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one man's memories with the events that unfolded
With lines of aircraft and gliders in terms of the eye can see, streaming towards the French coast and warships steaming around below, it is an image which captures the drama of D Day.
The main photograph, above, was taken late around the morning from the landings, just off Sword Beach, where hours earlier, the aerial and naval assault had begun.
In the background the battleships HMS Ramillies and HMS Warspite provide fire support for that attack, while in the foreground HMS Serapis, a destroyer, darts around protecting other vessels in the area.
The image was passed on the EDP and Norwich Evening News by Ronald Everest, from Beetley, near Dereham, from his or her own collection. He kept the photograph because on that morning he would be a 22 years old Ordnance Artificer on board HMS Serapis.
Ronald Everest in working overals, on the Serapis shortly before D Day. Photo: Supplied
It really is part of an amount of images through the era that Mr Everest, now 92, has said to the newspapers in our group of articles to mark the 70th anniversary. Through his recollections, he's also allowed us to reconstruct the afternoon, through his eyes, and the movements of his ship.
The vessel sailed on June 5, its job to escort minesweepers to Sword, the easternmost beach, in front of Ouistreham, before giving the army close support through the beach landings.
It proceeded via a mass of ships to join a flotilla of minesweepers, so it followed south at seven knots.
By 03:30 on June 6, Serapis was eight miles off the French coast. The one noise being heard were the casual splashes as the danlayers ahead dropped buoys on the side to mark the swept channel. A complete moon made visibility good despite moderate cloud cover and knockoff oakley sunglasses the crew watched as all kinds of craft moved slowly past. At intervals, a night was lit by green and yellow flares as well as the flash of gunfire because Germans sought to drive off the Allied bombers overhead. oakley holbrook cheap Behind ray ban sale $19.99 the lightshow, paratroopers were landing in their thousands to disrupt communications, destroy bridges, knock out shore batteries and hold blueprint. Just before Serapis moved on, two battleships moved past them silently, at risk of the French coast.
Imperial War Museum archive images of infantrymen and paratroopers in action on D Day. See PA feature D Day Turning Point
At 05:00, they opened fire with the flanking batteries near Le Havre and also at 05:15, which has a dozen other destroyers, preceded through the American minesweepers and innumerable other small craft, the Serapis closed the shore. Nearby, an underwater explosion caused the ship to shudder looking out to port a Norwegian destroyer (HNoMS Svenner) could be seen in trouble, smoke and steam rising from her in a huge cloud. Along with her back broken, the ship quickly sank, both oakley sunglasses cheap 90% off the ends rising in the air to make a colossal 'V'. "We considered that might mean 'V' for victory," said Mr Everest, who also remembered that the Serapis had been accompanied by HMS Scourge.
Soon after 06:00, the lowering positions were reached as well as the large transports stopped to decrease off their small landing craft. Five miles offshore, there was still no manifestation of the enemy apart from the occasional tracer on the horizon and the sound of gunfire towards the east. "I felt apprehensive, but not afraid," remembers Mr Everest. "As the skies lightened from a peaty darkness into a grey dawn, my first sight was the armada comprising warships and ships of most classes and sizes from tank landing craft to battleships. It was an incredible sight which brought home the immensity with the whole operation."
By 07:00, the landing craft tanks were continue and HMS Serapis began firing as many shells as you possibly can at the pill boxes and beach defence positions through the 35 minutes before 'H' Hour the roar of cheap ray ban uk gunfire was shattering as every ship cruising let loose, broadside after broadside thundering the road as the heavy American bombers passed over above, seconds later lighting the beach using a ferocious bombardment. Rocket ships then opened fire, sets of 20 rockets streaking over the air before disappearing in clouds of smoke on the beach.
At 07:35, the initial amphibious tanks touched down, struggling over the obstacles for the beach, taught in ships at sea protecting the soldiers as well as they could. As the morning wore on, the fighting ashore increased and the crew in the Serapis had to be careful to never engage in friendly fire since the ray ban aviators polarized battle raged. Landing craft transferred wounded men towards the ship nevertheless it was dangerous to avoid for any amount of time the craft was narrowly missed by heavy shelling and watched helplessly as numerous landing crafts were hit and burst into flames.
Ronald Everest showing his daughter, Carol, around a ship, after D Day
By 20:00, because sun started to sink in the west, the shore was obviously a fearsome sight fires flickered, houses burned, smoke hung on the beaches in clouds. The HMS Serapis was shipped to escort a battleship as well as a monitor (the Ramillies and also the Roberts) back to Portsmouth before returning to France on June 8.
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