The Sunken Lorry

My father, Bob Meade, had been in the Royal Marine Commandos at the time of the Normandy invasion. Somewhere, I still have his anchor and Tommy Gun badge.
He said very little about D-Day, but had been immensely proud to have taken part. His unit had gone ashore at Sword beach and he was to drive a lorry off a landing craft or ship onto the beach, but as soon as he was off the ramp he went into a large underwater hole and the lorry sank without trace. He said they had to go back later to recover it. He said they recovered his vehicle after the tide had gone out, so he may not have gone ashore with the first wave.
One of the film clips of D-Day that is very often shown on TV is of some British troops approaching Sword Beach in a landing craft. My father would get very animated and say that he went just along the shore from the buildings in the background.
He used to say that the gun he had been given, I think it was a sten gun, had been pretty useless at anything other than making a noise and that in camp they would hang an army issue blanket up and fire at it. He said that people could stand behind the blanket and be quite safe from the gunfire.
Every June 6th he would go out to have a celebratory drink to commemorate having taken part in and survived D-Day. Sadly, he died 4 months before the 50th anniversary and was never able to make his return visit to the beaches.

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