The Cine Technician (1943 - 1945)

'.II. THE C I X B -TECHNIC] A X September— October, I'm of .1 hundred guns ashore, the splashes of their shells, where the shattered ships and the cries for help? " I don't believe it." said the Captain . . . " it can't be Normandj ! " But it was ! " It'll be worse tins afternoon," said some-one but it wasn't ! ' They'll take two to three days to bring up Subs and planes and other evils" a prophel suggested — but they didn't ! They weren't allowed to! We were lucky no doubt. There were incidents of course. There was a ship ahead of us which hit a mine shortly before zero-hour. But she only shivered, drooped her head a little, recovered and turned for England ... a runner gone lame who has to walk back to the start. And there was the little tug which hit a mine too — for just a moment it lingered, then it sighed a long, long sigh of pure-white steam . . . and went, with all its men. There were incidents like that — pathetic, horrible — hut they were rare and the general scene was one of busy little boats fussing about running errands to the beaches, taking messages to other ships — a quiet, efficient and splendid achievement. So much to film, and yet so little! That was D-Day from our ship, and 1 would not have had it otherwise for all the spectacular pictures in the world. A naval cameraman's best picturein action are nearly always when be is at the wrong end of the gun ... so when I thought of that I wasn't disappointed at the quietness of the scene The picture is what the cameraman wants — and the enemy were getting plenty. Like all tin newsreel hoys on this operation ['ve been to sea a lot since the war started. We've all had thrills — D-Day will take a lot of beating! JIMMY GEMMELL I Paramount ) I was sitting in the ward-room of the ship that I had been allocated to when the news came to me that the big day had arrived. As my ship stole silently out of the harbour, we passed the ship I knew my brother Jock was in and 1 wondered if he would be there to see us <_;o out. Yes. he was. The only JP ^^^A khaki-clad man in the ship. We w aved to one another and the thought came to me : " T wonder if this is the finish or shall we see one another igain?" Bui as I'd experienced other invasion attempts these morbid thoughts soon disappear, i and 1 set about putting my house in order. T] chief thing was a good position in the ship for no cameras. It is not very easy nowadays to find aj good position as every camera position is a gun) position, and what with the extra armamenl the ship, one has to be careful, otherwise you are bumped off by your guns or blasted off your feet. Anyway, I got a good position on the deck. There I sat all that day and night waitirr. At last dawn broke, and at Zero hour came oi our plane flying verj low spreading smoke on our left flank to cover us going in on the N maiidy beaches. Ships of all sizes seemed I ■ up out of thi' sea all making for the coast. '1 hen Hell was just let loose from the ship's guns and I understand that both the R.A.F. and the Americans had been over the target area just prior to our arrival and had given the Hui 8,000 tons of bombs. The whole thing v tastic. Big and small landing barges wet straight for the beaches defying opposition ft the shore batteries, mines, and those lion things called Spiders — twisted lumps of met semi-submerged in the sand that can rip out I bottom of those little landing craft. A wonderful sight was a bunch of landing with guns in the bows shooting their way r _ on to the beaches. Heavy fighting continue; day. shells were flung at Jerry and they n ; from dug-in positions in the alleged impn ?\ concrete Atlantic Wall. Night-time came at last, only to be interrupted by Hun dive-bombers. One came so near ship that he almost took the mast oft'. I think this one was dropping acoustic mines as two y off a few hours later which stirred my circulation up a bit ! The morning after D-Day I was requested b Admiral Vine to go ashore with him. I g i ss 1 wanted to sec how much damagi I si ps done. That was pretty plenty! We had to transfer into a Duck to Lr" ashore a the beaches SO shallow. Here the scene was unbelievable. -1 a flag stuck in the sand denoted some ELQ. II dreds of men were working incessantly unload the various landing craft. There was no shoul of orders — every man seemed to know exact J what he had to do and principally to do it quid Bulldozers were pushing out ol the fairway landing barges which had been damaged. There were tired-c\ ed lad hu-\ digging fox-holes in the dunes, and others filling in the gravi s of 1 heir fallen e rades. While all this was going on our ships v firing over our heads jusl up the hill, on retreating Huns. With all the tragedy and heartbreak that war brings, you will always find some litt'f bit of humour among the troops. It was in till afternoon of the first da\ that 1 went asb.01