The veteran's view of D-Day

Vivid memories
The 1st Battalion Dorset Regiment, 231st Infantry Brigade veteran Michael Brennen, travelled to France with Time Team to recall his experiences of D-Day and help the Team rebuild a picture of events. Still robust and sprightly, despite his advancing years, Michael has vivid memories of both the D-Day landings and numerous actions he witnessed thereafter.

As a soldier 'hurled into the cauldron' he faced an array of experiences that few people living in western Europe today can imagine. Just 19 years old in 1944, he was trained as a crack assault troop for D-Day, survived longer than many of his fellow soldiers from the landings, endured more than six months of continued front line fighting, and eventually saw his war ended by wounds received from an enemy sniper. Here he tells us about his memories of D-Day.

Building up to invade
'We knew we were building up to invade Europe. We had lots of weapons training and also manoeuvres where we would charge out of landing craft and up beaches. Eventually we were stationed just outside Southampton. We used to regularly get off trucks and march through the centre of the city, down to the docks to board our liberty ship, the HMS Empire Spearhead. Then we'd be off on exercise again. We did that for months.

'Then, a full week before D-Day, we were shown detailed plans of our objectives and immediately sent to the docks in darkness under covered lorries straight onto the ship. No marching through town, we just knew this was it. We set sail and they kept us at sea for a week, tucked away near the Isle of Wight.'

High-risk role
With the weather too bad for the originally scheduled landing date of 5 June, the Normandy invasion took place a day later on 6 June. Michael's unit was one of the first to land on Gold Beach in the early hours. His job: a message runner between the units, one of the most high-risk roles in an extremely high-risk situation.

'We were all apprehensive. We came off the liberty ship at about 5.30am and lowered ourselves into landing craft. It took two hours for the landing craft to reach shore. As soon as the German positions could see us they started opening up with everything they had. We were lucky. Ours wasn't hit, but I know others were hit with all aboard killed.'

All hell let loose
'We hit the beach at 7.25am. Off the platform, it was chest deep in water. I got onto the beach and all hell was let loose. Machine gun fire, mortars, small arms and artillery all raked the whole beach. Once I'd got some cover I had to start running around again to deliver messages to the various platoons.

'We were pinned down on the beach for about an hour and we were losing men at about two a minute. We were out of position and needed to get ourselves together to attack our first pillbox objective.

'I ran, zig-zagging between the units, delivering a message that must have been the order to move at a set time because at one point we all got up and charged. The pillbox position was knocked out and we made it through the other defences and off the beach.

'I think it must have been about 6pm in the evening after a full day of fighting when we actually managed to dig in a slit trench to sleep in for the night. We were all completely exhausted. D-Day was over.'

Combined effort
'Really the point I'd like to make is that it was a combined effort by all of us in each arm of the services from all of the Allied forces that made it what it was,' concludes Michael. 'Yes as infantry we were on the ground at the front, but we all had to do our bit and we did it together, we all needed each other.'

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