We have a small craft brew pub where there are 2 long tables so when you go there you sit down next to just about anyone, last night I sat down next to a neighbour, Captain Raymond Creery, he retired in 1964 from the Navy. He was a navigator on a destroyer during D Day.
How many guys from D Day have you met in 2019 at the pub having a beer?
He has some good stories, he’s not much of a talker, you have to ask good questions to get him remembering.
Ray spent about 10 years building his own small sailing dinghy, he launched it last summer. A puff of wind came up and he swamped it. After getting on shore, he couldn’t stop laughing, he had about 50 people there watching the launch. He’s quite a man.
How many guys from D Day have you met in 2019 at the pub having a beer?
He has some good stories, he’s not much of a talker, you have to ask good questions to get him remembering.
- He was in Scotland on his destroyer when the D Day orders arrived, I think about a month before, it was a package about 2 inches thick for the Captain’s eyes only, he shared it with Ray and the officers. Each package was custom to each vessel, imagine the logistics of getting this done with a typewriter? Then a package delivered to each vessel?
- According to google, there were 6939 vessels at D Day, 1213 naval combat, 4126 landing ships and landing craft, 736 ancillary craft and 864 merchant vessels. Ray said there were so many vessels, you could only see a small percentage at once.
- Ray said all the small landing craft were up rivers in England, they clogged up the rivers. Being the slowest vessels, they set out first streaming out of the rivers.
- Can you imagine how many bullets and shells were fired per second on both sides?
- Ray said it was 3 days before they were sure D Day was a success.
- They used dozers on the beaches to move aside damaged equipment.
Ray spent about 10 years building his own small sailing dinghy, he launched it last summer. A puff of wind came up and he swamped it. After getting on shore, he couldn’t stop laughing, he had about 50 people there watching the launch. He’s quite a man.
