‘To my dying day, I will remember our shipmates who gave their lives’ – D-Day vets pay tribute to fallen comrades
WITH the Normandy coast in the background, two 98-year-old veterans hurled a wreath into the sea where thousands of their comrades died 80 years ago.
Able Seaman Alec Penstone, in a white Naval beret, stood beside Private Harry Birdsall on the deck of ferry Mont St Michel.
The giant ship slowed down at the point where, on June 6, 1944, more than 75,000 British and Canadian troops prepared to land.
Just 29 Normandy veterans were there yesterday to witness the moving service to honour the dead.
Expert submarine detector Alec, of Shanklin, Isle of Wight, spent a week off the D-Day beaches hunting German subs.
Part of his job was to bury his fallen comrades at sea.
He said: “We had to stitch them inside their hammocks. A chain would then be fixed to their feet, so when they went overboard they would be standing up.”
Harry, from Wakefield, West Yorks, served as a driver with the Royal Army Service Corps.
He said: “I felt sorry for all those poor devils that have lost their lives.
“If it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t be here. So we’re very appreciative of what they did.”
Alec added: “We are com- memorating their memory, not ours. We’re commemorating what they gave up.
“To my dying day I will rem-ember the most wonderful heroes. Many of them are our shipmates, but they gave their lives for this country.”
On board, RAF Sergeant Bernard Morgan, 100, Able Seaman Ronald Hendrey, 98, and Jack Mortimer, 100, posed for a selfie.
Ronald, of Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, was a teenage cordite-loader aboard HMS Ulster, which shelled German pillboxes at Gold Beach for hours.
Recalling the moments before the attack, he said: “We were terrified, I have never known a ship go so quiet, because everyone was thinking the same thing, ‘Is this my last day on earth?’.
“It was the only day I’ve ever seen the barrel of a gun blister with the heat – because we fired so much ammo that day.
“I remember seeing my first body, a US airman floating fully clothed, and he looked so damn smart. We wanted to pull his body out of the water but the officers said no.”
Today the veterans will remember their fallen comrades at Bayeux Cemetery.
Tomorrow they will attend a service with Charles and Camilla at the British Normandy Memorial.