M.G. Gale was the driver of a Sherman tank in 44th Royal Tank Regiment, 4th Armoured Brigade, and landed on Juno Beach on D+1 (7 June 1944).
“ We had been in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, and were I suppose veterans, having taken part in two D-Day landings. We knew when we were all told to man our tanks and prepare to start engines that the time to land was close.
The ship slowed to a halt, the bows opened and there before us in the morning light was the beach. Fighting was going on just off the beach. I moved the tank very slowly down the ramp and began to ease her off the end, waiting for the drop into what we had expected to be about 6 ft of water. We were all battened down, and well waterproofed, which as it turned out was just as well, because instead of 6 ft there was 10 or 12 ft of water. Unknown to the ship’s captain, we had pulled in right onto a shell hole, and there we were, well under water. Before I could decide what to do, voices were reaching us over our radio telling us not to try to move.
The water as it turned out was almost to the top of our air intake, and if we had tried to pull out, the rear of the tank would have gone down and perhaps we would have all been drowned. I was told to cut the engine and wait for instructions. We sat there waiting for the tide to go out for almost two hours. We were able to follow what was going on, on the radio, but seeing nothing except water through our periscopes, until at last as the water went down, we could see and finally with the better part of our Regiment well off the beaches we were able to rejoin them. We had not enjoyed our forced stay in the water but who knows, because of it perhaps I am alive today.”
