When Mick volunteers he is sent to Scotland to train as a Wireman maintaining the electrics on Landing Craft Tanks. He recalls in vivid detail the day to day life onboard. One thing he enjoyed in particular was his chance to take his turn on the wheel, although he says it took a bit of getting used to.

Mick tells us about the tension as D-Day approached and the amazing scale of what was happening as they crossed to France. He dashed ashore as his vessel beached on Utah beach and remembers the incongruous situation of sharing a bar of chocolate with an American with explosions all around. He spends most of the day in a foxhole then, standing on deck that night, he could clearly see tracer bullets flying across on land and was incredibly grateful not to be in the thick of it.

After a number of trips to deliver troops, Mick is sent to Le Havre where he remembers the friendliness of the locals despite the devastation around them. When returning to Portland, Mick’s vessel hits the rocks and is irreparably damaged. His team is split up and Mick goes to Scotland attached to a Mark III crew preparing to sail to Japan. However, a kindly doctor looks out for him and Mick doesn’t have to go. He thinks this saved his life as so many of those vessels sank in a storm. Reflecting on the war, Mick is grateful that is experience wasn’t so spectacular after all, so many people endured much, much worse.