Salute to war heroes on D-Day road trip
It was 75 years ago that sergeant Derek Price landed on Sword Beach as part of an advanced reconnaissance party.
With bullets raining down on him, the soldier from Dudley helped locate heavy anti-aircraft guns ahead of an advancing allied army.
Now his son Mick, aged 67, is driving all the way to Normandy in a Scammell Second World War lorry to take part in 75th anniversary commemorations of D-Day honouring his father and other heroes like him.
Mick, from Wolverhampton, said: “It is important to remember the sacrifices of our servicemen because they fought to keep our democracy alive. Without them we wouldn’t have free speech and the liberties we enjoy today.”
Mick is joined by his son Richard, 23, The pair set off on Friday night for Portsmouth to catch a ferry across the England Channel on Sunday.
He said before they set off that it was expected to take 10 hours as his old lorry, which he restored himself at a cost of £5,000, has a top speed of 25mph. “We only take the A roads,” he said.
They were meeting up with around 100 old military vehicles, from the Military Vehicle Trust, at Fort Nelson – just north of Portsmouth – ahead of their ferry journey.
Once in France they were to travel in convoy to the Normandy events. During Mick’s last trip, his convoy had a police escort from the French including motorcycles and a helicopter. “The French love this,” he said.
Mick and his son will be at Arromanches Beach – known as Gold Beach during the D-Day landings – tomorrow.
Gold Beach and Sword Beach was where the British landed in 1944.
Then they will be taking part in the Bayeux Liberation Parade on Sunday.
Mick said this will ‘undoubtedly be the highlight’.
Five years ago Mick said there was 250 military vehicles which took part in the parade watched on by 60,000 people.
It is the fourth time that Mick has made the journey, having travelled to France for the 60th, 65th and 70th anniversaries of D-Day.
His father landed on Sword Beach at 7.30am as a Royal Artillery sergeant. His advanced reconnaissance party were tasked with siting 3.7in heavy anti aircraft guns and radar equipment.
He was aged just 23 at the time and had got married six weeks earlier to Mick’s mother Muriel, now 97 and living in a care home.
Sgt Price died in 2002 aged 80. But not before his bravery was recognised with the Légion d’honneur in 1994 awarded by the Mayor of Caen. His earlier exploits in the Second World War included three evacuation trips to Dunkirk in 1940 on a converted paddle steamer, called the Golden Eagle, and a spell in Sierra Leone.
