On D-Day, June 6th 1944, Trooper Jim Smith (C Sqdn, Westminster Dragoons) landed on Gold Beach in Normandy, France, just least of La Riviere. It was around 7:25 AM. The two Churchill tanks in front of Jim edged their way off the landing craft onto the beach, but sadly were hit by shells and exploded, killing the crews. Jim, a driver not scheduled to land on D-Day and who volunteered when the tank’s gunner fell ill, looked east along the beach and in the distance spotted a German defence bunker firing shells over his head towards hundreds of other landing craft, troops and tanks landing further along the beach.

Jim was in an American Sherman tank known as one of Hobart’s Funnies as he had a 10-foot boom on the front with chains spinning around to sweep the mines out of the sand and clear a path for the invasion. His gun was facing out towards the sea to keep the way clear for the fast turning chains.

One can only assume that the Germans - having not seen a contraption like this before - were more concerned with the tanks landing further down the beach. This gave Jim the chance to stop the chains and turn his gun towards the bunker. He fired two high explosive shells at it, but they seemed to bounce off. He then loaded an armour piercing shell and fired as he saw the barrel of an 88mm gun turn towards him. Having aimed at the barrel of the gun while it was being reloaded, the shell deflected off the gun barrel, entered the emplacement between the gun mantle and the concrete and spun around inside, killing all the crew.

Jim progressed into town and was soon asked to assist in taking out a German sniper hiding in the belfry of a small church killing the British troops as they entered the town. Jim spotted him through his sights and took out the side of the belfry with one shot. Interestingly, to this day one can see a slight colour difference in the stonework where the belfry was later repaired.