A WW2 veteran from Burnham-On-Sea will be among 300 D-Day heroes setting sail for France on a special voyage organised by the Royal British Legion to mark the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings in June.
Richard Trelease, 94, who served with the Royal Navy as a midshipman, will sail across the channel from Portsmouth with his daughter Jill on the cruise ship Boudicca, escorted by HMS St Albans, a submarine hunter frigate, and four smaller vessels.
When the Boudicca, which has been chartered by the Royal British Legion, emerges into the Solent it will be met by a flotilla of 11 naval vessels which will sail past her in salute with sailors lining the decks. The voyage will take in commemorations in Portsmouth and Le Havre for events in Bayeux, before disembarking in Dover.
A poignant moment will be on June 6th at 7.26am local time when a lone piper will play on the remains of the Mulberry Harbour defences as the Army marks the exact moment that the first British soldier landed on Gold Beach. A statue will also be unveiled in memory of the 22,000 British personnel who gave their lives in Normandy.
Richard, who was 19 years old at the time of the landings, was a Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve who served as navigating officer onboard a motor launch.
“I can clearly remember us setting out on June 5th for the D-Day landings – the sea conditions were very rough.”
“Motor launch 151 was the controlling motor launch for the 12th and 13th Canadian artillery regiments. The first action on D-Day was to fire ashore on Juno Beach to support the Canadian Army landing.”
“Their guns were self-propelled 105mm Priest guns mounted on tank chassis and were placed in each landing craft so they could fire ashore as they ran in towards the beach.”
“Eight landing craft for each regiment formed ‘line abreast’ either side of the motor launch and I personally operated our radar set to give accurate ranges at 10,000 yards and 5,000 yards as we ran in. Their commanding officers controlled the firing by instructions over the radio. They later landed on Juno beach.”
“Motor launch 151 was also ‘Deputy Commander, Eastern flank’ and was in charge of the line of ‘flack’ and ‘gun’ L/C which anchored at intervals from the mouth of the Ouistreham canal to about two miles to protect the shipping anchorage to the west. We patrolled both through the anchorage and eastward as necessary until September 1944 when the Germans had been driven East.”
Richard says it is a “great honour” to be invited to join the cruise following a nomination from the Burnham branch of the Royal British Legion. He will be accompanied on the voyage by his daughter Jill.
The Royal British Legion has organised the voyage partly because it was unable to find a hotel in Normandy large enough for all the veterans.
Richard adds: “I’m no hero – everyone was just doing what we had been trained to do and we all just got on with it.”
