259183 George Cable British Army 220th Anti-Tank Battery Royal Artillery Down Memory Lane By George Cable
On D Day the 220th Anti-Tank Battery, Loyal Suffolk Hussars were waiting until it was our turn to join the convoy on the A12 in the early hours of the morning and trusting that all the hours of training were worth the effort. Arriving in the London area we were told to bed down in tents and that there was a delay of 24 hours for some reason. The next day off to the docks and boarded a USA Liberty Ship and then sailed down the Thames. This woke us up for the cranes on the bankside bowed down to us as we passed, so this must be the real thing.
That night, down below was rather stuffy and I told my mate it would be better to sleep on the bow, so off we went to settle down for the night. In my army career I never did sleep in a bed, it was always on the floor, so that night I slept alright, but what woke me up was a prolonged noise and a lot of sparks. But used to hearing anything I just went back to sleep. Unbeknown to me (I was told later) a German shell had dropped down the funnel and buried itself in the coal; the Navy had come alongside and shouted out why we were losing speed and leaving the convoy. The reply was that we had a bomb aboard and were trying to dig it out. The sailors replied that as the bomb had not exploded already the ship was safe, and they left.
In the morning we were told the news and later saw the crew lift out the 5-foot shell and drop it overboard. The steam engine was in a bad way, so we were very late in arriving in France. So it was down with the nets and climbing down into the landing craft and seeing again our gun, the jeep and the rest of our equipment on board.
I stood up and looked around, amazed at the number of ships around us. I was shouted at to get down as I was making a marvellous target for snipers! The landing craft took us near the shore but not close enough to land without getting our feet wet. We drove up the beach and followed the directions until we met up with our unit again. They were delighted to see us as they thought we must have drowned during the crossing.
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