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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Anna Madar from The Folkestone School for Girls and has been added to the website on behalf of Stan Hook with his permission and he fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I Joined the Navy in 1942 and was 19 when I joined. For six months I was trained about different engines. I was based in Southampton and in Poole Harbour.
The day before D-Day I set out for Courselles. It was very stormy and the Ship was rocking about very violently, we were right at the very front of the Fleet, on the LCT Mark 5, Tank Landing Craft. At about six o’clock the evening before D-Day I was standing on the Quarterdeck looking at stern at the vast amount of ships. I was flabbergasted at how many ships there were! We arrived at Courselles at about 5 o’clock continental time, I was feeling very sea sick. At about 6 o’clock in the morning we breached the sea defences. When I heard the Skipper say to the Coxswain, who was next to me “Can you make out the Steeple ahead”, at that point I realised this was it and from then on you couldn’t hear any commands due to the machine fire. The flail tanks cleared the beach of mines. The second tank off had the Bridge attached to it, which was for getting over the Sea wall. The third tank had logs attached to it, and the fourth tank was the Sherman. The four of them came to a ditch, which was made to prevent them from getting across, but the Tank had logs on it, rolled them into the ditch so they could get across. We went back to the troop carrier to collect the Chaudierres (French Canadian Troops) they had shaven heads in the style of a Mohican. Then we took in 52nd army and then took in the kitchen equipment. I remembered on the evening of D-Day there was a salvation army handing out tea to everyone, which made me feel at home.

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