BATTLEFIELDS expert Robin Russell is giving a talk on Thursday, April 25, in Hutton Magna Village Hall about the D-Day landings, the 80th anniversary of which will be commemorated in June.
Hutton Magna, which is between Barnard Castle and Richmond, today only has a population of 194, but it did have at least one lad who landed on the beaches in 1944. He was Lance Corporal John “Jack” Alderson, serving with the Royal Engineers, who was one of three Englishmen to land at 7.30am on June 6, 1944, with the 6th Canadian Armoured Regiment on Juno beach.
“He was my uncle,” says Marian Lewis, who is organising Wednesday’s talk. “About 35 years ago, we visited Juno on a holiday and it was after we returned home that he told us about landing on the beaches and that he had helped to pull a tank from the sea and it is now on the prom at Courseulles-sur-Mer.”
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It was a DD Sherman tank. DD stood for Double Duplex or “Donald Duck”, as this was a tank that doubled as a boat. It had a skirt, or flotation screen, that spread its weight across the water, and it had two propellors at the rear.
These tanks were launched from landing craft about two miles off-shore and they swam at a stately four knots to the beach. They were designed to counter waves of 1ft, but some waves on D-Day were 6ft high and so tanks were swamped.
Still, 21 of the 29 Canadian tanks launched at Juno made it. When they reached the beach, the propellors were turned off and they reverted to track traction – it seems that John helped the five crewmen whose vehicle was struggling onto the land.
The tank, known as Bold, lay on the beach until 1971 when it was mounted in Place de Six Juin as a memorial.
Robin, whose talk starts at 7.30pm, served for 32 years as an infantry officer in the UK and Germany, and served on operations in Belize, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, and he was mentioned in despatches for his work in Northern Ireland.
Since leaving the army in 2008, he has led guided battlefield tours across Europe from Waterloo, the First World War through to the concentration camps of Colditz and Belsen.
Tickets are £5 from Marian on 01833-627281 or Maggie Morris on 01833-627084.
If you have any D-Day stories in your family, we’d love to hear them. Please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk
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