SPLENDID JOB

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 June 1944, Page 4

SPLENDID JOB

BONE BY THE ROYAL NAVY WORK OF BIG AND LITTLE SHIPS. DESTROYERS 'IN ACTION AGAINST LAND BATTERIES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.25 p.m.) LONDON, June 7. ' “The British Navy, during D Day, did one of the finest jobs of the war and is still doing it,’’ says Reuter’s correspondent aboard the 1 destroyer Beagle, off the Normandy beaches on Tuesday evening, “An endless stream of ships carrying reinforcements of men, 1 guns, tanks and ammunition con- 1 tinues to arrive. Conditions have '' not been easy. * The rolling seas, tide and wind made * landings during the first light on Tues- ‘ day morning extremely difficult. Long J lines of landing craft, motor launches 1 and supply ships were steadily streaming towards the beaches. Similar : groups of ships were streaming back 1 home to bring up more reinforce- c ments, The Royal Navy’s smaller ships 1 had a very tough time. As we this 1 evening lie anchored close in to the in- . vasion beaches, the water of the Seine ! Bay present an even more amazing 1 sight than it did at dawn. Naval craft seem to have increased in numbers. ” The whole area is packed with cruisers, destroyers, lumbering tank landing v craft, flying their little barrage bal- g loons from the stern, supply ships, mo- j § tor-launches, tugs and mine-sweepers, i s

The seas have abated and the sun is now lighting up the little seaside resorts, but the beach battle goes on. British destroyers to the south-west are bombarding the coast. Through our glasses we can see German tanks deploying on the beaches below the seawall. A stubborn battery on a cliff top keeps up an intermittent fire, shells sending up large sprays of water around the destroyers, but the destroyers fight on, darting in and plastering the enemy's gun positions. “Pillars of dull grey smoke inland show where the invasion force is fighting out stubborn artillery battles. We can see a line of Allied tanks and trucks moving slowly over winding roads, green fields and hills.

“The climax of the whole Allied air invasion camo late on Tuesday evening, when we watched a second wave of glider-borne troops soaring in over the area; They came in hundreds, flying incredibly low. The whole sky was black with them. A young navigator said; “They look like birds migrating to the Continent.” Halifaxes slipped the gliders, which landed gently away in the distance over the coastline 1