05/06/2026
Tomorrow is the 82nd anniversary of D-Day
D-Day marks the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 - the Allied invasion of Normandy during the Second World War. D-Day remains the largest seaborne invasion in history. Linlithgow's David Morrison (born in 1926), landed at Sword Beach in 1944 as part of the D-Day landings. An interview with David Morrison conducted by the council’s former Archivist, Sybil Cavanah, in 2015. This includes his memories of the war including D-Day and also memories of his time in local government – he went on to become Chief Executive of West Lothian District Council. Here’s an extract of the interview that provides a great insight into the infamous day in British history. If you are interested, please read to the bottom and hear David's amazing story.
👉 What age were you when the war broke out?
Answer: "I was thirteen."
👉And what age were you when you were called up?
Answer: "I volunteered, actually. I joined in August 1943 at the age of seventeen and a half."
👉 Were you able to choose to go into the navy since you had volunteered?
Answer: "Yes, I chose the navy."
👉 Was there any particular reason for that?
Answer: "No, it was just a feeling that I had... I did my initial training at HMS Ganges which was a shore establishment at Shotley, near Ipswich. I was assessed as possible officer material so from the Ganges I went to officers’ training at Loch Ailort and I managed to complete the course successfully and I became an officer in December 1943, as a midshipman."
👉 You can only have been eighteen?
No, I was still 17.
👉 You must have been required to give orders to men who were twice your age?
Answer: "Yes, well, I was posted to an LCT, which was a tank landing craft, and I joined in the Cromarty Firth where we were exercising beach landings in preparation for the landings in France. In early June 1944, we were one of twelve ships in our flotilla assembled in Portsmouth Harbour. We had on board two officers, and men from the 76th Field Regiment, the Royal Artillery, along with four self-propelling guns, which were secured in our open hold."
👉 How many men were in a landing craft?
Answer: "We had a crew of twelve."
👉 And how many soldiers could it hold?
Answer: "I can’t be certain, but I would say there would be about two dozen. We received orders to sail on the evening of 4th June with a view to attempting the landing in France on 5th June. However, during 4th June the weather deteriorated rapidly and became so bad that a postponing order had to be issued. During 5th June the weather relented to some extent, but although conditions were still anything but ideal, the revised order came to sail that evening for France. We left Portsmouth in convoy and one of my memories is of hundreds of people assembled on the Gosport side of the harbour, waving to us. They were too far away to know what they were saying, but I’m sure they were wishing us well."
👉 This was civilians?
Answer: "Yes, civilians, but they obviously sensed that this was the real thing. As I said, we left Portsmouth on the evening of 5 June in convoy and in the morning of 6 June, D-Day, at H hour plus one, we landed on the beach at the village of Ouistreham, our ramp was lowered and, with the guns, the soldiers went ashore with our messages of Godspeed. We had developed quite a respect for the young men and over the years I’ve often wondered what their fate was. We returned to Portsmouth and thereafter we made one or two further trips to France with troops and equipment. D-Day itself was just a mass of shipping and shellfire from battleships and cruisers, and retaliatory shellfire from German shore guns. Looking back it seemed to me there were so many ships that the shells were almost bound to hit at least one of the ships. Although I didn’t know it at the time, I learned later that two of the ships in our flotilla were sunk with loss of lives, one from shellfire and the other from hitting a mine.
I remember on our return journey to Portsmouth being on the bridge with the skipper enjoying a mug of tea, and we said to each other how lucky we were to be returning to safety. We wondered how the soldiers were faring."
👉 How did you cope as such a young man in such a difficult situation? Had your training equipped you properly for that?
Answer: "I think so. One has to remember that most of the servicemen were young men from aged 17 upwards and it was almost inevitable that you faced responsibility that you wouldn’t have experienced in civilian life. And if I look back on my naval service, I can’t help thinking that I did benefit from being given responsibility at a young age. As I said, I don’t think I would ever have had the same experience in civilian life."
👉 Can you describe what it was like when you approached the beaches?
Answer: "As I say, just a mass of shipping. There were two battleships and cruisers offshore, firing shells inland. There were support ships, landing craft like ours and I think looking back it wasn’t possible to absorb the seriousness of the situation; you just did your job. You concentrated on doing your job to the best of your ability."
👉Were you under aerial attack?
Answer: "No that was one thing I remember, that any aircraft were Allied aircraft, predominantly RAF. I didn’t see a single German aeroplane.
"As we landed there was machine gun fire from two houses. Fortunately it didn’t cause any casualties on our ship. We were lucky. I actually visited Normandy in 2009 and I saw these two houses and at that time, I asked myself: Why were they allowed to remain intact? Why wasn’t one of the guns we had landed been trained on them? Rightly or wrongly I assumed that the Germans had run out of ammunition, and probably surrendered, but during that visit in 2009, our guide, who was excellent, was able to point out where on that beach our ship had landed. It was quite an emotional thing."
👉 You said you landed at Ouistreham?
Answer: "It was Sword Beach. There were five named beaches in Normandy: Sword Beach where British troops landed. Then there was Juno Beach where Canadian troops landed; Gold Beach where Brit and Commonwealth troops landed; and Omaha and Utah Beaches where American troops landed. There were five beaches."
👉 There must have been fear. Do you think that was more beforehand, then on the actual day you were so concentrating on what you were doing that you coped with it?
Answer: "You were just doing your job to the extent that you weren’t thinking of anything else but doing what was required of you, and in our case, admittedly, getting off the beach as quickly as possible to safety! There is something of a personal nature – I’ve remained close friends with an Englishman who lives in Middlesex. We formed our friendship during our officers’ training, and on one of my visits to him and his wife, I learned in conversation that we must have been very close to each other on D Day without being aware of it, because he was on a support ship off Sword Beach, so we must have been very near each other."
👉 What are your memories of VE Day and VJ Day?
Answer: "I was in Burma. I spent the final stage of the war in the Far East and I remember we received the news of the end of the war in Europe and spliced the main brace. ‘Splice the Main Brace and Dress Ships’ came the order. Splice the main brace meant giving the crew an extra tot of rum, and Dress ships means putting up flags and what have you. I remember it well and I can also remember being in the Far East when the war with Japan ended in August 1945."
"I was demobbed in October 1946.
“One of the reasons I was anxious to get back to civilian life was my girlfriend who became my wife - I wanted to be with her!”
Picture - David Morrison (left) pictured in 1974 after his appointment as Chief Executive of the new West Lothian District Council pictured alongside John Calder the outgoing County Clerk (equivalent of Chief Exec) for West Lothian County Council.
British Army Royal NavyRoyal Air ForceRoyal British Legion West Lothian Council - Museums, Local History and Archives
