Film: Remembering D-Day and the families that keep the history alive

As we approach the eightieth anniversary of D-Day there are, only a handful of veterans left who took part in the largest amphibious invasion in history. There are, however, families of those who have passed who have kept precious memories and artefacts from that momentous period of history codenamed ‘Operation Overlord’.

The Allied landings on the beaches of Normandy marked the start of a long and bitterly fought campaign to liberate north-west Europe from Nazi occupation. On the morning of D-Day, ground troops landed across five assault beaches: Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno, and Sword.

By the end of that ‘longest’ day, the Allies had established themselves on shore, but with tragic losses.

The advance into France had started and the push to Paris and eventually the borders of Germany would take the troops down a long and bloody path in the months ahead.

On D-Day itself, the Allies landed around 156,000 troops in Normandy. On Sword Beach alone 28,845 men landed via the sea, with 7,900 airborne troops being dropped inland.

Robin Barlow DL, from South Devon, has a remarkable collection of papers from his late father Captain Peter Barlow who was one of the first to land on Sword.

He has given me access to these pieces of history and talks of the actions of his father. 

ABOVE: Robin's Father, Peter (second left)

"He was in the Royal Dragoon Guards, a cavalry regiment and on D Day he was the intelligence officer for the 27th Armoured Brigade. He was very quiet about what he did... but as a young man, I was fascinated by his actions and occasionally he would let a pearl drop."

Do you know what sort of training and planning he went through?

"I believe it started something like 18 months earlier. He had been involved for an awful long time in the structure of the invasion having been sent to Fort George in Scotland, locked in, kept under armed guard, never allowed out of the base … it was under the strictest security and in truth it was a complete secret right up to the day itself."

What do you know of his actions on the 6th of June?

"Apparently, he got a decent night’s sleep on board the ship, he was a good sailor and then at 7.30am the ramp went down on his LCT ‘Landing Craft Tanks’, and he was the first off. I believe there were some troops who had landed in front of him as there had been an earlier wave and of course airborne troops had parachuted in to provide further support and back up. He hit the beach in an American White Scout Car followed by his troop of Sherman tanks. He landed in about 3 1/2 feet of water, which flooded in and soaked his bottom. They manage the traverse of the beach and up towards the enemy lines, constantly under fire. I think ‘constantly’ would be the best description, as he was under fire from the moment he left the landing craft, more or less to the end of the war."

Did he ever tell of the conditions he met on those first few hours?

"Once they got inland, the Germans had very good defence positions, excellent for sniping. Machine gun nests and artillery were positioned to repel the invasion. There was a heavy toll on his and all other regiments which had landed on that day. They met the enemy everywhere and, in his letter, he does mention the bombing by German planes, one which almost got him and his column. The divisional HQ was set on fire and his armoured car rocked from the explosion. Had they not dug the vehicle in they would have been hit."

How old was your father at the time?

"He was an old man, comparatively within the regiment. Remember, in general, those who took part were very young men, boys in certain cases. My father was relatively old at 33."

History records that bad weather and strong German resistance hindered the British 3rd Division's assault on Sword beach. Tides and the lay of the land created a narrow front, causing congestion, not the best conditions to land the armoured support needed for the advance inland.

Although the 3rd Division successfully repelled a German counterattack, it failed to take the strategically important city of Caen which was its key objective for D-Day. The capture of Caen was not fully achieved until mid-July.

"He did once describe his involvement in the liberation of a concentration camp in Germany. The imagery disturbed him greatly and he remembers being able to smell the camp form about ten miles away. He travelled right through France and onto Germany, eventually coming home again in 1945. He landed in some aerodrome in Norfolk and had to go through a customs check, if you can believe it. He found that deeply insulting as strangely, he was not carrying contraband. He was just glad to be home. After that he served as a training officer at Sandhurst for a short while before he was demobbed in 1946."

Peter Barlow wrote a letter home to his wife Helen with a remarkable description of those first few days of the push through Northern France.

"He did of course leave out the very worse parts of his experience. He did mention the engagements with the German forces and in his letters, he did tell of being sniped at on a regular basis. Later in his life, very much later he did tell me that at one point he had stopped his scout car, and his sergeant was shot by a sniper right beside him. Information like that was left out of the letters. He never wanted to distress my mother and other family members. He does mention that despite coming across incredibly well defended areas and excellent German fortifications, the cracks were beginning to show and the pressure from the invading forces meant that then end was in sight. Which of course it was."

Robin has given this short interview and access to the material that his father brought home including the letter written home to his wife Helen.

There is a short film on this website with the edited details of the content of the letter.