Going into action on D-Day

Heroes Remember

Going into action on D-Day

Transcript

Well it was early in the evening when, when we left and of course there was hundreds of other ships and we ourselves were travelling ‘in line of stern' they call it with the, and, of course during the, during the night there was a lot of activity. I was in the radar cabin of course at Action Stations most of the time, but you're, you're not on the radar all the time you're relieved because of your eyes and so on, so I had some time to get out and get a bit of fresh air from time to time. And all that night was just a constant roar of aircraft going over, the bombers going into bomb the, both of the beaches and the other transportation system and so on and then around midnight I guess, I was out and again there were just hundreds and hundreds of the aircraft which were the paratroopers. And so all night, there was always, anytime I was out of the radar cabin it seemed there was always just a continuous roar of aircraft. And the other thing that, the mine sweepers of course went in ahead of us and they set out buoys on each side of the channel so that as we were going down the channels towards the, towards the beaches, it was, we had somewhat of a light, they were concealed lights, but they, it was just a matter of each row of these ships following their, their way down the thing. And we, we got off the beaches around, if I remember rightly, around 5:30 or so, to our anchorage, which was about five miles off the beach, which was at Berniéres-sur-Mer.

Description

Mr. Gorsline talks about the night-crossing to Normandy.

John Henry Gorsline

Mr. Gorsline was born on November 12, 1924 in Collingwood, Ontario. He joined the Navy in November of 1942 on his 18th birthday. Mr. Gorsline served aboard the HMCS Prince David as a radar operator and returned to civilian life in September 1945.

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