We jumped off the Assault Landing Craft, came up to our waist in water and we had to wade in. You had to hold your Bren Gun [light machine gun] up and wade in. These guys were peppering [firing at] us. Boy, I don't know how I ever made it. Guys were dropping here and there; we kept running. We finally got to the, they had a slit trench right across town. It was about ten feet deep, you know. We just jumped in anyway. Some guys carried a little metal ladder; they put ‘em together and scrambled up the ladder, and kept running towards town. There were guys dropping here and there, but we were zig-zagging-like, you know

Finally we got into town [Courseulles-sur-Mer] and started street fighting, and then The Queen's Own Rifles [of Canada] came there, [Le Régiment de la] Chaudière, French [Canadian] regiment and we made it with the towns. We held that town there. We held it.

I had a young man with me called Mayberry. He was my number two on the Bren Gun. It takes two people to operate. I fire it and he carries my extra ammunition. I left Mayberry. I got hit and got wounded, and then Mayberry took over as number one. I became number two, like, to help him. They say he went buggy, battle fatigue. They had to send him back, yeah.

Shrapnel hit me, I was running from one slit trench to the other; and they started peppering us, you know. I was running back and I got hit in the leg. I couldn't move, the shrapnel is still here.