Description
Object description
Ts account (15pp, written May 1994, with a copy of a 1p covering letter) by a Lieutenant, a Signal Officer, in No 3 Commando (1st Special Service Brigade), with descriptions of preparations for D-Day, based at Worthing, Sussex, using Landing Craft Infantry (Small) (LCI (S)), with descriptions of the craft, the kit carried, his Colonel, Peter Young DSO MC**, the intense training, a party at the Liaison Club in Piccadilly, visits by senior officers, being one of the few officers to learn of the invasion plans prior to the operation and attending a briefing meeting given by Lord Lovat (May 1944), moving to a concentration area on Basset Common, Southampton, boredom, leisure time, briefings for Operation Overlord and the detailed maps and models, a breakdown of the plans, moving to the coast and embarking on the LCI(S), crossing the Channel, sea-sickness, being given Top Secret orders which he had to burn, watching the naval bombardment, coming under enemy fire, landing on Sword beach, near Ouistreham (6 June 1944, his twentieth birthday), seeing dead bodies in the water, confusion and hold-ups on the beach, crossing the dunes and meeting up with Young, heading to Colleville, the senior officers leading the way to the Orne bridges, moving to Benouville and then Le Bas de Ranville, crossing the canal under machine gun fire, setting up radio communication, engaging Germans with a Tommy gun, seeing gliders and parachutes landing, moving to a quarry near Ranville (7 June 1944), details of attacks on Merville battery by Major John Pooley who was killed in the attempt, being with one of his men, Roland Coffin, when he died, witnessing a German counter-attack and ordering a Major who was withdrawing to take his men back into action, looking for snipers near Breville, the reception by a French farmer, moving to Amfreville and establishing Commando HQ, duties, bombardments of the chateau, burying Allied and German dead, and the last attack on his position, with throughout details of fellow officers, casualties, and the movements of the various units of the Brigade. Together with a ts account (9pp, written August 1994) of his being wounded on D+6 (12 June 1944), with details of the hygiene and disease prevention in the Second World War compared with the First, cooking arrangements and rations, medical arrangements and details of Medical Officers, being hit in the leg by a shell fragment at Amfreville Chateau, treatment at the Regimental Aid Post and then 6th Airborne Division's hospital at Le Bas de Ranville, evacuation by jeep with German aircraft strafing, seeing Queen Alexandra Nurses at a Casualty Clearing Station near the beach, his evacuation to England, with details of the crossing, being taken to Broadgreen Hospital, Liverpool, treatment, being visited by his father, the commander of West Riding District Signals, discharging himself to re-join his unit and travelling to the Holding Operational Commando at Wrexham, being helped by everyone to get back to No 3 Commando, crossing to France with Richard Dimbleby, returning to Amfreville, seeing the change in personnel and landscape in a short while away, meeting Major General Richard Gale (6th Airborne Division), seeing the mass allied bombing in preparation for Operation Goodwood (July 1944) and his surprise at the German counter attack; also a copy of a ts biography of Skelly (3pp) written by his wife, Dr Joan Skelly, with details of his service in the LDV, later Home Guard, and the Hampshire Regiment, officer training, joining the Commandos, Normandy, and later service in the Far East, in India, China, Japan, and then in Palestine with a short service commission (1946), and then as Brigade Signal Officer of 8th Infantry Brigade in Palestine, at home with the TA, Staff College, Camberley, 28th British Signal Regiment with NATO in Germany, and his retirement in 1971; and a photocopy of a photograph of Officers of HQ No 3 Commando (May 1944).
Content description
Ts account (15pp, written May 1994, with a copy of a 1p covering letter) by a Lieutenant, a Signal Officer, in No 3 Commando (1st Special Service Brigade), with descriptions of preparations for D-Day, based at Worthing, Sussex, using Landing Craft Infantry (Small) (LCI (S)), with descriptions of the craft, the kit carried, his Colonel, Peter Young DSO MC**, the intense training, a party at the Liaison Club in Piccadilly, visits by senior officers, being one of the few officers to learn of the invasion plans prior to the operation and attending a briefing meeting given by Lord Lovat (May 1944), moving to a concentration area on Basset Common, Southampton, boredom, leisure time, briefings for Operation Overlord and the detailed maps and models, a breakdown of the plans, moving to the coast and embarking on the LCI(S), crossing the Channel, sea-sickness, being given Top Secret orders which he had to burn, watching the naval bombardment, coming under enemy fire, landing on Sword beach, near Ouistreham (6 June 1944, his twentieth birthday), seeing dead bodies in the water, confusion and hold-ups on the beach, crossing the dunes and meeting up with Young, heading to Colleville, the senior officers leading the way to the Orne bridges, moving to Benouville and then Le Bas de Ranville, crossing the canal under machine gun fire, setting up radio communication, engaging Germans with a Tommy gun, seeing gliders and parachutes landing, moving to a quarry near Ranville (7 June 1944), details of attacks on Merville battery by Major John Pooley who was killed in the attempt, being with one of his men, Roland Coffin, when he died, witnessing a German counter-attack and ordering a Major who was withdrawing to take his men back into action, looking for snipers near Breville, the reception by a French farmer, moving to Amfreville and establishing Commando HQ, duties, bombardments of the chateau, burying Allied and German dead, and the last attack on his position, with throughout details of fellow officers, casualties, and the movements of the various units of the Brigade. Together with a ts account (9pp, written August 1994) of his being wounded on D+6 (12 June 1944), with details of the hygiene and disease prevention in the Second World War compared with the First, cooking arrangements and rations, medical arrangements and details of Medical Officers, being hit in the leg by a shell fragment at Amfreville Chateau, treatment at the Regimental Aid Post and then 6th Airborne Division's hospital at Le Bas de Ranville, evacuation by jeep with German aircraft strafing, seeing Queen Alexandra Nurses at a Casualty Clearing Station near the beach, his evacuation to England, with details of the crossing, being taken to Broadgreen Hospital, Liverpool, treatment, being visited by his father, the commander of West Riding District Signals, discharging himself to re-join his unit and travelling to the Holding Operational Commando at Wrexham, being helped by everyone to get back to No 3 Commando, crossing to France with Richard Dimbleby, returning to Amfreville, seeing the change in personnel and landscape in a short while away, meeting Major General Richard Gale (6th Airborne Division), seeing the mass allied bombing in preparation for Operation Goodwood (July 1944) and his surprise at the German counter attack; also a copy of a ts biography of Skelly (3pp) written by his wife, Dr Joan Skelly, with details of his service in the LDV, later Home Guard, and the Hampshire Regiment, officer training, joining the Commandos, Normandy, and later service in the Far East, in India, China, Japan, and then in Palestine with a short service commission (1946), and then as Brigade Signal Officer of 8th Infantry Brigade in Palestine, at home with the TA, Staff College, Camberley, 28th British Signal Regiment with NATO in Germany, and his retirement in 1971; and a photocopy of a photograph of Officers of HQ No 3 Commando (May 1944).
History note
Cataloguer SJO