Essex veteran shares the heroism and horror of D-Day

Tom Cuthbert, 98, served on a landing barge oiler anchored off-shore from the Utah and Omaha beaches.

Tom was 17 when he joined the Royal Navy and just 19 on D-Day, on June 6, 1944.

Also known as Operation Overlord, an estimated 9,000 Allied forces were killed, injured or reported missing.

Tom, who lives near Elmstead Market, said: “A lot of men were killed trying to land on the beaches.

“I will always remember when we first went on the Utah beaches, there were a lot of bodies floating about and we were picking them up from the sea to put them aboard the ship.

“We tried to signal the hospital ship, but they didn’t want to know… they said they’ve got too many people there, so they had to capsize them back into the sea again.”

Tom said there was no option, adding: “I didn’t like the idea of doing that, but we had no option.”

Family - Tom Cuthbert, 98, with his daughter Carol at the Colchester War Memorial (Image: Newsquest)

Tom said he remembers the rough weather that delayed D-Day by a day and that it was 6am when they arrived off the shore of Utah – one of the American beaches.

Tom’s vessel, which he called a “floating bomb” was a target for the enemy due to the amount of fuel on board.

He said: “We carried 100 octanes of petrol. Everybody used to stay clear of us because they didn’t want the trouble of getting blown up if it went off.”

One of the ships in Tom’s flotilla was blown up and another “got pulled apart”.

Tom, who left France in January 1945, said: “I wish the world would stop fighting.”

In 2017, he was awarded France's highest military honour - the Legion d'honneur.