While the nation went mad on VE Day, the servicemen who made it possible were many miles from home.

They had been involved in the most ambitious military invasion history had ever seen.

And their objective could not have been more important to the future of the world. The men who splashed ashore on the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944 had a simple task – to free occupied Europe from the tyranny of Hitler’s regime and bring freedom back to the continent’s impounded nations.

For more than a month, Southampton was at the hub of the preparations as 5,300 ships and other craft and some 12,000 planes, and six infantry divisions – three American, two British and one Canadian – assembled along the English coast.Daily Echo:

As their date with destiny loomed, all military camps on Southampton Common were completely sealed off on May, 23 1944 and eight days later landing craft were loaded up in a four-day operation.

On June 5, the Southampton fleet began to move out and assemble off the Isle of Wight.

By the next day, 156,000 Allied troops waded on to shore.

Within days, 600,000 troops were in France – the Third Reich confronted reality and catastrophe.

Some of the heroic men involved spoke with the Echo in the years past and talked about the moment when victory in Europe was finally sealed.

VINCENT HORTON, WARSASH – 48 ROYAL MARINE COMMANDOS

“We went in to Juno beach on the landing craft at 7.30am on June, 6 1944. I managed to get up the beach and then moved to regroup for our next objectives, everything had come to a halt.

“The Navy was being shelled by a gun at Sallenes on June 16 so they asked us to go and take it out. The gun was turned on us so we all dived into a hedge and I stepped on a mine.

“I woke up in a tent with my right leg blown off and my left leg had gangrene. When I got back to the Royal South Hants Hospital, Southampton, they amputated that leg too.

“On VE day I was in Roehampton waiting for another operation with all the guys who had been burned or badly injured and needed plastic surgery and we all went down the pub! We couldn’t buy anything that day, we were treated like heroes.”

ABLE SEAMAN REGINALD NEIL, SOUTHAMPTON WAS ON A MINESWEEPER

“On D-Day we led the four bombardment ships in and we were the first in at 5.47am.

“My main memory is seeing a German plane come over and I saw the bomb fall out of the fuselage and it sunk a frigate right astern of us.

“We were sweeping up the coast and as we weighed anchor one morning in August we blew a mine up and it sent me flying three foot in the air.

“After that we could only get one of our two engines to work.

“We were sent back to Plymouth and a ship took our place and at six the next morning that ship was sunk. On VE day I was in the Far East to Sri Lanka. A signal came through and the person in charge piped up ‘up spirits, splice the mainbrace’. I had a tot of rum even though I wasn’t old enough to drink it.”

ORDINARY SEAMAN VERNON HOUSE, SOUTHAMPTON, WAS WITH THE MERCHANT NAVY

“I was 17 on D-Day. It was scary and exciting. On VE day I went to the Channel Islands – we took in British soldiers and bought out the German POWs. We went ashore with chocolate and such like because the people were starving.

“We saw dog skins on bushes where they had eaten them. The Germans had come at night-time and dug up all the seed potatoes they had put in and they were very pleased to take our chocolate.

“We saw the radios piled up where they were being given out to the people again and also some girls having their hair shaved off because they had collaborated with the Germans.

“The message about VE day came over the tannoy, we were happy but also sad.

“My best friend Bobby Harris, who I had known since school was killed. He went to France. When my ship docked in Southampton after D-Day I had nipped over quickly to see him.

“I bumped into his mother getting off the tram. She said she was worried as she hadn’t heard from him for a while. I had been indoors for ten minutes when she came to our door and said she had just got a telegram. Bobby had been killed in action. It was such a sad day and he was in my mind on VE day.”

PETER CLIFFORD, FROM SHOLING, WAS A SIGNALMAN ATTACHED TO THE ARTILLERY IN THE THIRD BRITISH DIVISION

“I landed at 8.30 in the morning on D-Day. The worst memories were seeing people you couldn’t do anything for who were wounded in the waves.

“ I was hungry coming ashore and we had these self heating cans of soup, and when I opened it, it shot out of the can and went all over my wrist. I went ashore at breakfast time but had nothing to eat.

“Many ships went down around us but luckily all the men from my section survived.

“On VE day I was still in France. I was on duty, and I passed the message on to my section that all German troops were leaving and the hostilities had come to an end.

“We were in a private house and we found some Christmas tree lights and we put them outside. We also found some beer from somewhere.

“There was lots of singing and dancing as well.

“We felt great elation, and were looking forward rather than feeling sad and looking back on everything that had happened.”

TOM CROMIE, FROM SOUTHAMPTON, WAS A GUNNER WITH THE ROYAL ARTILLER

“At the D-Day landings, when I jumped into the water from our ship I started to flounder as the water was deep and I couldn’t swim.

“I had to keep on jumping up through seven feet of water to grab a breath and then to jump up again.

“Someone threw me a stretcher which I could grab hold of but it hit me on the head. But I managed to get ashore in the end barefooted as the sea was so rough.

“I was in Wales on VE day, as I had become a casualty the previous June. I was waiting for a draft to take me to the Far East.

“I was on active service for 19 days during the war. We were involved in a sudden German counter attack and I ended up with a badly lacerated and broken leg.

“I was on duty on the night of VE day. I couldn’t join in the celebrations – so my celebrations consisted of a cheese and onion sandwich.”

TONY WILLINGHAM, A PARATROOPER, LANDED IN FRANCE IN THE EARLY HOURS OF JUNE 6.

“While I was in France my mother wrote and told me my younger brother Dennis was killed.

“He was in the RAF and on the landing strip at Creully when he was hit by enemy shell. It was June 22, five days before his 19th birthday.

“I remember getting the letter. All the lads were trying to be kind but it was just as if it was another day, almost hard luck.

“Dennis was buried in France and when I went out on detachment the corporal told me to go and see if I could find his grave. There were about six graves at a little place at the side of a road so I got some flowers, put them on and that was it.

“The end of the war in Europe didn’t really mean anything to me because at the time I thought I was going out to Burma and I really didn’t want to go. They said we’d done one bit and now we had to finish it off.”

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