D day 80 years on

[Leman (Andy)]

He was in Norway at the start of the war, but other than that, my grandad was reluctant to talk about him for some reason.

Rather like my uncle, who waws rarely talked about. He was a D Day dodger who suffered horrific PTSD at Anzio.

[Dex13]

Like a lot of them, it seems, my dad didn't talk much about his wartime service other than the odd humourous incident.

I've got his service record and pieced together his postings. He was Royal Air Force but, despite training as an airgunner, someone picked up he had been a former quarryman,and he was assigned to the RAF Commandos in the Plant Flight of an Airfield Construction Squadron. Not many people are familiar with the RAF Commandos and, if they are, it's primarily the Servicing Commandos rather than the construction units.

He did his Combined Services training in a bit of a rush at Dundonald Camp in April '44. The main thing he seemed to recall from that was how to kill guard dogs. His squadron disembarked on Gold beach in July and engaged in construction of forward landing grounds in the main with the odd excursion, for example constructing a road to bypass Bayeux to support movement of troops and supplies. Of particular note was the construction of the 5000ft runway at Lingevres, which completed by the RAF in six days, establishing a quarry at Pierrepont where 6,000 tons of stone was extracted in 48 hours and creation of a grass airstrip at Amien/Glisy which had 140 Typhoons based on it within 24 hours of starting work. The logistics involved post DDay are just staggering.

He was wounded by shrapnel, I believe, at Ghent Airfield during Bodenplatte on 1 January 1945 and was left with scarring to the neck and legs but no other lasting injury. However, right at the end of the war he and some mates were 'captured' by the Russians who mistook their overalls for German tank crews. That incident left him with a fear of confined spaces.

However, he stayed in the RAF for 37 years. I have his service medals and one of my brothers has my dad's very unique commando knife the RAF Commandos were issued with.

I believe this picture is immediately post war but the crane is one of the vehicles he was familiar with. My dad is in the middle, back row.



 

[Leman (Andy)]

That's a fascinating piece of military history I knew nothing about until now. Thanks for sharing.