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beach, but there was not a sign of him.

Everyone who could get ashore did so, just to be able to say
"I've done it - even sailors who were supposed to stay aboard.

Finally, he returned to his landing craft and pulled away from
the coast. He believes that the Captain of the landing craft, a man
of about 28 or 29 years old, had been notified of the trouble on Omaha
and had been recalled to Southampton in order to transport reinforcements
to the beach as soon as possible.

In the late afternoon on the way back to England a casualty was
brought aboard by davit. He was a leading seaman, the only survivor of
a landing craft crew of five or six who had been run over by one of the
tanks they were unloading. He had a broken thigh, a suspected broken
arm and other injuries, and was unconscious when they brought him aboard.
Leach happened to be on duty at the time and it was his job to see him.
A small operating theatre had been rigged up behind canvas screens down
below, and there was a lot of talk as to whether the doctor should operate
or not. The seaman came to during the voyage but only managed to signify
that he was pleased to be going back to England.
On arrival at Southampton the landing craft was boarded by a Staff
Sergeant and dozens of stretcher bearers from the Pioneer Corps. One
stretcher bearer, shorter than most, was warned by the Sergeant to take
care. "You are being watched", he said. And indeed he was. On shore
there were hundreds of VIP's, red-caps waiting for the casualties to come
in. Nobody was more surprised than the stretcher bearers to find the
landing craft carried only one wounded man. According to the Sergeant,
the leading seaman was the first casualty to reach England by sea. He
was taken to Netley Hospital, Southampton.
By midnight Leach had "got his head down". He could scarcely believe
D-Day was over; everything had been so easy and so quiet - His D-Day
had been a "real picnic".