`They seemed oblivious to the dangers they were about to face..'.

Byline: Peter Bibby

DDAY for Royal Marine Dennis Burrows lasted eight weeks - and he never got off the Normandy beaches.

Dennis was a driver on one of the first landing craft to go ashore at around 8am on June 6, 1944.

And every day for the next two months was spent the same way - ferrying men and equipment from the fleet of allied shipping off the French coast.

Dennis had left the south coast of England 24 hours before DDay as part of a miniflotilla of 16 craft, each landing barge packed with a payload of around 12 men, a tank or two lorries and a couple of brengun carriers.

They arrived off Sword Beach before dawn where the stretch of seaquickly became known as Piccadilly Circus because of all the boats of all shapes and sizes that were sailing round and round in circles waiting to go in to land.

``They were almost all young men in those boats for the first landings,'' said Dennis, now 79 and living in Ellis Fisher Court, Broad Street, Barry.

``For most, it was their first real experience of war and they seemed totally oblivious to the dangers they were about to face.

``There didn't seem to be any sense of trepidation, to them it was just an adventure - until they landed.'' Dennis added: ``There were German guns on this high ground shelling the beach and the boats, but the biggest threat came from the mines and the snipers.

``For the first couple of weeks the snipers were a constant danger to anyone near the beach. Just when you thought it had gone quiet and was safe you'd hear a single shot ring out - and they rarely missed their target.

``The snipers were hated and one of the unwritten rules of the war was you never took them prisoner.''

For eight weeks Dennis helped in the ferrying of men, petrol, food and equipment which poured off the supply ships onto the beaches along the Normandy coast, eating andsleeping on his landing craft. ``The beach was shelled most days and I remember seeing a merchant ship packed with ammunition get hit before they could start unloading he r.

``She burned for a week and the sea was red hot all around her.''

Once the harbour was built off Sword Beach Dennis and the fleet of landing craft were no longer needed and he was sent back to Britain to be retrained as an infantryman.

But before his training was even finished the war in Europe was over. And, despite being called up for the Far East, the atom bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki beat him to it.

Dennis, and the rest of the world, attempted to return to some sort of normality.

HOW YOU CAN HELP OUR VETERANS ATTEND DDAY ANNIVERSARY

OPERATION Echo is planning to send a party of Normandy veterans to France to be a part of next year's 60th anniversary of D - Day.

Along with the Royal British Legion and the Normandy Veterans' Association we believe our war heroes deserve the chance to return for what could be their last major anniversary of the landings. Operation Echo is an appeal to raise the pounds 50,000 needed to finance the journey for 144 members of the association and their partners.

Sounds a lot? Well break it down and the individual cost of sending each DDay veteran is less than pounds 350 - not a great deal to pay for someone who put his own life on the line for freedom.

Echo readers are already rallying round tohelp raise this money in their own inimitable fashion with jumble sales, head shaves, charity rugby matches, sponsored singsongs - or just plain donations.

We don't mind how you raise the cash, we'd just love you to do it - and while you do we're going to tell the rest of South Wales exactly what you're up to. The sooner the money is raised the sooner we can guarantee those DDay veterans they will return next year - to remember those friends and colleagues they had to leave behind.

So if you're planning a fundraising event for Operation Echo then let us know so we can help you make even more.

Ring the Operation Echo helpline on Cardiff 029 2058 3626, or email full details to peter.bibby@ wme.co.uk.

HOW TO DONATE

PLEASE send your donations, made payable to `Operation Echo' to: Operation Echo, The Editor, South Wales Echo, Cardiff, CF10 1XR.

Don' forget to include your name, address and a daytime phone number (unless you wish to remain anonymous).

Every single donation, however small or large, will be featured in our regular Operation Echo Roll of Honour.

# DDAY MEMORIES Former Royal Marine Dennis Burrows. Below left, as a solider in 1945, right, a postcard of Sword Beach in the 1930s, where Dennis was based.

MAIN PICTURE: Malcolm Morgan