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There was no need to worry about them, nobody was truculent or difficult.
When they saw the millions of craft about it must have seemed like Mars
to them; it certainly did to us...

But there was one little group in a pillbox on the crossroads..
They wouldn't come out and were obviously going to fight to the last..
So up came abulldozer, turned in their direction, piled up earth, rubble, etc.,
and buried them alive!

Our job on beach was to recover as many damaged verhicles
as possible... and then get them off the beach. Two men manned a caterpillar,
and if anything was in the way, you had to move it; if you couldn't move
it, then you had to crush it out of the way... Our instructions were that
we had to keep the three outlets from the beach clear... Our caterpillars
could go anywhere, could shift anything.. They were like huge monsters..
mine had "Jordie" painted on side (name for all Tynesiders)... Blokes
would say"That's a great thing you've got there, Jordie; how do you manage
it?" I didn't have to dig a trench to keep myself protected.. the cat
was far safer..

Work really started when the tide went out... left yards of thick
tacky mud... Verhicles came in and sank .. they were carrying stores,
radios, ammunition, hospital and medical equipment..everything, and
if we couldn't get them off the beach, they were just a dead loss.

Churchill tanks floundered, Ducks operating off shore got into trouble..
in the mud and on beach obstacles.. If a vehicle came in at low tide
it would probably need a "snatch" - a haul... You'd hear "Give us a snatch
with this, mate." .. "It won't take a minute." Useless vehicles were snatched
then dumped out of way of road. I can remember a brand new Churchill
tank got stuck in a hole.. Officer asked us how long it would take to remove
it.. it was blocking a beach exit. "How long?" he said. "About half-an-hour."
"Too long." R.E's came up with their own caterpillar, dropped blades,
piled sand all over it, buried it, then proceeded to make roadway over it.
There was no haggling, decisions were made in a minute... We all knew
exactly what had to be done.. we were getting on with the job as fast as
we could.. If orthodox methods failed, and they often did, we used our
savvy - did things that were never in the manual.... We seemed to be
"galvan ised into action."

Nobody worried about us. It was a dirty filthy job amongst mud
and oil. We were under shell fire from Le Havre, but just out of range.
Blokes on next beach were in range though and got the lot.... Began
to feel I was really important, we were doing a vital job... I was the
senior N.C.O. on the beach now that Patterson had gone.... Nobody could
move on the beach unless we were there to help him.. nobody could dig himself
out of the mud... We felt we were carrying everybody on our backs that
day.... There were huge concentrations of stuff landing on the beach... Nobody
in authority to give me orders.... officers who normally told me what to do
came to me for my help ... I had to make the decisions. Began to feel
like a King.. I was shouting and bawling out all day.. I was the guvnor..
Knew the caterpillar wouldn't fail me..

We were physically in good shape.. we [inserted] were [end inserted] friends and liked working
together. Worked like a team.. things gathered momentum.. we were carried
away by the atmoshphere... we did things that day we never thought
we could, we worked at speeds we had never worked before, would have thought
at one time impossible.. We were working like madmen.. About 11.0 a.m.
Fletcher, who had other cat, came up to me when I'd got stuck myself,
said. "If you can't do job better than that, why don't you go home?"
He helped me out, then when he got stuck in mud it was my turn to help him.