Memories of D-Day - James Preston (Jim)

Grandad was a Royal Navy as an Able Seaman and wrote a D Day diary. Granddaughter (contributor) putting information together. Contributor also has medals and found the diary interesting. Contributor would like this memory preserving. His daughter remembers that Jim loved being in the forces. Granddaughter finds diary interesting eg. weather delays, not complimentary about Americans. Talks about Americans shooting down Spitfires accidentally.

[Further information received after the event]

The contributor obtained her grandad's service details from the Royal Navy search office. The copy of his Service Record that the Navy sent contains little information but they also sent details from the Pay and Victual Ledgers which revealed the following:

Able Seaman James "Jim" Harry Preston. No. JX347437, enlisted through National Service in March 1942 and carried out his basic training at HMS Raleigh, HMS Pembroke and HMS St. Christopher before being posted to HMS Attack in Portland.

James was initially deployed aboard ML303 (Aug 1942 - March 1944) based at Coastal Forces HMS Attack. He was then deployed to ML248 April 1944 - Feb 1946) based at Coastal Forces HMS Hornet at Gosport. The crew's duties included convoy escort, anti-submarine patrols, coastal defence patrols, and air/sea rescues. This was both in the English Channel, around the Bay of Biscay and in the Atlantic Ocean.

During Operation Neptune - Invasion of Normandy, ML248 was part of the 7th ML Flotilla which was navigation leader for Gold Beach. They went ahead of the landing forces to clear the way and guide mine sweeping and landing vessels towards Gold Beach.

He received the 1939-45 Star, Atlantic Star with the France and Germany bar, Defence Medal, and War Medal 1939-45.

He released from his National Service in May 1946.

The contributor said that they are immensely proud of their Grandad, even more so after finding out about what he might have been undertaking as a member of ML248 and ML303 crews. She is still finding more out about the vital work all those about the small vessels carried out. Very often Coastal Forces seem to be overlooked in the grand scheme of Navy information as many crews were drawn from quite young men undertaking their National Service.