It was midday, when Tony Gibbins saw the ramp of the LCP drop down on a Normandy beach, on June 6th,1944. Most of the beach fighting was now over, but the three-man crew had a grim task to carry out.
“Our first job was to load body bags, containing soldiers who had been killed in early fighting,” he said, at his home in the village of Bridge, near Canterbury. “We laid them in the bottom of the landing craft, maybe 50 at a time.
“It gave you a strange feeling to be lifting these dead soldiers. Our coxswain didn’t want to do it because, he said, it made him feel ill. We had to carry them to a ship about two miles offshore where they were hoisted aboard on pallets. The ship would transport them back to England for burial.”
Tony was 18-years old when he joined the Royal Marines on June 16th, 1942. His original home was in Hertfordshire, but he was posted to Lympstone, in Devonshire, for training. Next, he went to a camp north of Carlisle for a driving course, which included learning about engines.
From there he was posted to Hayling Island, near Southampton, for a different sort of driving course. But instead of the Bedford three tonners he was used to, he would now be driving landing craft. He was appointed stoker, which meant he had to look after the engines.
“We also had a coxswain, who did all the seamanship things like steering the vessel, and a deck hand, who kept the ropes in order and looked after the door mechanism,” he said. “Initially we were on LCAs (landing craft assault) which carried soldiers who would rush ashore when the ramp went down. They had two Ford V8 engines, and as stoker I stood between them.
“After further training, at Westcliffe on Sea, in Essex, we were sent to our base at Sandwich, HMS Robinson, which was where Pfizer now is. Here we lived in Nissen huts from the First World War and slept in hammocks, waiting for our 15 landing craft to arrive.
“When they did, they were tied up in threes, in the creek at Sandwich. These were LCPs,(landing craft personnel), which had just one engine. We attacked the beaches at Ramsgate and Broadstairs as if we had troops on board. Sometimes we went off to the Dogger Bank for night training. We also learned morse code and signalling.
“In May, we were told to travel round to Hayling Island again, which we did, hugging the coast. We were told to keep an eye out for German ‘E’ boats which were deadly. On the way we saw some of the inflatable tanks that were designed to fool the enemy.
“We had a meeting in the mess, when we were told we would be going to France on June 5th. But it was too rough, so we set off on the 6th instead, following the lead craft. She was like a mother duck with little ones following on behind. On the way we saw sections of the Mulberry Harbour being towed across. When we arrived, we found they had sunk some old ships, broadside to the beach, to give the landing craft a bit of shelter.
“We were told to go straight to the beach and carry out whatever orders we got from the beach master. The battle had moved inland, and the big cruisers were firing their guns in support of our troops.
“We transported bodies for most of that first day. The second day we saw one of these big rocket ships, that fired off broadsides of rockets at enemy targets on shore. By now we were carrying everything and anything that needed to be moved – ammunition, stores, medical supplies.
“On one occasion we had to go out to HMS Ramillies, seven miles offshore, for bread. At that stage there were no field kitchens, so all the bread was baked on the ship. As we arrived the captain yelled down: ‘What do you want?’ We told him we had come for the bread. “Bread,” he barked. “Don’t you know there’s a war on.” But he stopped firing just long enough for us to load it.
“On another occasion we had to pick up senior officers and take them to one of the ships for a high-level meeting. ‘Now,’ I thought, ‘we’re a bloody taxi service.’
“While we were there, we saw the Mulberry Harbour taking shape. The skill of those engineers was amazing.”
After three weeks ferrying men and cargos off the beaches, that phase of the invasion came to an end, and Tony’s group was recalled to the UK. The next trip was to Belgium to help with prisoners of war. After that they travelled to Singapore, but the Americans dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so the Japanese war came to an abrupt end.
In Singapore Tony was kept busy as a driver, memorably knocking over a fire hydrant which sent jets of water whooshing into the air. He was demobbed on May 8 1946 and travelled home aboard HMS Sussex.
In civilian life, Tony found employment in the building trade.