John Luff and John Woodford on Wartime

John W: I can remember the lead up to ‘D’ Day. I expect you can as well, can you? Because we used to go down to the Harbour in the school holidays of course, and the Harbour was literally full up with Landing Craft. Hundreds and hundreds of them.

John L: But we had a lot of …

John W: Soldiers were everywhere. We had two billeted with us.

John L: And I lived at the top of the road. We didn’t have any, but Sally Woods did, they had Canadians billeted with them.

John W: We had a couple of Welshmen and they were sleeping in tents all over the place and up above were German spy planes, way up above, you know. And how they never twigged that something was going on I do not know because the Solent was absolutely full up with shipping. Dozens and dozens of them weren’t there. And then one day they’d all gone. That was ‘D’ Day. Surprise, surprise, it worked out alright.