Known fondly as ‘Bunts’ to his friends, after the Naval slang for bunting, David Jefferies had always dreamed of joining the Royal Marine Marching Band. Due to increasing hostilities, he was denied entry in a devastating blow, but didn’t let the news stop him from pursuing a job in the armed forces.  Upon discovering that the Navy was short of signalmen, David decided to concentrate on his knowledge of semaphore and Morse code. He took quickly to life as a signalman and decided to try his luck in the Navy, where he found himself aboard HMS Foudroyant, at the time the oldest warship afloat.  In 1944, as part of D-Day preparations, David joined a crew of 11 and experienced his first journey on board a Landing Craft Tank. Arriving at Gold Beach, Normandy, the role of David’s crew was to provide assistance up and down the coast; despite being a young man at the time, he kept his calm throughout the invasion, even when his craft was hit by an 88, which he considered to be nothing more than a temporary shakeup.  During D-Day, death didn’t occur solely as a result of gunfire. Although David and his crew were lucky, other men were sadly lost amidst the chaos of the operation. 

Harriet Wight was living in the countryside in North East Scotland at the outbreak of war and recalls seeing an enemy aircraft drop a bomb over Aberdeen. It was then she decided ‘to do her bit’ and joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS). After a medical in Dundee she did her initial basic training at Balloch on the edge of Loch Lomond and began her duties as a messenger. She was eventually posted to Ilfracombe in Devon as a signaller and was involved in taking and logging signals which at that time mainly related to noting casualties from the North African campaign in 1943. Harriet moved on to operating telephone switchboards after a period of training and was posted to Hatston on the Orkneys, close to the vital naval base of Scapa Flow. Harriet spoke of meeting her future husband, who was a sailor involved in Arctic and Atlantic convoys, and how she never concerned about the danger he was in until she found out that an American soldier pen-friend of hers had been killed in Belgium and then the reality of war hit home. Harriet concluded by saying how very proud she was of having been a Wren. 

After volunteering for the Navy, Reg was first sent to America on the HMS Asbury, one of the first minesweepers. He chuckles at the memory of mistakenly identifying a barracuda as a torpedo on their way to Bermuda. While sailing back over the Atlantic, the ship was attacked off the Irish Coast, and three of the convoy were sunk. Reg then joined the HMS Gazelle in the Fortieth Minesweeping Flotilla. He relates his memories of D-Day. The minesweepers were the first to arrive, and the crew were at action stations for 3 days straight, sweeping all 4 beaches. Reg recalls a German shell missing their boat narrowly during this time. His ship also picked up some survivors, but Reg was told to only take the dog tags of the dead. A memory that sticks with him is a soldier putting a flamethrower into a pillbox on Gold Beach, and all the Germans jumping out.  The HMS Gazelle was sent to Plymouth after being damaged at the end of August, so their place in the flotilla was taken by HMS Plyades. Whilst on leave in England, Reg sees the news that this ship has been sunk along with two others in the convoy, and recalls saying to his father ‘That’s my flotilla Dad.’ Reg then leaves the Gazelle and goes to the Far East as a Torpedo Man, but says he has always regretted leaving the ship. Reg describes the war as life-changing, and was glad to have been part of D-Day, although he was only 18 at the time. His story demonstrates the intensity of D-Day, and the tireless work of people like him that made the mission successful.