Harry's story: Bringing back the wounded
On D-Day, Pilot Officer, Harry, flew senior military personnel to tactical locations and brought casualties home. He sadly passed away in September 2024, aged 104.
"I was stationed at East Anglia at that time, but the Commanding Officer said, 'Early take off about 7:30, so you better go to Hawkinge [aerodrome] tonight.'
"Well, when I got to Hawkinge it was heaving with people and there was no room in the mess so we were sent down into Folkestone.
"We were picked up first thing in the morning and I collected army officers to take them to airfields near strategic points involved in the operation. They were everything from Lieutenant Colonels upwards to Generals.
"We were starting to taxi out when the tannoy on the aerodrome went. One of the officers tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'Cut your engines, please. I'd like to hear this announcement.'
"It was saying that the invasion had taken place and the landing had been achieved and everything was going satisfactorily.
"For part of the day I was based at Down Ampney Airfield where I saw thousands of army men being launched towards France in sky tugs and gliders."
Harry dropped officers in Normandy and brought back wounded soldiers.
"The first flights to Normandy were just 'there and back' trips, taking army officers over and bringing walking wounded back to Tangmere where the ambulances were waiting to take them away.
"The Royal Engineers did a great job building little landing strips here, there and everywhere. And we landed one of those.
"A few days after D-Day, we actually went over there to one of the landing strips and everything was reversed. We took people back to England, instead of over to Normandy."
"There's a funny thing because I can't stand heights. I'm terrified on the top of the ladder, but the first flight I took never worried me. As long as the plane's moving, I'm moving."
Blind veteran
Harry witnessed the recently-liberated concentration camp in Belsen-Bergen.
"We moved up through Belgium and France and Belgium and Holland and finished up in Northwest Germany, which is not far from Belsen-Bergen.
"Belsen camp [Nazi concentration camp] had just been found actually at that time, about four days before we went. There were still a lot of inmates, hideously thin, wandering around in their blue and white pyjama things.
"It wasn't very nice at all. Mass graves. The sergeants put up notices: '150,000 buried here and 80,000 in this grave'."
"December 45, I was demobbed. I flew 23 different aircraft for a total of 2,231 hours, of which 517 were operational."
Blind veteran
Harry felt completely lost when his sight failed.
He didn't think anybody could help until he found Blind Veterans UK. Fortunately, we were able to give him the support he needed. "After that, everything went fine," he says, "They provided me with CCTV, which is wonderful for reading." Please help more blind veterans like Harry get the help they need to enjoy life again.
Read more
Syd's story: Towing gliders into Normandy
Flying over the Channel in his Halifax Bomber, Syd remembers the sight of thousands of landing craft.
D-Day: A military operation like no other
Our CEO, Adrian Bell, writes about the extraordinary planning behind the largest amphibious invasion of all time.
John's story: Destroying enemy E-boats
RAF navigator, John, had the dangerous job of patrolling the channel at night in a Bristol Beaufighter.
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