218483 Cpl. Ronald Ridgley British Army 5th Btn. S.Coy Royal Berkshire Regiment Ronald Ridgley served with the 5th Royal Berkshire Regiment, S. Company.
These are his recollections of D.Day
After a fairly rough crossing, we arrived off Bernieres, part of Juno beach. Alongside our L.C.T was an L.C.F fitted with all kinds of anti aircraft guns, which were putting up a curtain of fire, that any attacking aircraft would have to fly through.
When the ramp went down, the first thing I saw was a row of dead Canadians laid out on the beach. A flail tank was beating a path through the mined sands, so we knew that if we kept to the tank tracks it would be fairly safe. The water wasn't very deep, so I got the motorbike ashore that I had to get on to the beach for an officer to use from then on. Meanwhile the Platoon had got our six guns and towing carriers ashore, ready to move inland. We were held up for a while by snipers in a nearby church tower, but I imagine the Navy put a couple of shots through that, as they soon came out., were disarmed and marched away as prisoners.
Others memories of that day were of a Free French man walking along the beach pointing out gun sites and of German prisoners being made to carry the wounded down to the boats to go back to England. All this time the Navy shells were screaming overhead at targets inland.
Our job was to move inland to form an anti tank screen around the beachhead between the sea and Caen. Caen was known to be the base of the German army in that area, so it was thought that any counter attack would come from there.
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