Sub-Lieutenant Hilaire Benbow RNVR was only 19 years old on D-Day. His Royal Navy LCA carried US Rangers from HMS Prince Charles for the planned second wave of the assault on Pointe du Hoc. Hilaire’s landing craft was so badly damaged by enemy fire that everyone on board had to abandon ship and take cover at the water’s edge. Although still under fire, he then led sixteen Royal Navy ratings down the beach to reach the shelter of a much larger American landing craft. This in turn took them to the safety of a ship moored out at sea that could bring them back to Britain; and Hilaire Benbow was awarded the DSO for his “gallantry, skill, determination and undated devotion to duty”. He died in 2010, aged 86