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BR H GOLD
GARDNER.DONALD HUGH GODFREY (Don)

Landed on Gold Beach, le Hamel he thinks. Objective Port-en-Bessin.

500 in 47th commando. Came in on two LCI's. Went on first on
parent Victoria and Charlotte, then transferred to LCI's. Gardener
went in on the Charlotte - B. Troop.

There were 7 troops altogether, landed as A B C D etc. troops.
Proceeded in direction of Port en Bessin.

Landed at Le Hamel on 6th from Swaythling. Left parent ship at 6.30 a.m.,
had 7-mile run in landed about 7.30. Only trouble came in run-in, came
under fire from some guns. Of the 16 landing craft only 1 got back
to parent ship. We got stuck on obstacle. 4 craft got stuck when hit
by shellfire. Came in under bit of light fire from shore.

Going over on boat didn't know what to expect. No previous action.
Signed each other's Eisenhower's message. Played cards, etc. Some
sea sickness. Easy landing. Knew just where we were going: had to
take lanes and fields..... this was a fine art, problem of sun & shadow,
keeping in lanes on right side of road not to throw shadows.
Object was to get to Port en Bessin from rear and make contact with
Americans. We expected it to be a four-day operation and that we would
be brought out after that.

Coming in our craft stuck on obstacle. Bit of a swimmer myself. It
was suggested one should take a line in to get non-swimmers in to land.
Found ourselves in eight or nine feet of water, but lost lot of equipment -
each carrying about 90 lbs. equipment. Had hardly any fighting equipment
left. But on route to Port we collected German weapons and by night
of D-Day we were completely re-equiped with German material. All the way
to P. we shot bods, captured them and took over their guns, etc. Ran
into British troops, handed over p.o.w.. All gerry vehicles horse-drawn.

When we mustered on landing we thought we had lost Colonel
Phillips. Decided to press on; along one of the lanes, about 11.0 a.m.,
there was old Phillips: "You've been a helluva time getting here!"
He was sitting in ditch on roadside... "I've been waiting for you all day".

NB Link with Lovell, who was in rear column to Gardner. G. fought
all the way as leading troop, unlike Lovell who had pretty quiet time.
Casualties not high in G's troop, didn’t lose a man. Only casualty was
one marine who had slight shrapnel wound in the seat. We did extremely
well, re-equipping ourselves with German mortars, etc. We rather foxed
Gerry firing their weapons. Gerry thought we were their own troops.
There were plenty of snipers in the trees, had trail of 20 to 30 enemy pow’s.

I was in charge of this section and was awarded the M.M. after
Port en Bessin. We also got a Croix de Guerre in our section.

About 10.30 a.m. McKenna said "It's time we brewed up... " He
was my pal, a rum egg. "Lofty," he said, "Let's brew up." "Good idea",
it was then about 10.30... Then we pressed on, ran into trouble in a
little village where there was a light machine-gun section manned
by pukkha gerries. Got support from 2" mortar boys. I had seven men
with me, they were coming across field, shooting, they took cover in bushes
(hedgerows). We opened up at them, nobody hit. Pat Plum was an excellent
mortar man (now lives at Pye Corner, Girlstone, Nr. Harlowe, Essex.)
He was a sgt. gunner, called Taffy, came from the Rhondda. They blonked
down H.E. and smoke, we were firing from hip as we went, couple of
gerries started running away as we went in. We hit one of the gerries:
he was carrying a grenade (on back?) and we hit him right there. It
blew his head off. The other we got too. I hit the man with the grenade
with tommy gun. Somebody said “Good shot".... we went up to him and
found his head wasn't. Bullock, a young marine, said "here you are
John, there’s a weapon for you" - an LNG, 14 cm. Blokes head and bits
plastered over gun, bits of flesh etc. We flicked it off, collected