Eric was conscripted into the army at age 18 and was assigned to the Royal Armoured Corps. He trained on a flail tank, which cleared mines, in readiness for the Normandy invasion. They landed on D-Day with his tank driving through shallow water, clearing mines as it went and supporting Canadian infantry. During the action he realised his shoulder was wet with blood. His commanding officer, above him in the tank, had been wounded. Eric helped him out of the tank and the officer was picked up by the medical corps. The remainder of the crew realised that their rations for five would now go further as there were only four of them! While mine clearing they drove very slowly with a good view of the carnage taking place during which his attitude was one of self-preservation and ‘Thank God it wasn’t me’. Later, in Germany, he was ordered to machine gun farmhouses in case they housed enemy troops when a young mother holding a toddler ran out. She jumped into a trench and the child survived but the mother died after being hit by their gun fire. Eric is still upset by this as it was probably his gunnery and thinks about it now, speculating on how old the woman would be if she had lived. He served the entire campaign in western Europe and was later sent to Palestine during the Zionist insurrection. He considers himself to have had the luck of the proverbial cat with nine lives.

Arthur Cant provides a compelling tale about his contributions during the D-Day landings while serving with the Royal Military Police. He recalls being responsible for the capture of enemy prisoners in Normandy to help clear a path for the allied troops towards Belgium. He recounts his first departure for Normandy, how the police corps managed to capture three hundred prisoners and took them aboard their ship. Following their capture, the corps then supplied the ship with five hundred bottles of soap so the prisoners could clean themselves, showing the generosity of the English. After clearing all the prisoners from Normandy, Cant was reassigned to a Landing Ship Tank (LST) from Southampton to capture prisoners near Belgium as the allies made their course. He remembers the interception of a German warship and how one out of three LSTs sank in a successful mission, exporting another three hundred prisoners. Until his eventual posting to Egypt, Cant estimates exporting more than nine hundred prisoners. Cant's story gives insight into the military tactics used by the Royal Military Police and is an example of how success against the enemy does not always mean violence or mistreatment.