The story
In 1944, he was among the Royal Artillery troops who swarmed ashore in Normandy on D-Day, after eight days at sea in a Bren gun carrier.
Surviving the landing under a hail of German machine gun fire, he dug a slit trench to sleep in, but was ordered out of it by an officer, who commandeered it for himself. He slept under a tree, and in the morning found the officer dead in the trench, killed by enemy fire.
In a service at Swaffham Prior church celebrating Eric’s life, his daughter Hilary Marsh said: “He went on to Caen, from where he wrote home in a censored letter to his parents that he was where the millstones came from, for Fosters Mill in Swaffham Prior.
“He went on with his unit to liberate France, and the Netherlands, then on into Gerrmany, later joining a peace-keeping force in Palestine and Egypt.
There's more to discover
You have arrived at just one small part of Back to Normandy — a personal project dedicated to preserving stories, images, music and memories of the Second World War.
Every record is a doorway to a larger story. Explore Back to Normandy to discover more, or visit Fred Vogels' personal website to learn about the person and the projects behind it.