on the after end of the deck. Then we heard a loud shout for help & moaning coming from the heads, naval talk for toilets. There we found a soldier lying in a pool of blood. He had been hit in his right thigh whilst sitting on top of his tank & fallen into the tank deck & crawled to the heads for safety. He was in a pretty bad way & we did what we could for him & our skipper informed control. On our way back to Portsmouth we noticed our craft was taking water forward & our Bow was sinking. When we arrived back in Portsmouth, medics came aboard & stretchered off our wounded passenger. I often wonder if he made it? Our craft was put in dry dock where hole was found below the water line on the port side, the result of a shell hit. A patch was welded on & before we knew it we were back boarding up more tanks etc, & then heading for Normandy again.

Because of the ban on phone calls, Peg could not be informed & as our wedding day was the 25th June, she was very worried. Well we carried on backwards & forwards to France with supplies, night & day, until one night in mid June we were heading for the beach when there was a big bang, we had hit something - mine or torpedo, we didn't know. Anyway our craft's back was broken & we started to sink, so we abandoned ship & were soon picked up by a RN Patrol Launch. We stayed on board until their patrol was completed, then we returned with them to Portsmouth on the 24th June, the day before our planned wedding. We were given 7 days surviors leave & I arrived home on the 27th. I surprised everyone.

Our wedding was rearranged for the 28th. What a week - family & friends all had to be informed. Our vicar was very helpful & arranged the service etc. We couldn't get a photographer at short notice so one of our guests took some pictures with a box brownie - not the best of cameras, but at least we had some record. The wedding ceremony was beautiful, & during the taking of our vows the air raid sirens sounded & we heard the sound of a 'Doodlebug', the V1 flying bomb, approaching & then the engine cut out, this meant it was coming down & it did with a big ground shaking bang. The vicar carried on talking as if nothing had happened! In total that day, we had 12 air raid warnings & 4 thunderstorms! We had a small reception in the local pub, later destroyed by a bomb. I might add that the earth certainly moved on our wedding night! (Nothing to do with us of course - just the constant bombing!) And so our wedding day planned for 3 days before, took place just 3 days late. Despite all that had happened in between, my LCT getting sunk was a blessing in disquise.

Well, we have now been married for 61 years, & have 8 grandchildren & 3 great grandchildren. Last year on our Diamond wedding anniversary, we recieved a special greeting card from HM the Queen. We have had a wonderful life & are as much in love as ever.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.