Page 7

- 3 -
which was pulling the truck up on to the beach after they were
hauled there by the amphibious lorry and he broke a leg. All this
happened within the first half hour. George spent the remainder
of the day helping to pull the trucks out of the water and in
working with the beach recovery crews. That was all that happened
to him on D-Day. He did not get off the beach - he was there
under some shelling and some sniper fire but nothing happened to him
at all.
He remembers one thing though that as the vehicles got
stuck in the water a voice called out "How do we get ashore?" and
a broad cockney replied "Swim for it, mate". That night he and a
pal dug a trench and prepared to sleep - one asleep, one awake -
that was the plan for the watch which they intended to make during
the night. In the morning they looked around to survey exactly
where they were and both of them were rather horrified when they
saw a pair of boots protruding over the edge of the trench. On
investigation they found that they belonged to a naval commando who
had been shot dead and beyond him were a line of others.
All he could think of that night was that he had been
incredibly stupid to agree with his wife to start a family at such
a time and that he might never hope to see her again, but that the
Lord was good, and indeed at Christmas they had a son.