Audio: Nelson Langevin, RCNVR and Comb. Ops, N. Africa

"Lots of Snipers in North Africa" November, 1942

HMS Glengyle, Landing Ship Infantry, Large; LSI(L) in port

Photo Credit - Roland Black, found at The Memory Project

Introduction: 

Readers will find hundreds of audio files related to the experiences of men and women associated with many branches of Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian organizations (e.g., Red Cross, CWAC, etc.) at The Memory Project. Most audio files are accompanied by authentic WWII photos and a written transcript.

The audio file presented below relates to Nelson Langevin, a former member of RCNVR and the Combined Operations organization. He began serving his country in 1941, trained in Halifax, and travelled to the UK (e.g., HMS Quebec near Inveraray, Scotland) to learn how to handle landing crafts before participating in the Dieppe Raid, the invasion of N. Africa in 1942, and Operation Husky (invasion of Sicily) in 1943.

Please link to the audio file of Nelson Langevin at The Memory Project.

The transcript contains the following details and more:

"But what we were carrying is a bulldozer and some of these rolls of wires.  Now, we were supposed to be there before the trucks and the tanks and that were supposed to be.  So they could put this wire on the sand, so they wouldn’t get stuck in the sand.  That was the idea."

"But this bulldozer, I remember this fellow who was an American, and I guess he was nervous, I suppose, but he kept breaking the cable.  This wire was on a sleigh, a wooden sleigh, and it was attached to the bulldozer. But when he’d leave, he’d keep jerking.  Yeah, he did keep jerking and that would break the wire.  And I remember, of course, they had showed us how to splice, and I remember going underneath there and fixing that wire.  I think I fixed it three times.

"And my hands were all bloody, you know, from trying to hurry up as fast as I could.  And I’d keep stabbing myself in the fingers and stuff like that.  But that didn’t matter.  I wanted to get out of there."

Photo of three Canadians in Combined Operations with wire mesh and machine guns in their landing craft:

Chuck Rose (left), Al Kirby, Lloyd Evans. S. England, circa 1943

Nelson Langevin and myself, G. Harrison, taken at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, 2014:

 

N. Langevin served as volunteer at War Museum bookroom.

Nelson Langevin passed away on February 18, 2018.

Please link to Audio: Robert Garand, Navy, D-Day in an LCI(L)

Unattributed Photos GH

Audio: Robert Garand, Navy, D-Day in an LCI(L)

Transporting Troops Across the Channel on D-Day

Crew of HMCS LCI-L -118 prior to D-Day. Garand served as

a Diesel Engineer. Photo - R. Garand at The Memory Project

Introduction: One will find hundreds of audio files related to the experiences of men and women associated with many branches of Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian organizations (e.g., Red Cross, CWAC, etc.) at The Memory Project. Most audio files are accompanied by authentic WW2 photos and a written transcript.

The audio file presented below relates to Robert Garand, Canadian Navy. He served aboard a Landing Craft, Infantry (Large) as part of the 262nd Canadian Landing Craft Flotilla during D-Day Normandy and was involved with disembarking troops in NAN sector of Juno Beach in June 1944.

Please link to the audio file of Robert Garand at The Memory Project.

The transcript contains the following details and more:

We left the night before about 7:00 o’clock. We loaded our troops from Southampton [England]. We were supposed to end on the beach at 7:00 in the morning but we couldn’t, the beach wasn’t clear enough. We waited until 11:00 o’clock before we could land it, until they cleared the beach. There was still a lot of mines, small mines left with popsicle-like steel things in [them].

LCI(L)s including 118 lined up at Portsmouth prior to D-Day

Photo Credit - R. Garand, at The Memory Project

To listen to another audio file please link to Francis Hammond, Navy - Commando Training for D-Day.

Audio: Francis Hammond, Navy - Commando Training for D-Day

Commando Training? Why? I'm a Signalman! 

Commandos doing log Physical Training, Commando Basic Training Centre,

Achnacarry, Inverness-shire, 1943. Photo - National Army Museum

Introduction: One will find hundreds of audio files related to the experiences of men and women associated with many branches of Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian organizations (e.g., Red Cross, CWAC, etc.) at The Memory Project. Most audio files are accompanied by authentic WW2 photos and a written transcript.

The audio file presented here relates to Francis Hammond, Navy. He served aboard the 262nd Canadian Landing Craft Flotilla during D-Day Normandy and tells about taking Commando training while in S. England in preparation for D-Day.

The badge on his jacket suggests he was closely linked to the Combined Operations organization.

Photo Credit - Historica Canada at The Memory Project

Please link to the audio file that recalls the memories of F. Hammond.

From the audio transcript we read, in part:

We took training in different parts along the English coast. Some of them were in Portsmouth, some trained in Southampton. We picked up our landing craft, a part of the 262nd Flotilla in Falmouth, on the southern, very southern tip of England, and we trained there all, from 1943 right up until June 1944, getting the landing craft in, in condition, and took commando training in Falmouth, England. To this day I remember that training because I was reluctant to go and couldn't figure out why, as a signalman, I would need commando training. And I remember being told by this chief gunner’s mate that, “You're going to take the training and you're going to learn to kill.” I said, “Well, I don't know why I would have to take that training to kill anybody, when I'm only a signalman. I don't plan on going too far ashore from the landing craft.” “Well,” he says, “it's either a case of you learn to kill or be killed. Take your pick.” So I took the training.

Landing craft (LCI-Ls) of the 264th Canadian Flotillas, Normandy 

Please link to Audio: F. Turnbull, C.H. Roach - D-Day Normandy

Audio: F. Turnbull, C.H. Roach - D-Day Normandy

"I Can Remember Letting Down the Ramp"

Landing Ship, Tank (LST) aground on Sword Beach, Normandy, 6 June 1944.

Photo Credit - Cyril Roach, as found at The Memory Project

Introduction: One will find hundreds of audio files related to the experiences of men and women associated with many branches of Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian organizations (e.g., Red Cross, CWAC, etc.) at The Memory Project. Most audio files are accompanied by authentic WW2 photos and a written transcript.

The two audio files presented here relate to two men in the Navy (one in the RN) closely linked to landing craft and, very likely for both, the Combined Operations organization.

Please link to the audio file that recalls the memories of Fred Turnbull.

From the audio transcript we read, in part:

As we got close to the beach.... at Normandy we were about seven miles off the beach. So going in, we didn’t have too much responsibility as a bowman. But as we got closer to the beach, I had to get ready, as a bowman, to let down the ramp at the proper time. So I would let the ramp down, and the idea was that the troops would go down the ramp as quickly as possible.

Mr. Turnbull goes on to explain his work with anti-broaching lines and their purpose. Canadians in Combined Ops would know the procedure by heart.

Please link to the audio file that recalls the memories of Cyril H. Roach

From his audio transcript we read the following:

I went through training and I became an engineer officer aboard an LST, which was a double-decker landing ship, which was used at the time of our landings in France....

On D-Day, we arrived in France, having left the Isle of Wight on the night of the 5th of June, about 11 o’clock. We arrived off of Le Havre.... the point where troops were landing, with the objective of Caen. On landing, the ship dropped the anchor a half a mile out and we then put full speed ahead onto the beaches, so that we were able to land the troops and light equipment, which supported also part of the [British] 6th Airborne Division, as well as other contingents of the army.

Mr. Roach (RN) describes "being shelled very heavily" and seeing thousands of aircraft above him. He remembers the moment when three Messerschmitts strafed nearby beaches, killing many troops and injuring men (including himself) aboard the LST. He makes a point of saying, "my crew were actually Canadians from out west. And they did an excellent job."

British landing ships moving troops upriver to Paknam, near Bangkok.

Photo Credit - Cyril Roach, as found at The Memory Project

Please link to Audio: WRNS with a Link to Combined Operations

Audio: WRNS with a Link to Combined Operations

Vivia Emily Stewart and Nora Oliver

Vivia Stewart (centre) and two Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS)

comrades, Dunoon, Scotland, 1943. Photo Credit - Vivia Stewart

Introduction: One will find hundreds of audio files related to the experiences of men and women associated with many branches of Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian organizations (e.g., Red Cross, CWAC, etc.) at The Memory Project. Most audio files are accompanied by authentic WW2 photos and a written transcript. 

The two audio files presented here relate to two women in jobs related to the Combined Operations organization, and in it would have crossed paths with Canadians in the same organization.

Please link to the audio file that recalls the memories of Vivia Emily Stewart.

Vivia was stationed with Combined Operations in Greenock, Scotland in the early days of WW2 and the first Canadians in Combined Ops arrived on the scene aboard the Volendam, a Dutch liner, in early 1942. She tells us she met her future husband there, John Stewart, a member of the Royal Canadian Navy.

As well, please link to the audio file that recalls the memories of Nora Oliver.

In her audio transcript we read:

"I went and did six-weeks training and then was fortunate enough to be posted to Lord Louis Mountbatten’s headquarters in London, where he was the Chief of Combined Operations. I stayed there until such time that he was moving on when he was made Supreme Allied Commander [of] Southeast Asia...."

She later moves to another position with Combined Ops in Delhi, India, again with Lord Louis Mountbatten and says, "....No sooner got settled in when Mountbatten could see that the Japanese were planning to invade and so we moved then down to what we knew as Ceylon but Sri Lanka now."

Nora married Mr. Oliver (a Canadian) after many years of correspondence and tells about her arrangements to come to Canada.

Portrait of Nora Oliver after she enlisted in WRNS

in December 1943. Photo Credit - Nora Oliver

Please link to Audio: Robert Stirling Recalls a Wet, D-Day Landing

Unattributed Photos GH

Audio: Robert Stirling Recalls a Wet, D-Day Landing

We Finally Landed, They Dropped the Ramp Down

by Robert Stirling, Army

HMCS LCI(L)-118 of the 262nd Flotilla disembarking troops in NAN sector

of Juno Beach, Summer 1944. Photo - Robert Garand, The Memory Project

Introduction: One will find hundreds of audio files related to the experiences of men and women associated with many branches of Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian organizations (e.g., Red Cross, CWAC, etc.) at The Memory Project. Most audio files are accompanied by authentic WW2 photos and a written transcript.

Please link to the audio file that recalls the memories of Robert Stirling during the D-Day Normandy landings.

His story, which gives readers a vivid sense of what Canadians in Combined Operations would have witnessed on June 6, 1944, begins as follows:

"Just before D-Day, they moved everybody in the big tents. There was about eight guys to each tent, four on each side."

The men were surrounded by barbed wire and not allowed to leave the area for a few days unless given special permission and all that stuff. Meanwhile, there amassed in the surrounding towns in southern England all manner of trucks filled with the materials of war.

"All the ships that were involved in the D-Day landing were lined up all over the place. It was unbelievable," says Stirling.

He witnesses not only the build up of men and materials on dry land but also sees the departure and landings of ALCs. Soon, it is his turn to travel across the English Channel and disembark on Normandy's shores, likely from an LCI(L). We read the following from his audio transcript:

"And we finally landed, they dropped the ramp down; and I went to go out and I caught my heel on the last big lug at the end of the ramp and fell over backwards."

His task of keeping his Bren Gun [light machine gun] high and dry was made very difficult. Coils of the rope sailors were tugging - to anchor the landing craft - keep grabbing his arm and throwing him under the water. This happened repeatedly, making for a memorable day, for certain.

"Yeah, I finally got up," he says.

More details follow on the audio file.

Eye-witness accounts like the above may give readers an appreciation for the vastness of the D-Day enterprise.

Please link to Audio: Lysle Sweeting, Coxswain on an LCM

Audio: Lysle Sweeting, Coxswain on an LCM

Lysle Sweeting, Coxswain on an LCM

Lysle Sweeting, front and centre. Photo credit - The Memory Project

Introduction: One will find hundreds of audio files related to the experiences of men and women associated with many branches of Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian organizations (e.g., Red Cross, CWAC, etc.) at The Memory Project. Most audio files are accompanied by authentic WW2 photos and a written transcript.

Please link to the audio file at The Memory Project related to the activities of Lysle Sweeting, a likely member of the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve and Combined Operations. His story touches on his experiences on landing crafts during the invasion of North Africa (at Arzew) in 1942 and Sicily in 1943.

A landing craft at an undisclosed location in Africa, 1942. 

Photo credit Lysle Sweeting at The Memory Project

A short segment of Lysle Sweeting's transcript follows:

I was a coxswain on the LCM which is a Landing Craft Mechanized. You would take tanks and trucks. And then there was the LCAs, which was Landing Craft [Assault], just small ones. And the actual first troops that hit the beach would have been on them and for bigger ships, it was the LCTs, Landing Craft Tanks, to put the big tanks on and whatnot; they could take 10 or 12 of those on a landing craft. There was two ships that we were on, on merchant ships; they put the boats over the side and then they put the contents in. There was supposed to have been an officer on my ship and one on the other one, but the other boat was ready before I was, so they took off with, Lieutenant Barclay was the officer in charge, which left me with just… I was in charge by myself. And on the way in, there was a lot of shooting and what it was was the French Foreign Legion, they pretty well owned Algiers [Algeria]. And we were about 20 miles east of Algiers City, at Arzew, was where we landed. But we were being shot at, at the time. I had, I had one shot where a bullet came down. I was in this square box, as the coxswain steering the ship and we had pads on the outside, anti-shrapnel pads and had one bullet land right in, about that far from me, that’s the closest I ever came to what could have been death.

Please link to Audio: George McLean - RCNVR, Combined Operations

Audio: George McLean - RCNVR, Combined Operations

George McLean - RCN, Combined Operations

George H.F. McLean enlisted in the Canadian Navy in 1941 and

was placed on Naval reserve. This photo was taken in May, 1942, when

he was called up for active duty. Photo credit - The Memory Project 

Introduction: One will find hundreds of audio files related to the experiences of men and women associated with many branches of Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian organizations (e.g., Red Cross, CWAC, etc.) at The Memory Project. Most audio files are accompanied by authentic WW2 photos and a written transcript.

Please link to the first of two audio files at The Memory Project, page 89 related to the activities of George McLean, a member of the Royal Canadian Navy Reserve and Combined Operations. His story touches on the invasion of Sicily and Salerno, Italy in 1943.

Troops training on Navy landing crafts in preparation for the D-Day

landings at the Isle of Wight. April 1944. At The Memory Project

A small portion of the first audio's transcript follows:

I served with the Navy – V34075. I joined the Navy in early 1941. I served on the male reserve until May of '42, and then I signed up with the Royal Navy to go on Combined Operations. We left Norfolk in February of 1943. Proceeded to our base in North Africa, and from there, we trained all the different regiments that were in Africa. About the 1st of July, our whole flotilla of invasion craft proceeded to Malta. We sat there until I guess about July 10th, when we picked up the 8th British Army and took them into Sicily. After the invasion of Sicily, we moved back to Africa, and numerous times we were heavily bombed.

Please link to the second of two audio files at The Memory Project.

A small portion of the second audio's transcript follows:

When I joined up, I was 16. I went to HMCS Discovery, which is in Stanley Park [in Vancouver]. After about three weeks of basic training, they shipped us over to Esquimalt [British Columbia]. It was HMCS Naden. And they were on a course there and it was a day like today, the sun was shining and we were in a classroom learning all about engines. It was rather dull. And this commander walked into our classroom and said that they needed five volunteers to go with the British Navy in the Mediterranean [Sea] to work on combined operations, which is sort of a commando unit. So I put my hand up and next thing I know, I’m in Toronto on a course.

Pictured here is the only Canadian L.C.I to land on Omaha Beach,

Normandy, France. George McLean and the ship's crew transported the U.S

field hospital from England to France, 1944. Photo Credit - G. McLean

Please link to Audio: W. K. Newell, Canadian Beach Commando Unit

Audio: W. K. Newell, Canadian Beach Commando Unit

W. K. Newell, Canadian Beach Commando Unit

Canadian Navy commandos at Scottish training course in April 1944.

The "death slide" was maneuvered by a rope toggle or "trolley" rigged by

the commando himself. Photo credit - R.C.N. Lieut. G. Milne. GM 1611.

Introduction: One will find hundreds of audio files related to the experiences of men and women associated with many branches of Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian organizations (e.g., Red Cross, CWAC, etc.) at The Memory Project. Most audio files are accompanied by authentic WW2 photos and a written transcript.

Please link to audio files at The Memory Project (Page 91) related to the activities of W. K. Newell, a member of the Royal Canadian Navy Beach Commando Unit. His story touches on the purpose and responsibilities of the Beach Commandos under Lord Louis Mountbatten and the tough training program in Scotland.

Combined Commando Operations Dress Patch for the Canadian

Naval Uniform. Photo credit - The Memory Project

A small part of Mr. Newell's transcript follows:

The Beach Commando Unit, we were identified alphabetically, whereas the Marine and Army Commando Units were identified numerically. We had 3 units in our Commando of 28 men each. And we trained purposely for Operation Overlord which was the Normandy invasion. The three units worked independently but in coordination with each other. The Beach Commandos were part of combined operations commanded by Lord Louis Mountbatten. The basic responsibility of a Beach Commando was to go into a landing site, under cover of darkness, ahead of the assault troops, for purposes of securing the beach area and signalling out to sea to inform the landing craft and the other landing troops of the conditions for landing various elements of the assault....

Please link to Audio: George Richmond - Combined Ops, Normandy

Audio: George Richmond - Combined Ops, Normandy

George Richmond, Navy and Combined Operations

D-Day Landing with Life Line as found in Combined Operations, (Pg. 111) C. Marks

Introduction: One will find hundreds of audio files related to the experiences of men and women associated with many branches of Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian organizations (e.g., Red Cross, CWAC, etc.) at The Memory Project. Most audio files are accompanied by authentic WW2 photos and a written transcript.

Please link to audio files at The Memory Project (Page 94) related to the activities of George Richmond, Navy, and Bill Renwick, Army, that touch on their memories related to war time experiences in France. George was a member of an LCI(L) crew, along with approx. 20 other Canadians in Combined Operations, in Normandy, June 1944. Bill, from Hamilton, was a member of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion and before becoming a prisoner of war had a memorable experience shortly after landing in France.

Link to George Richmond, Navy, Combined Operations at The Memory Project

Part of George's transcript follows:

After fourteen months on the ship I joined a thousand other naval types and volunteered for combined operations. We found ourselves on a troop ship bound for England. We were assigned to repair and man three flotillas of infantry landing craft for the invasion of France. Altogether, they transported about forty-five hundred Canadian troops to the beaches on D-Day. When temporary docks were put in place, the smaller craft were not used as much and they began disbanding the landing craft flotillas.

Please link to Bill Renwick, Army at The Memory Project

Part of Bill's transcript follows:

I seen a man... I seen a man with a cart about the second day. We were going down to check out an area to see if we could find out how many Germans was in it. And he was walking up the road and he had his daughter in his hands and he had a tarp over the... the wagon. And one of our guys, who spoke pretty good French, asked him if he'd seen any Germans up the road. He took the time to say they were around the bend where we were coming, there was a German machine gun nest. He couldn't thank us enough for coming. And yet you could see he had been crying and that. And in that cart, we found out after when the tarp was moved, that his wife and his son, who had been killed by our bombs - our bombers. And yet he could take the time to try and explain to us because here we were finally setting them free after four years or so under the Germans. It don't make any sense. You lose a family and yet you're shaking somebody's hand or kiss them on the cheek and saying, "Thanks for coming." Your mind becomes fuddled when you start seeing some of these things. Three days after D-Day, I became a prisoner of war.

Please link to Audio: C. W. Robinson, "We Had to Crawl Back"

Audio: C. W. Robinson, "We Had to Crawl Back"

"It Blew a Hole in Our Engine Room"

Charles William Robinson, Navy

Photo from Normandy after the battle. Landing craft on Normandy beach.

Photo credit - Charles Robinson, The Memory Project

Introduction: One will find hundreds of audio files related to the experiences of men and women associated with many branches of Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian organizations (e.g., Red Cross, CWAC, etc.) at The Memory Project. Most audio files are accompanied by authentic WW2 photos and a written transcript.

Please link to an audio file at The Memory Project (Page 95) related to the activities of Charles William Robinson, Navy, that touch on his memories related to his war time experiences in France as a member of an LCI(L) crew in Normandy, June 1944, and a full crew often consisted of approx. 20 Canadians in Combined Operations.

Information included with bottom group photograph: Back in Canada after combined operations duties during the Allied invasion of Normandy are these men of the Royal Canadian Navy’s Landing Craft Flotillas. The Canadian sailors manned the landing barges that carried thousands of troops onto the beaches. All veterans of the first waves of craft to reach the beaches told of seeing landing craft blown to bits by German mines, of the gun fire from the shore, and snipers as the Commandoes marched up the beaches, and the hail of lead, shrapnel and bombardment from the air during D-Day operations.

A portion of Charles William Robinson's transcript follows:

We got on the landing craft, we did all kind of training there before landing troops. You know, so this is it, we were just practising back and forth.... And then they called us in together and they said, this is a secret move, don’t talk to anybody about it at all. But you’re going to go overseas from here. (We) got on our landing craft [LCI(L) 118 of the 2nd Canadian (262nd Royal Navy) Flotilla]. The skipper on our landing craft said, Robinson, when they come aboard, (to) load onto the landing craft.... they may need some seasick pills, so pass them out to them.

And (when) the North Nova Scotia Highlanders come aboard, they said, what’s that for. I said, they’re pills for seasick[ness]. Oh, we don’t need that. I said, wait a minute, I said, you’d better take them, you may need them and they were sick like hell going over because we had a big storm going over. Oh boy. And they were all sick, sick. And they had to go into battle.

We had to circle around the [obstacles] when we got there a few times until the tide raised up. We couldn’t land right away. And the Germans are in there, as we were circling around. The skipper was up on the bridge and he got wounded, just going in to land. We had beach obstacles and mines on that. And it blew a hole in our engine room.

And we got the army off and then we headed back to England again. We had to crawl back because it was dangerous, (we kept) the engine-pump water going, pulling it out because it got lopsided. We had to get home, get repaired and then go back again. And that’s what we did.

Photo of Navy officer and seamen that fought with Mr. Robinson, September 1944. 

Photo credit - Charles Robinson, The Memory Project

Back from Normandy S-2099 (RCN Photo by P.O. Photog. R.D. Keegan, Sept. 1944)

Parmi les hommes de la marine Royale Canadienne de retour en Canada pour un repos bien merite il y a ... matelots du Quebec.

Front (L - R): P.O. Guy J. Gravel, RCNVR, Montreal; A.B. Maurice Fleming, RCNVR, Lachine; A.B. Edward Chipman, RCNVR, Verdun; Ldg. Sto. Gabriel Canuel, RCNVR, Rimouski.

Back (L - R): Sto. Paul Conway, RCNVR, Lachine; A.B. Guy Charbonneau, RCNVR, Montreal; Ldg. Sto. Barney Groves, RCNVR, Montreal; Ldg. Sto. William Bryson, RCNVR, St. Andrews; A.B. Charles Robinson, RCNVR, Verdun.

Please link to Audio: Carvil J. Ritcey, "Our Worst Engagement"

Audio: Carvil J. Ritcey, "Our Worst Engagement"

The Smell of Death was Everywhere

Carvil James Ritcey, Army

Carvil Ritcey landed on the beaches at Normandy in a landing craft

like this one. June 6, 1944. Caption credit - The Memory Project 

"But nothing stopped the shoreward movement. While men fell, and while

the morning air shook with the cacophony of exploding shells, the landing craft

methodically went about the job of disgorging men on to the sands of Normandy.”  

Credit for above quote and photo - G. Milne, RCN photographer (from H.M.C.S.) 

Introduction: One will find hundreds of audio files related to the experiences of men and women associated with many branches of Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian organizations (e.g., Red Cross, CWAC, etc.) at The Memory Project. Most audio files are accompanied by authentic WW2 photos and a written transcript.

Please link to an audio file at The Memory Project (Page 95) related to the activities of Carvil James Ritcey, Army, that touch on his memories related to his war time experiences in France after disembarking from an LCI(L), manned by Canadians in Combined Operations, in Normandy, June 1944.

A portion of Carvil James Ritcey's transcript follows:

When I got out of hospital, my regiment had moved to Italy and because I was F5 when I got out of hospital, they left me back in England. So instead of going with the Royal Canadian Regiment, I rejoined the Highland Light Infantry, and on D-Day, I went ashore with the Highland Light Infantry. We had quite an event there for the first month, because we were in combat practically every night. If you were lucky to get back, you were doing great. On July the 8th, we had our worst engagement. It was called 'Bloody Buron'.

[More about Bloody Buron can be found at Canada at War.]

We lost about two hundred and eighty men and practically all our officers in that engagement. Our unit was with the 12 Platoon of the Highland Light Infantry. We were attacked by eight tiger tanks, and if it hadn't been for the help of a self-propelled seventeen pounder, we would have been eliminated. They knocked out three of the German tanks, and the rest retreated. So that was our worst engagement. Then we went on to the Falaise Gap, and at the Falaise Gap, our Canadian corps was roughly about a hundred thousand men, and we captured over three hundred thousand Germans. It was the worst scene I'd ever seen in my life. There was nothing but dead horses, dead Germans, and broken and crippled tanks all over the place. That was about the worst memory I had during the war, because the smell of death was everywhere.

Please link to Audio: Ronnie Taylor, Navy, Utah Beach, D-Day 1944

Audio: Ronnie Taylor, Navy, Utah Beach, D-Day 1944

Ronnie A. Taylor, Navy and Combined Ops

At Utah Beach, D-Day Normandy, June 1944

Soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division wade ashore at Victor sector, Utah Beach,

on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Amphibious tanks are lined up at the water’s edge.

Photo credit - U.S. War Department/National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Introduction: One will find hundreds of audio files related to the experiences of men and women associated with many branches of Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian organizations (e.g., Red Cross, CWAC, etc.) at The Memory Project. Most audio files are accompanied by authentic WW2 photos and a written transcript.

Please link to an audio file at The Memory Project related to the activities of Ronnie Albert Taylor, Navy, that touch on his memories related to his war time experiences aboard an LCI(L) at Normandy, June 1944.

A portion of Ronnie Albert Taylor's transcript follows:

We landed at Utah Beach.... on the Cherbourg Peninsula. And we landed.... right around 7:00 in the morning. The Germans were on like a hillside and Omaha Beach was next to us. US soldiers were below where the Germans were, and the Germans were shooting down at the soldiers and landing craft. 

Our landing craft was a little to the left of Omaha, and we were hit by shrapnel on one side of the craft. Fortunately, no one was injured. We let the ramp down and tanks disembarked with the American troops on board. The tanks went around to the back of the hillside where the Germans were shooting down at our troops. The tanks got at the Germans. And that was a successful mission.... then after we discharged the tanks we pulled off the beaches and went to get more stuff. 

We kept on going in and out and there’d be cargo ships, big cargo ships coming and bringing stuff over and they put it on the landing craft. And the landing craft would take it into the beach. And then eventually, they built what they called Mulberry Harbour. And Mulberry Harbour was some cargo ships and a couple of old naval ships, and they sunk them there and made an imitation harbour. If it was bad weather or anything like that, they’d bring their landing craft in and they’d take it into Mulberry Harbour and they were protected from the weather then. And they’d load stuff onto the landing craft from the cargo ships and they could take it into the beaches then. But it was a really good experience.

Please link to Audio: Ed Rushbrook, Combined Ops, D-Day, June 1944

Audio: Ed Rushbrook, Combined Ops, D-Day, June 1944

Edward Rushbrook, Combined Ops, D-Day, June 1944

Photo Credit - E. Rushbrook, as found at The Memory Project

Introduction: One will find hundreds of audio files related to the experiences of men and women associated with many branches of Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian organizations (e.g., Red Cross, CWAC, etc.) at The Memory Project. Most audio files are accompanied by authentic photos and a written transcript.

Please link to an audio file at The Memory Project (Page 96) related to the activities of Edward Rushbrook, Navy, that touch on his memories related to training and war time experiences aboard an LCI(L) at Normandy, June 1944.

A portion of Edward Rushbrook's transcript follows:

I volunteered for combined operations service. For a year we trained recruits from the Fishermen's Reserve, and from lumberjacks, to operate small landing craft. Worked in conjunction with Army and Air Force on combined training programs. Then in November of 1943, we were sent overseas. Picked up our Infantry Landing Craft, which were fairly large craft. They were 160 feet long. We had a crew of 25 with two officers. We could carry 200 fully-equipped troops and these landing craft were capable of cruising for a total of 1800 miles, if necessary. We operated with eight Grey Marine diesel engines, four on each shaft. And they were quite manoeuvrable even though they had flat bottoms. 

More training and then in May of 1944 we had our last full scale rehearsal. We went halfway across the English Channel and then turned around and came back and landed on the English coast. Then in the beginning of June, we took the same troops onboard, exactly as we had done before, and on the night of June 5, we set out for France. We had been delayed for 24 hours because of the poor weather. 

So the next morning, it was quite a sight out in the English Channel with 4000 vessels of various sizes proceeding towards France. We took the second assault wave in, but we were there when the first troops went in at 6 o'clock in the morning. We were held off cruising back and forth inside the line of battleships and heavy cruisers that were bombarding the coast. And five hours after the initial landing, we took the second wave in. We were the flotilla leader for our flotilla. We had two flotillas of Canadian landing craft... 12 in each. And then there was another half flotilla that were working with the Americans over in the Omaha Beach area. Our landing craft being the flotilla leader, we were the first ones to hit the beach and the others came in all around us. One came in on our port side and hit one of the mines, sprayed all out port side with shrapnel, wounded my captain and two of our crew. We got them all back safely to England, but we had six holes in the bottom. We lost one propeller. So it was a bit of a rough show, but we got out of there.

Please link to Audio re Combined Operations: William Kennedy, Normandy

Audio re Combined Operations: William Kennedy, Normandy

On LCI(L) 301 (260th Flotilla) in 1944

Please link to an audio file at The Memory Project related to the activities of William Kennedy, from Winnipeg, that touch on memories related to his training and war time experiences aboard an LCI(L) at Normandy, June 1944.

A portion of William Kennedy's transcript follows:

I took an advance course in visual signaling and actually the ship left without me of course. I knew that it was a couple of weeks or whatever it was, I can’t just remember how long, and then I’d seen there was a bulletin at the signal school in Halifax. So I then went over on the [SS] Ile de France to [HMCS]Niobe in Scotland, in Greenock, Scotland, and I forget how many weeks I spent there training and then we took the train, naturally, from Greenock to Southampton [England] and went aboard this landing craft. And that was the LCI (L)-301, the 260th Flotilla.

Photo Caption and Credit - Infantrymen of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders aboard LCI(L) 135 of the 2nd Canadian (262nd RN) Flotilla, 9 May 1944. William Kennedy served in a similar vessel, LCI(L) 301, on D-Day. Lt Gilbert A. Milne / Canada. Dept. of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada / PA-206493

Please link to another Audio re Combined Operations.

Audio re Combined Operations: Richard Norris, Normandy

On LCI (Landing Craft, Infantry) in 1944

Pictured here are LCI (Landing Craft, Infantry) and LST (Landing Ship, Tank)

en route to France across the English Channel, June 1944. Tethered to each

ship are barrage balloons, which offered protection from enemy aircraft

Photo Credit - The Memory Project

Please link to an audio file at The Memory Project related to the activities of Richard Norris, from Summerland, that touch on memories related to his training and war time experiences aboard LCIs at Normandy, June 1944.

A portion of Richard Norris' transcript follows:

They were in the planning stages for the [Normandy] invasion and they were looking for people who could handle small craft in rough seas. And that’s where I think it all emanates from there, it all started there. I guess that’s late in the time or early in the time, they were still trying to put forces together in Combined Operations to do the invasions.

So they were a group, they were a naval, air force and army assault force and they just harassed the enemy any way they could. Of course, it was all leading up to the invasion. It was put together by the Royal Marines. This was who we were under, pretty well supervised, and controlled by the Royal Marines.

We didn’t have a shoulder patch; we were just navy working on landing craft. Our training there was just beaching and troops at night and in the day, and on taking them off, practicing the whole invasion process, and gunnery and all the rest.

Troops from The North Nova Scotia Highlanders on the deck

of their LCI (Landing Craft, Infantry) getting fresh air, along

with their ramp gear and collapsible bicycles in June 1944.

Photo Credit - The Memory Project

Link to another audio file at Audio re Combined Operations.

Audio re Combined Operations: Norm Bowen, SICILY

"Smoke pots, throwing them off like crazy"

Infantrymen of Le Royal 22e Régiment board a Landing Craft, Infantry to move

150 miles along the coast at Catanzaro Marina, Italy. 16 September 1943.

Please link to an audio file at The Memory Project related to the activities of Norman Bowen (RCNVR, Comb. Ops, from Ottawa, Ontario) that touch on memories aboard landing craft at Dieppe, North Africa, and Sicily. The sinking of the hospital ship Talamba is also recalled.

A portion of Norm Bowen's transcript follows:

When we went into Sicily there were a bunch of Italians laying landmines and they told them to pick up and they didn’t want to so they started marching them all over the beach. When they stopped they wouldn’t march until we got them picked up. But, no, but then it started. The Stukas were overhead like flies. It just went on and on for days. And as I said before, everybody knew where the bloody beach was and down it came.

Link to another audio file at Audio re Combined Operations

Photo Credit, as listed at The Memory Project - Lieut. Alex M. Stirton / Canada. Dept. of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada

Audio re Combined Operations; Al Kirby, DIEPPE

"We didn't think much about the danger"

Al Kirby, a Canadian at Roseneath, Scotland, 1942

Photo Credit - The Memory Project

Link to five fine photos, including the one above, and an audio file related to the activities of Al Kirby (RCNVR, Comb. Ops, from Woodstock, Ontario) and other Canadians in Combined Operations at The Memory Project.

A portion of Al Kirby's transcript follows:

"At that time, I think I was 18 years old and for me, I was with a special group that they recruited here in Canada. They asked for volunteers to go over to England and drive landing craft in operations against the enemy coastline. And for a kid my age, at 18 years old, that really sounded exciting. We didn’t think much about the danger. To us, it was exciting. And we looked forward to being heroes and all that. I jumped at the chance and away I went over there and we trained with other Royal Navy people who had been conducting raids against the enemy coast all along. And then the Dieppe Raid was our very first chance to actually do it. And we were very excited about it. We wouldn’t have missed it for the world. But we quickly got over that cavalier ideal once we were at the receiving end of the enemy fire because it’s one thing to talk about it, but it’s something else to experience it."

Doug Harrison (left) and Al Kirby in Scotland, 1942 - 1943

There are more details one can read about Al Kirby's experiences found in Doug Harrison's memoirs. Please link to Memoirs re Combined Operations

Unattributed Photo by GH