Spurred by the looming threat of D-Day, Nick Rumble married in May 1944, just one month before he would find himself amidst the chaos of the invasion.
On board the Anthony Enright, a Merchant Navy ship, Nick and his crew set sail on the 5th of June in total darkness. As dawn broke over Normandy, the sight of Allied traffic was unmissable, from jeeps to fellow troops, as was the unfortunate display of dead bodies floating in the water.
Although he wasn’t frightened, Nick recalls his time in Normandy as being very tense. As a Royal Navy gunner, he had the responsibility of shooting down enemy crafts, having to concentrate through the intense noise of surrounding gunfire from other much bigger and more powerful Naval ships.
Using an Oerlikon gun, Nick’s first attempt at shooting down an enemy plane seemed successful, much to the delight of his fellow crew members. His victory, however, was short-lived, after discovering that he had only managed to shoot down a balloon on the side of another ship.