D-Day 80 The Last Veterans: David Morgan

David Morgan, Age 100, Feb 1923, Royal Signals

Interviewed 12 December 1923

A signalman with the British forces but stationed with US servicemen at Warminster, Mr Morgan arrived in Normandy five days after D Day after leaving from Southampton.

He arrived on the American beach codenamed Utah with a vehicle full of equipment. 

The task was to put up a wireless mast for the US forces to better communicate with each other and the Allies during the push out of Normandy and into the rest of France.

A clearing was made in a field in a wood about half a mile from the beach.

Mr Morgan said: "I drove onto the beach with a four by four vehicle with all the equipment in the back. It had been loaded from a Liberty ship onto a Tank Landing Craft.

"We were anchored off shore but the Tank Landing Craft couldn’t get alongside because it was too choppy to lift our vehicles.

"It was a mass of movement and heavy transport. I didn’t see the first days. We were still in an American camp in Warminster waiting for our turn to go.

"The Americans had prepared this ground for us. We drove on to erect the ariels for communication from the American front to the War Office as far as I know.

"I was the odd man - looked after the generators and the trucks.

"The beach was fairly safe. Cleared of mines or at least they had a road mapped out for us to drive which was safe."

David Morgan's team was dependent on the Americans for fuel and rations - by then a depot had been established and supplies were coming in.

"The guys who first went on the beach were the infantry. Once they cleared it everything else followed behind and it’s surprising how many extra people there are.

"Medics, even the military police. Ordnance supply - amazing organisation."

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