D-DAY REMEMBERED: Sad duty as sea filled with bodies; D-DAY JUNE 6, 1944.

Byline: Steve Evans 

ONE of George McIntosh's saddest duties on D-Day was to gently scoop from the water the bodies of the lads who never made it to the beach.

As a Royal Navy sub-lieutenant in charge of five assault landing craft, he was given specific orders as he made his way back to his mother ship anchored offshore.

"Our orders as we were coming back from the beach were to pull out any bodies in the water," he said.

"We must have picked up about six bodies and we took them back to the mother ship, HMS Empire Mace, and they were buried at sea as we returned to Southampton."

George, now 81, who lives in Daventry Road, Cheylesmore, Coventry, lost three of his five landing craft during the first-wave assault on to Gold beach, one of the two British beaches. They were holed by obstacles in the water, and had to be abandoned.

He remembers how tough the crossing was for the hardened infantry troops on board his landing craft, each carrying 50 soldiers from the Green Howards.

They were Desert Rats who had fought their way across North Africa, but seasickness took its toll on the troops as they approached the Normandy coast.

George and his marine crew literally had to help some of them ashore, shouldering heavy equipment that they were unable to carry.

"It was like Piccadilly Circus running on to the beach," said George. "Some of the lads were really seasick and we had to help them ashore.

"We had to get them off because we were 15 minutes late coming in and we knew that unless we got off very quickly we would be in the way of larger assault ships following up."

The now-retired Coventry accountant remembers getting away from Gold beach and returning to Southampton to pick up new landing craft for a second-wave of infantry.

This time, his destination wasn't Gold beach. It was Omaha beach, in the American sector, further west off Pointe du Hoc.

"We took over lots of American Rangers and nurses because we were told they were taking a bit of a pasting on Omaha.

"When I saw for myself what had happened on Omaha, I realised that the war was far from over.

"The American Rangers had taken very heavy casualties and the beach was littered with smashed-up landing craft full of bodies."

CAPTION(S):

D20033_1 LED LANDING CRAFT: George McIntosh (pictured top left in his sub-lieutenant's uniform) had to help seasick soldiers ashore