D-Day+

Came ashore as part of 2nd wave with folded bicycles. Pipes played the companies ashore.

Turned right off the beach along the road to Lion Sur Mer. Commandoes were still dealing with snipers. Passed through the lines of 2nd Bttn Lincolnshire Regt.

Snipers in the tower at Hermanville. Heavy shelling dislodged them.

Bttn dug in at St Aubin D'Arquenay. At sunset they watched the reserve brigade of 6th Airborne land their gliders in the East.

Orders were issued for an early hours attack on Cazelle the next morning.

PVT William Snell D Company, 13 platoon - 1st KOSB

"As we passed through one village, one thing that has always stuck with me was that I looked up and there was a pair of legs stuck on the telegraph wires and I looked along the pavement and there were bodies of East Yorkshires, dead. Some of them were without heads, without legs".

From Forgotten Voices of D-Day by Roderick Bailey

Father always claimed they landed at 10:10am he was quite adamant about the time. LC Captain rammed the craft up the beach and they landed on dry sand.

Son of Rodger Moffet - 1st KOSB, D Company

1st KOSB sailed for France, on the 4th of June, 1944 from Cosham, near Portsmouth. I checked this with my dad's own war diary. They came ashore at approx. 11am, which would make them the 2nd wave.

Diane Kane - daughter of 1st KOSB veteran, Eric Ewing, Signals Platoon, HQ Company

"First off the boat was the KOSB piper, lustily playing his bagpipes, which must have scared the Germans. I followed shortly with my men, who had been issued with folding bicycles. These were rather unpopular and some people had threatened to throw them overboard, but this didn’t happen. I had a heavy pack on my back and an ordinary bicycle laden with a lot of medical equipment; it wasn’t the easiest thing to push across the sand."

Captain Paul Riley, 9th Field Ambulance, RAMC

"To the East 2 Warwicks, had passed through St Aubin and Benouville and were dug in aroun Blainville, while 1 KOSB took up positions in St Aubin which overlooked Benouville. As they did so, the engineers from 17 Fd Coy moved up and began the task of building relief Bailey Bridges across the canal."

Carl Shilleto, Pegasus Bridge & Horsa Bridge.

Letters from a Corporal William ‘Willie’ Cunningham to his wife, and accounts of the day written by a Sergeant Hartle https://kosb.co.uk/events-news/archive-news/d-day-the-normandy-beach-landings/