‘All hell was breaking loose'
COMING up on deck at dawn on the morning of June 6, radio operator Tom Price was greeted with an awesome sight. “All hell was breaking loose. One of the first things I saw was a rocket ship opening fire in front of us,” said Tom, now 80.

“There were ships all around. You could hardly see the sea for ships. All of them had started firing. There were planes going over head, there was so much noise, it was incredible, it really was.”
Tom and the rest of the crew of his Motor Launch had escorted landing craft from Southampton through the night until they arrived at Sword beach just as dawn was breaking.
Having spent much of the voyage below deck operating the radio, the sight that met him at first light on that June morning is etched in his mind forever.
But Tom's involvement in the D-Day preparations went back a long way, although he didn't realise it at the time.
“After training I was assigned to a motor gun boat at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. I remember my first trip out I had never been so sick in all my life,” said Tom.
“My stomach felt like a herd of elephants trampling all over it!”
Overcoming his seasickness Tom began working on secret night missions.
“I never knew where we were going. We'd head towards France then drop people ashore in the middle of the night.”
These secret missions, right under the noses of the Germans, were part of the intelligence preparations for the D-Day invasions.
Despite the dangerous nature of the missions Tom and the rest of his crew managed to complete their missions without serious problems.
Apart, that is, from one heart stopping incident on a return trip from France. As their boat was passing near the heavily defended, German controlled channel Island of Alderney, the boat's steering failed and the crew found themselves drifting closer and closer towards the island.
“We were all just stood there, waiting for the searchlights to switch on and the German guns to open up on us,” said Tom: “We drifted very close, when our steering suddenly came back and we steamed away.”
A few months before D-Day, all these missions suddenly ceased and Tom was assigned to a larger Motor Launch.
Stationed in Gosport on the South coast, no one knew what was being planned; though rumours were rife.
Leave was cancelled and the tension and excitement at the base increased.
Finally the crew moved to Southampton to join up with the rest of the flotilla, the sight of which stunned young Tom.
There was so much to see, it was unbelievable.
There were Americans there, Canadians, French, British, thousands and thousands of people.
" The only people not there it seemed were the Germans!”
By this point the word of the forthcoming invasion had spread through the massed troops, although the final destination was still unknown.
In fact, Tom claims that even after they had set off the only person on board who knew where they were heading for certain was their Captain.
Several soldiers from the landing craft clambered on board the Motor Launch for the journey.
The mood was surprisingly jovial. “We were pent up, but more excited than anything else. We all had a bit of a joke around.”
After successfully escorting the troops Tom's boat began to patrol the Normandy coast.
Using Mulberry harbours, concrete docks that had been floated over from England in preparation when the Allies realised that securing a harbour would be too difficult, the patrols faced desperate German resistance.
They would aim explosive filled motor boats at any larger ships that might be carrying supplies or troops in the hope of disrupting the assembled fleet.
Tom recalls one such boat managed to float right into the Mulberry harbour directly between Tom's ML and another.
The second ML opened fire with such ferocity and so little accuracy they not only sank the explosive boat, but also hit Tom's boat! After D-Day, Tom ended the war submarine hunting in the Atlantic.
He moved to Hemel Hempstead in the 1950s and has lived in Bennetts End ever since. “It's nice to feel you were part of D-Day. Although I never felt like I was part of the whole thing,” said Tom.
“I was part of my crew. I did my bit to help the crew and so did everyone else. That was why we were successful.”