My second near death experience was the D-Day invasion. My Company 1052 Port Maintenance Company left from Harwich in Suffolk on the evening of June 5th 1944. The day before the invasion of France (the operation having been postponed one day because of bad weather in the English Channel) we sailed down past Dover at night in a L.S.T (American Landing / Ship / Transport) where we met another convoy near the Isle of Wight. The next morning we sailed across to Normandy and landed not knowing if we would ever see England  again; little did we know that it would be 8 long months before we would. After landing at Langrune sur-mer on “Sword” Beach, our plan was to advance east up to Ostend in Belgium. This was quite a frightening experience for us all, as we had to endure sleeping and eating rough in the open air for long periods. We lived on tin foods, hard biscuits and burnt custard.  About two weeks after being on foreign soil we got our first taste of bread at last. A lasting memory for me will always be the impressive sight of our Bombers carrying out the raids on Caen. I felt proud of our “boys in blue” as they gave us air cover thereby protecting us on the ground.

We advanced through France and into Belgium. As Ostend was the nearest port to England our job was to get this port into working order. Jobs included repairing cranes and getting arc lights with portable generators ready for the ships which were bringing provisions and troops into the port and then taking back lines of captured German prisoners back to England on the return journey. Those prisoners were very pleased to be safe and alive and going to a prison camp in England for the duration of the war. We finally finished up at Hamburg in Germany but before long I was posted back to England.

From a cutting from the Chatham, Gillingham and Rochester News of a letter sent by Norman from…..somewhere  in France!

On to Paris….or Berlin
Sapper Norman South, R.E., whose home address is in Gillinngham, writes to us a chatty little letter this week.  He found time to pen his lines whilst bivouacing in an orchard.  Speaking on the invasion of Normandy he says:
“The experience of the ordeal we went through I shall never forget.  Our lads did a grand job and mean to carry on the good work till we get to Paris or Berlin.” 
Regarding the R.A.F. raid on Caen South writes: 
“The sight of our aircraft in one magnificent body was enough to make ‘Adolf” think his flying bombs were tin cans.  I always look forward to the Chatham News each week since joining the R.E. 2½ years ago; it is grand to have a real link with those at home.  I pass the ‘news’ on to two or three other lads in our little camp.
Good Luck to you all at home”