I sadly never met Jack, he died not long before I was born. He lived with these memories for the rest of his life. His stories have been passed down and now it’s my turn to start passing them along; sadly role of the Royal Navy in the American Sector is often passed over.

It killed every man on board and threw Jack out into the water, causing severe shrapnel wounds to both arms. He was rescued when a fellow Coxswain pulled him out of the water by his belt. Jack’s war was over; waking up a few days later in hospital.

He came ashore piloting his LCA with men of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division in Dog Green sector of the landing zone. Before they could even reach the beach they were hit by the 88 gun of WN72 situated on the beach at Vierville-sur-Mer.

He served in North Africa (Operation Torch) Sicily, Anzio and Salerno, piloting and working on Landing Craft (Assault). A few weeks ago I returned to the sector of Omaha Beach he landed on, 6 June 1944.

Stop No.3: Rancourt British Cemetery. Sitting between the large French and German cemeteries of Rancourt, it contains less than 100 burials. This includes the 3 aircrew killed in a crash on their return from Arras in 1940

Stop No.2: La Chapelette. This cemetery has a great mix of both British/Commonwealth and Indian troops. In 1940 the Germans used the empty side section of the cemetery to bury their dead.

I wrote a little book about the War Graves gardeners in France and what happened to them after the “lack of proper arrangement for [their] evacuation and the complete disappearance of all [their] leaders.”

www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...

Absolutely 😁

(If you're a wikipedia editor, you can add them yourself, or you can send them to me or @poppymercier.bsky.social, who is responsible for the good work maintaining that page!)