D-Day 80 The Last Veterans: Bernard Morgan

Bernard Morgan, Age: 100, RAF

Interviewed 21 February 2024

Aged 20, and trained in secret as a code and cipher specialist, Bernard Morgan was the youngest RAF sergeant to land on D-Day.

Having been based with a unit in Folkestone he drove onto Gold Beach that evening.

The heavy cypher machine he was carrying was so valuable to the Allies that they could not afford the risk of it being captured or damaged before a bridgehead was secured. 

Mr Morgan had been highly trained for his job in France but had been given no specific role on board the landing craft as it crossed the Channel.

"Of course I got all the odd jobs," he said.

"I had to man a Bren gun for two hours on the deck of the landing craft. Our cipher equipment was in a mobile office on a big Bedford lorry and it was a dry landing.

"It came down the ramp and the sad thing was to see soldiers there picking the dead bodies up from the small landing craft earlier that had dropped them in four feet of water.

"They jumped out but had so much equipment on, the poor lads drowned."

Mr Morgan’s job was to collect information allowing the RAF to move planes to the correct locations, messages that had to be kept secret. 

"We couldn’t operate until we had power to operate the machines," he added.

"Then we got the messages from the Army straight away in groups of five scrambled letters, perhaps two hundred of them - messages that the wireless operators had been receiving. 

"Then you set this machine up - there were five drums on this machine.

"They had to be set up (at a certain time) every day from a codebook, and then you can type the message out.

"The quicker you type the message, the plain language comes out one side, the groups of scrambled letters come out the other side, pasted up and then sent to the air operations officer, and there's an Army officer with him, and they tell him exactly where the Army want the aircraft."

"We thought it was a small role but it turned out to be quite a vital one.

"While we were stationed in Normandy you had the same wireless operator on watch with you every time and sadly I lost three of them.

"Every time I go back to Normandy I always go to their graves."

Mr Morgan stayed in Normandy until the end of July.

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