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- -- w-- - - -- Page 12, Whitby Free Press, Wednesday. June 1, 1994 By Mark Reesor One of Whitby veteran Harry Inkpen's most vivid memories of the D-Day assault against the coast of Normandy is t he amount of shelling troops faced. "There was so much of it that nobody could tell who was firing at who," then Lieutenant Inkpen recalis. He was the flotilla commander and in command of the first landing craft to touch down at Courseules on Juno Beach. Thiis year is the 5th annivers- ary of the historie landing, which took place June 6, 1944. The thiird Canadian Division took Juno, one, of five beaches where Allied troops staged land- HARRY INKPEN ings, and then pushed 16 kilo- metres inland to a railway join- ing Bayeux and Caen. 'There was aircraft coming over dropping bombs and frog- men swimming around sticking bombs on the bottom of ships. They were timed and would explode later on." There was littie one could do to defend against the frogmen, he "Tearea was full of ail kinds of ship and craft, it was almost impossible to tell if there was someone swimming underneath." As if that wasn't enough to wo)rry about, Inkpen had an even bigger concerri: getting his craft caught up on the beach, which would leave him a sitting duck for Gerrnan gunners. There were a lot of obstacles the Germans had put on the shore to'prevent boats from land- ing, he says, including steel for- mations "that looked something like bedsteads. "If you went in and went over the bed, so to speak, when you hit the head of the bed, the bottomn would come up and punc- ture the craft... "They also had what looked like big posts leaning to seaward. On top of these posts, which were generally in pairs, they had secured shelîs that were nose- fused -- y ou hit them on the nose to explode them. 'Tou did your utmost to brush them. If you gave them a little brush on the side, you'd knock them down."l There were also beach mines "al over the place," one of which caused the first casualty Inkpen saw during the assault. "A Canadian soldier had step- ped out of a small landing craft and stepped on one of these beach mines. It blew the uniform right off and killed him. There were lots of other things, too, but that was the first one." Soldiers had no protection from hostile fire once they were ashore, Inkpen says. "You're high and dry on the beach -- you can't do a damn thing. "If aircraft are flying over, you're not going to do anything. You can't dig a trench -- t's not much good in the sand." Inkpen acted like a taxi, ferry- ing tanks, equipment and troops on to the shore. He went ashore. a few days later "after things had quietened down a bit" and HARRY INKPEN is shown in 1940 as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserves. saw a fearsome weapon the Ger- maris fortunately h adn't been able to use. He saw rows of oil bombs in a gully, Ustuck in racks and lean- ing seaward and they were set to land exactly on the beach if there were an invasion. They would catch fire and no way could you have operated in that smoke. «It appeared the bombing that took pac the night before severed the power to these bombs so they had neyer used thein." He says the bombs would have lit the entire beach on fire. "That slow-burning oul -- I did get some -- and haîf a tumbler of it would take an hour to burri. How lucky we were. There's a lot of luck in everything." The D- a invasion took a tremendous am\unt of planning. Inkpen says he trained for months "and the whole exercise had to be known by so many people... and yet it was still a secret; Jerry (the Germnans) was fooled." Parde, service Suda PAINTER'S CHOICE INTERIOR SEMl-GL0SS LATEX CoorYor orid 'Speci.al *Avolable in over8 ColorYourselect ion $4 99. 113 A ~1916 Dundas Street East, Whitby 800 colors 3.78L 50% to 60Z OFF ALL In-Store Wallcovering *Reg. book prie. Patterns ma Vary from those sown. ,W- v ' aaasBs an &W lpprVle-"eGtrne t A service will be held Sunday at the cenotapRh to cornmemorate the 5Oth anniversary of the D- Day landings in France. Whitby Legion members, in- cluding some who took part in D-Day, wiIl stage the event. A parade wil leave the Legion hall on Byron Street South at 1: 15 p.m., go north to Mary Street, east to Perry Street and then south to Dundas Street at the cenotaph for the 1:30 p.m. service. The service will be conducted P 'rouaI Q~ RS S - Dg-Gone Air Conditioning Seil from] ?orz7eaeé Do R1DEWOD &ENNOX JLJF~ 1. "~" ' " ~'"" ~AIR CONOITIONING - MEATING- AIR CONDITIONING pJ FREE FR E E ,THISSUMM R* .No Paymerits unytil January 1995, O.A.C. yJ;f I AA duct cleaning or high efficiency air cleaner or humidifier Em-- FLEA MARKETi 0 ESGN aCENTRE by the Logicin's new padre, James Tiller of Ail Saints' Angli- carn Church. There wilI be a parade back to the Legion hall after the service, where a D.Day gala is planned to begin gt 8 p.m. T he $5 tickets are available at the bar. Eric James of Whitby, an English concert hall pianist who was a music associate to the late Charles Chaplin, and Phylis O'Reilly who entertained the troops during the war, will per- The Legion's Dominion Com- mand's 'Canada Remembers' D- Day programn will, commemorate the 18 months needed from the date of the initial invasion to complete the victory in Europe. Whitby Legion past president Jim Hillyard says there will be events, both nationally and l ocally, to honour and remember the artime sacrifices made by Canadians overseas and at home. Correction Notice The area code for Camping In Style was incorrect in the 1994 Brooln Spring Fair Guide. The correct numnber for Camping In Style is 905-655-8198. We regret any inconvenience this error has caused. 1 eC CA-DENCETR Robert G.Ekl %C:ý;r--.e F=r*J -.i "<::: L)CE'Fi I: - Serving You For 40 Years - *Geraniums. (Many Colours Available) *Bedding Plants. Many New Varieties of Plants West side of Hwy12, 1/2 mile north of ewER Open 7 days a week Thickson Road. 8:00 amn to 9:00 pm intersection. 655-4411 ME AM -le ýjp