D-Day A Nations Gratitude
Tom Lennon a reader from Aussie sends this message by e-mail.
Hi there fellow seamen, I love going through this website and enjoying the many tales, it is quite inspiring, and when you live a long way from home it’s great to read about what’s going on, I only learned about this site after my trip home in April-June 2004.
My sister sends me out the Legion magazine; and I was reading about the D-Day celebrations, a subsidised trip on a ship to the Normandy beaches for Vets and their Wives, etc., So I decided to combine my trip home to visit my family still over there, with the D-Day celebrations.
I also wanted to call into the War Pensions Office in Blackpool, a couple of queries about my War Pension; I get for losing my eye through the action on the Salerno, Italy invasion. I was discharged as a Deck Boy but reinstated as a Cabin Boy at the old age of 15 years,.
I was on a tanker on D-Day carrying Octane, so I considered myself a Vet; anyway after surviving the Rigid Security getting into the offices at Blackpool. After being told politely they could do nothing about the Australia Govt, pinching 40 cents out of every dollar of my Pension, I felt completely stuffed when I was told that I could not qualify for the Subsidised trip to Normandy Beaches because I was not living there. To which I replied, “Maybe not, but I was there on the day.”
Then when I was back I happened to read about an Aussie that sailed in the British Merchant Navy, The Article described how he was on a Tanker carrying Octane on D-Day, and that he had been awarded the ‘French Legion of Honour Medal’ by the French Ambassador in Brisbane Australia
Thinking he might have been on the same ship as me, the ‘Empire Chapman’, I contacted him, he lives about a four-hour drive from here. We exchanged a couple of letters, and no he was not on the same ship, He was on one called “Voco” and said he wasn’t actually there on D Day; it was three weeks later, taking supplies over
Oh well that’s what it’s all about all about.
Tom Lennon.
From the Editor
Join the club Tom; you are one of a multitude, (see the Knotty Ash Heroes on Page 7). We print a picture of your ship in wartime livery hoping it will “make up” for the insulting treatment you have had.
At the time, you were not treated fairly, for instance, were you told that if your ship was sunk and you should be taken prisoner, that as a civilian in the war zone, taking an active part in the war you could be shot as a spy. Most MN men at D-Day were not told.
During and since the War, Tom Lennon and his shipmates were repeatedly told they were civilians and non-combatants. What was it like at Salerno, Normandy and the rest, for a fifteen year old, did it feel like it was not a fight, the Sqaddies seemed to think it was a bit rough.
Pat Moran editor LRMS .
Submitted by Gerry Myles LRMS Website Host
Start a New Post 
EXCERPT FROM LRMS NEWSLETTER
bravenet.com