From D-Day to a Defeated Germany: One Soldier’s Account of the Fighting from Normandy to the Heart of Hitler’s Third Reich

Pete Morris was twenty years of age when he enlisted in the Royal Signals in 1939.He was, he says, pitchforked into adulthood without the luxury of being allowed a mistake or two. And yet he had a very good war. Promoted to Lance Corporal almost immediately because of his previously gained expertise in Morse, Pete rose to lead a team of radio operators, attached to a Royal Artillery unit, on the long journey across Europe from the Signals Training Centre in Prestatyn. Pete’s account of Operation Overlord begins with his training and equipment for the D-Day landings, including the famous Hobart’s ‘funnies’.On 6 June 1944, his unit went ashore on Jig Sector on Gold Beach at 06.00 hours; his description of the events that historic day is just one highlight of a rich narrative. Ove the months that followed Pete was in the vanguard of the Allied advance towards the Third Reich itself.Having provided an ordinary soldier’s assessment of the doomed Operation Market Garden, he also recounts his