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John "Sniper" Scoot was 20 on D-Day. Their objective was Langrune, a
small seaside town slightly larger than a village. That night houses
caught fire on the promenade.

They came ashore at eight in the morning, They were actually told before
leaving Britain that they would "walk up the beaches and the Canadians
would have a tent with a change of clothing for anybody who needed dry
clothes". The Marines took this with a large pinch of salt.

They were hit by mortar fire coming in on the port side wounding his
pal in the thigh. Scoot was unable to get off on the port side ramp
because of wreckage so he went to the starboard side where he found a
man wounded in the legs near the ramp. "What the hell are you standing
there looking at me for - get going!" From then on it was almost like
a dream. There were a lot of wounded but Scoot made for the sea wall
partly in a daze. Most of the firing was from a pillbox which fired
laterally(?) down the beach. One Lance Corporal ran out away from the
wall and on to the beach, firing his rifle as hard as he could at the
pillbox. But he just crumpled on the beach. They got him.

From the wall (a lot of men had been wounded and killed on the beaches)
they moved on off the beach. They saw a jeep full of ammunition go up
with a terrific plume of smoke.

The men on thd beaches seemed to Scoot to be cocky about their wounds.
Lieutenant E.G."Jeff" Curtis was wounded in a wood near Langrune. He
was hit by a naval shell. "Thumbs up, lads", he said as he was carried
off on a stretcher, "this is just a blighty touch". He died a few
minutes later on the beach.

CO Captain James L."Big Jim" Perny was killed by a sniper’s bullet in
the back of the head in Langrune. His batsman Marine "Taffy" Sourbough
a Welshman was crying his eyes out.

He saw a tank take the arm of a Marine. The Marine had been standing
leaning on the track. Suddenly it began to move. It spun the Marine
round and his arm caught in the track. The screaming Marine was spun
around with the track. The tank continued on as though the driver
was beserk. This was the tank that Flunder stopped.

9.00 In St. Aubin they were hiding in doorways because of fierce sniping
and machine gunning. Suddenly two French men appeared in the street
fighting. A French woman also appeared and proceeded to lambaste both
of them with a saucepan - all this while the street was buzzing with bullets.

5.00 Langrune - Hiding behind a wall - a tank wall which had been run
across the street - which could not be demolished.
Tanks were firing point blank at the wall and couldn’t penetrate. Nobody
breached it, so the Marines made a dash across 50 yards to use it for cover.
Suddenly a shower of stick grenades landed over the wall, apparently from
a window. Scoot actually saw the German's arm as he was lobbing them out.
By the side of the wall was a small gate. Scoot and another went through
the gate, around the back of the house and upstairs. The German apparently
didn’t hear them coming. One of the Marines remained on one side of the
door while Scoot ran across to the other side. Scoot caught a fleeting
glance of the German still throwing grenades - there was so much noise
that he didn’t hear the Marines. He quickly stood in the doorway as the
German half turned. He shot him coolly once, then again. The German
seemed terribly surprised in death. "Sniper" didn’t believe in wasting
ammunition. He felt quite triumphant, but alfough he had a whole pile