h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Our barge had sunk in a storm but was recovered from the sea and we were allowed on board to collect any of our personal belongings. After some weeks I was only able to recover a few discoloured family photographs of mine. One of the photos was of my brother Fred in his 5th Welch Regiment Band uniform, as well as well as my broken record player. Fred's photograph is before me on the desk as I write this account.

At least the cargo of fuel on board was recovered intact so we had served our purpose by bringing it safely to the French beach. One day we were working at clearing the beach to prepare for the Mulberry Harbour which was urgently needed to transport the tanks and lorries as well as the supplies for our troops. Without that harbour we would have been in great difficulty against a powerful enemy. One day as I worked my attention was drawn to to a regiment of foot soldiers disembarking from a Landing Ship Infantry. The accents of the men sounded too familiar for me to ingore them and as I listening more intently it dawned on me that they were Welshmen and I realised that they were from the Welsh mining valleys.

I crossed over to the line of foot soldiers coming away from the ship along the beach and one of the first in my sight was a young man that I knew well from my village of Treharris. There was much excitement especially when he me told that my brother Fred was also on board the ship. The word was passed along down the line, "Tell Fred that his brother Billy is up here on the beach. Fred came hurrying up and closely followed by Sergeant Willie O'Neill who lived across the road from us in Webster Street, Treharris.

I had not seen Fred since I had visited him over a year before when he was stationed at Sittingbourne in Kent with the 5th Welch Regiment. At that time I was in the Royal Naval Barracks at Chatham in Kent. In 1944 I had no idea where Fred would be and certainly did not expect him to be here on the Normandy coast. We stood staring at each other, Fred was aged 23 years at that time and I was 19 years of age. This was of all meetings most improbable as these people were formerly of Treharris, South Wales. Most of the boys with Fred were older than me because they had all joined the Territorials before the war broke out. Most of them had been lured by the two weeks holiday under canvas in the summer months but it had ended up with the whole lot being called up in 1939. They were now part of the 5th Welch Regiment and Fred had joined the Regimental Band as a Bandsman. When on active service Fred was required as a Medical Orderly and Stretcher Bearer.

The German Army were holding out against our troops at the heavily fortified city of Caen and were proving difficult to unseat despite the heavy bombardment. It was obvious that the Welch Regiment would be engaged in close combat and they were making for the battle line . After a while one of the officers of the Regiment came across to us and with a smile he said, "There is a war going on up the road and we have to move on". I stood there on the beach waving until they disappeared, heading towards the battle zone of Caen. Within a few days I received a letter from home stating that Fred was in a military hospital in England suffering from multiple shrapnel wounds and that Sergeant Willie O'Neill had been 'killed in action"