Normandy, France

Site of the D-Day landings,
80 years ago this week.

Whilst making my book ‘The Last Stand’ between 2010 and 2014, I was very kindly shared a number of stories. This is one such story, that of Midshipman Basil John Valentine Spain, kindly told to me by his family.

Promoted to Midshipman, Basil John Valentine Spain took command of LBK1 [Landing Barge, Kitchen], a Thames lighter, which he picked up at Rochester and navigated round to the Isle of Wight shortly before D-Day.

The unseasonably bad weather conditions delayed D-Day by 24 hours, but then Midshipman Spain set off on the 6 June 1944 along with thousands of other craft at dawn.

The crossing took around 24 hours and the seas had still not calmed and every man aboard was seasick, including Basil himself. Once off the Normandy coast, it was his job to secure the boat for a few days until bad weather forced them into Arromanches harbour, a temporary pontoon.

LBK1’s role was to cater for the servicemen engaged in the operation on Gold Beach. A minor landing craft would go out to the larger supply ships, collect whatever food was available and make meals for their fellow servicemen. Basil’s war effort was publicised in the national and local press, under the headline ‘Micky’s Fish and Chip Bar,’ a common name in those days for fish and chip shops.

“The mackerel were certainly plentiful in the waters around the LBK1 as they fed off the blood and bodies of the many men who had lost their lives in the water.”

It was while involved in this operation that Basil was mentioned in dispatches.