Islanders' stories

The invasion fleet's assembly point - code named Piccadilly Circus - was 20 miles south of St. Catherine's Point. HMS LST-427 (Tank Landing Ship) is pictured at anchor off the Isle of Wight in June 1944. The image was supplied by Graeme Orchard on behalf of his father Bill Orchard (Signalman RN).

A fuel pipeline (PLUTO Pipeline Under The Ocean) was laid from the mainland across the Solent to Thorness Bay and then across the Island to pumping stations at Sandown and Shanklin. At Shanklin, the pumphouses were concealed in the bomb-scarred buildings of the Esplanade. The pipeline ran along the pier and then under the sea to France. The Sandown line ran from a pumping station in the vicinity of Brown's golf course. The pipelines delivered 56,000 gallons a day until the Allies advanced so far that the lines were transferred to Dungeness in Kent.

Hedley Vinall served with the 82nd West African Division of the 14th Army in Burma. Mr. Vinall was recently awarded the MBE for services to the Burma Star Association. Mr. Vinall is also pictured whilst serving in Manipur in India. Mr. Vinall served alongside thousands of soldiers from West Africa.

Aged 19, Ray Timms served on the Assault Landing Craft, HMS Prinses Josephine Charlotte, a former Belgian Ferry which was requisitioned and adapted by the Royal Navy after Dunkirk. He currently lives at St. Vincent's, the home for former service personnel in Ryde. The Prinses Josephine Charlotte landed British troops on Gold beach.

If you would like to add your story or picture to this page please contact the webteam.

Reggie Moore served as a driver in the 6th Ambulance Car Company of the Royal Army Service Corps in France, Holland and in Germany. Reggie was amongst allied forces which entered Belsen concentration camp. Reggie said: "Entering Belsen I saw terror, desolation and human tragedy I never expected to witness. Our task was to ferry those who had survived the ordeal to civilian hospitals."

These official pictures of German troops, which were taken for propaganda purposes in France in 1940, were recovered by an Islander from a former German army barracks in 1944.

Vernon Thomson (third from left) flew on bombing raids on French railway yards in support of D-Day operations. Earlier in the war Mr. Thomson had been forced to bale out of his Wellington bomber and thus became a member of the Caterpillar Club, an exclusive club for those who had baled out of aircraft and survived. Mr. Thomson, who completed a tour of 30 operations, is pictured in front of a Halifax bomber.