Mines in the English Channel

Navigating Through a Mine Field
While we’re crossing the Channel, we came to an area where, while we were getting closer to France, we spotted mines floating on each side. The mine layer, the mine sleepers, we didn’t know this until later way later, that they had swept an aisle in between the mine field and we had that mine field all the way to France. All the way, when we landed. We arrived there, but behind us, whenever there was a splatch between the other vehicles or the other ship or landing craft then the navy were firing on some of those mines and setting them off. Boy, I tell you, you were glad that you didn’t hit one of those. But we didn’t know that they were going to do that, make a path to go right through to the beach.