“A landing was achieved by some, although not all, of the raiding force, but the recall was sounded prematurely before the objective had been attained. Photographs of the ‘returned warriors’ were in the two papers mentioned above. The event was fairly minor in the context of other subsequent activities in which we Naval Beach Signals people were involved.” (Malcolm Robinson.)
Malcolm offered this additional information about the Hardelot raid: “We started off from Cowes, and I am pretty certain that the ship we joined was the Prins Albert, one of the pre-war Belgian cross-channel ferries which had been converted to carry Assault Landing Craft, known as ALC. We chosen ones, from our base at Cowes, joined the Prins Albert somewhere in the Solent. I think Prins Albert carried about eight of these craft, each capable of transporting thirty or forty commandos or infantry together with crew, normally a Sub lieutenant, a coxwain and a motorman, with possibly an additional seaman. There was no training as such for this particular job - we were just, literally, plucked off the street.
“On the Hardelot raid, the commandos were reported as wearing woollen caps. As to the shorts, it was high summer, so shorts were for comfort in the heat. Also, doubtless, less material to get soaked when wading ashore. How did I feel when there were just four of us left in the landing craft on the trip home? Well, a degree nervous, I suppose, but certainly wary, and fully expecting at any moment to be attacked from the air or sea. But I think the predominant mood was that we had got away from Hardelot unscathed and were making reasonable headway in calm waters.
“The degree of training received by Naval Beach Signals personnel varied considerably, from the brief induction I had at Dundonald, coupled with some practice in the use of a .45 revolver, to the more extreme, virtually commando assault courses in the wilds of Scotland. Beach Signals personnel comprised telegraphists, signalmen and coders, all of whom would have received normal naval training for their particular skills. Telegraphists, as such, merely had to be inculcated in the use of portable wireless sets, such as the Type 18, which I carried on the Hardelot raid, and the later Type 45, having crystal controlled channels. Signalling on jobs such as the Hardelot raid was kept to an absolute minimum, for obvious reasons. Visual signals would be used only when necessary and wireless only when instructed.
“As to navigation, on raids such as the Hardelot, the landing craft heading in to the beach after having been dropped from their transport, would usually be led in by one of the coastal Motor Launches or Motor Gun Boats, which would also be on hand to provide fire support, since the armament on an LCA was a single Lewis Gun. A Motor Launch was about 110-120 feet long with fairly light armament.
“After Dieppe, the large conglomeration of communication ratings gathered at Cowes was divided into Sections, each of about thirty men, and the Section I came to be in, then, RN Beach Signals Section No. 5, had, prior to Normandy, participated in the North African landings, the invasion of Sicily and afterwards the toe of Italy and eventually the Anzio landings.
“At the time of Dieppe, I was one of six communications ratings attached to Commander [later Captain] Ryder, the St. Nazaire VC, whom we were to accompany aboard HMS Locust, an old China river gunboat, and we embarked on her from Calshot. In the event, after a week of kicking our heels moored in the Solent, crammed full to overflowing with troops, Mountbatten came aboard to tell us the whole thing was ‘off’. Everyone had been fully briefed on their tasks and the intended destination, Dieppe, so it was not surprising that when the operation was reinstated for the same destination in August 1942 the Germans were well aware what was afoot.
“But after the cancelled event in June, leave had been granted - ‘disappointment leave’ we called it - and the hundred or so communication personnel from Cowes returned to their main base, HMS Dundonald, near Troon, Ayrshire. Towards the end of July we were all moved down to - of all unlikely places - Crondall, in Hampshire, where a couple of weeks or so were enjoyed with occasional route marches, communications exercises, and plentiful visits to one or other of the local pubs. Little did we know what was in store for us!
“The day before the operation, we were transported down to the coast, most of us to Newhaven, where we were allocated to various ships and craft, depending on what tasks we were intended to do, some to landing parties, some to join fleet vessels, destroyers etc. for signals co-ordination purposes, some to the principal landing craft and others to the close support Coastal Forces MLs and MGBs. Our destination was to be Dieppe.
“I was one of the lucky ones, to join an ML, thus missing the carnage on the beaches. Upon our eventual return to Crondall, we were much saddened to find that out of the one hundred or so who set out, something around thirty were missing, killed, captured or wounded.”
Operation Neptune was the code name for the naval part of Overlord, the sea-borne invasion of Normandy, on 6th June, 1944, when Allied armies landed on the beaches of Normandy.
In the naval side of the invasion, 7,000 vessels - of which more than 4,000 ships and landing craft, were engaged in the initial assault and follow-up stages; 1,200 warships were to protect the invasion fleet and to blast enemy defences; in support were 736 ancillary craft and 864 merchant supply ships. Malcolm says that in the context of this mighty assemblage, the part played by one small naval unit of 30 men can only be regarded as infinitesimal, yet every unit, large or small, and every individual had its, or his, part to play on the day. His section, Royal Naval Beach Signals Section 5, RNBSS5, was no exception.
In the weeks preceding D-Day, B5 was based at HMS Vectis at Cowes, and billeted in the former Gurnard Pines holiday camp.
“When B5’s personnel were despatched to their respective craft and duties, probably at least half the section formed the party for the Gooseberry. As well as the Mulberry harbour utilised off Normandy, there was another form of harbour, designated Gooseberry, which consisted of a row of old merchant ships sunk in position nose to tail, so to speak, to form a protective shelter for the smaller craft employed on the beaches. For certain reasons B5 was employed in a subsidiary role for Normandy, its main function being to set up a Signal Station on the Gooseberry off Juno Beach, although some of us, myself included, where given other functions.
“Which reminds me that two of our telegraphists embarked from HMS Tormentor into an LCI [Landing Craft Infantry]. One of four such craft, loaded with infantry and/or stores, was destined to take part in the initial assault on the Normandy beaches.
“Detailed information is lacking but Lieutenant R S Evans was detached to act as Signal Officer to SOBG [Senior Officer Build-up Group] with Headquarters in LCI(H) [a minor headquarters set up in an LCI]. He embarked direct from HMS Vectis, in a Fleet Escort Vessel in company with an RN Lieutenant Comm who was to act as harbour master, controlling the anchorage off Juno Beach. The vessel in which he was embarked escorted landing craft into the beach. Later in D-Day he transferred to the LCI(H) already mentioned. The party for Gooseberry, under Sub Lieutenant M Garvey, included L/Sigs J Cummings and Johnson; Sigs Greenwood, Seldon, Grundy and Pirt, Tels. Challenor and A Chadwick; Coders Godsall, Wallbank, Jeffrey and Mapp. It seems likely that Yeoman Arnold and PO Tel. Spencer took passage in the Escort vessel in which Lieutenant Evans embarked.
“From HMS Tormentor II, Tels. S Edwards and B Stone joined an LCI(M), one of two destined as HQs for D/SOBG (M.T) [Senior Officer Build Up Group organising motor transport] and D/SOBG (Stores) [Senior Officer Build Up Group organising Stores: the Build Up Group were later arrivals to the beaches]. These craft, two of four allocated for Signals purposes, were to beach in the initial assault, but the two carrying passengers and stores, including the one in which Edwards and Stone were embarked, were knocked out when approaching the beach.
“I [Tel. M Robinson] joined an MFV [Motor Fishing Vessel, about 40-50 feet long] at Cowes, which ran errands round the assembled Fleet prior to setting off in the early hours of D-Day, navigating - one can hardly call it ‘escorting’ with armament consisting of one single barrel Lewis gun, two rifles and my revolver - a large number of LCMs across to Juno Beach, where I transferred to the SNOL LCI [Senior Naval Officer, Landing, in a