There are quite a number of individuals accounts of 24th Lancers (British) landing on D-Day although too a lot that specifically say that they were unable to land on D-Day and landed later on D+1. There's quite a bit of further individual detail in the 24th Lancers book "None Had Lances". With many on them actually landing on D-Day from around H-Hour +90minutes on. The War Diary of the 24th Lancers has... "Asnelles 6/6/44 The Regiment was lying up in LSTs off Asnelles in the late morning. During the evening, most of ‘B’ Sqn tanks disembarked, also some tanks and other vehicles from ‘A’ and ‘C’ Sqns. Few enemy aircraft were observed during the day and the AA opposition put up by the numerous small craft off the French coast was very considerable. 7/6/44 During the day further vehicles of the Regiment disembarked and by 2300 hours, the whole Regimental Assault party had landed. ‘B’ Sqn together with eight tanks of ‘A’ Sqn were used during the day for mopping up operations in the area Bazenville in which the Regiment were later to concentrate. It was revealed later that ‘B’ Sqn killed or captured over 100 German Infantrymen in this operation. 8/6/44 At 0700 hours the Regiment had assembled in the area Martragny and prepared to advance in accordance with the Operation Order No.1 attached to this war diary. Advancing down the main Bayeux-Caen road just East of St Leger, leading elements of the Regiment were heavily engaged by A/Tk guns and a Stuart tank was destroyed. Supporting artillery engaged suspected enemy gun positions with fire but in spite of this the Regiment was unable to advance. A particularly active enemy position was found at Putot-En-Bassin and in the late afternoon the Regiment advanced and attacked this position. The position was found to be strongly held by 3 Bns of a Pz Gren Regt in the Hitler Jugend Div, numbers of which infantry had hidden themselves in the long grass an the orchards west of Putot and also at the tops of trees whence tank commanders were continuously sniped. After inflicting heavy casualties and taking approx 40 prisoners, the Regiment withdrew from this position and later were ordered to concentrate again in the area Martragny." I've periodically glanced through the NCAP photo reconnaissance pics to see if any of the landing Shermans might have been 24th L.
There's a very similar narrative here (Sherman Tanks of the British Army and Royal Marines: Normandy Campaign 1944 By Dennis Oliver) : Sherman Tanks of the British Army and Royal Marines i.e. the 24th L "did not land" until the 7th June and "at the end of July" - "were so badly battered that the regiment was disbanded" it also refs. the Gold Beach Armageddon (Sherman) picture with the note - that the picture must have been taken on the 7th June "when the regiment first came ashore". :-( This is actually contrary to the detail in the 24th L war diary - so it's a bit remiss perhaps? Armageddon did land on the 7th June - but it was an "A" squadron 24th L tank, and certainly not the first 24th L Sherman to land. There is a reference in "None Had Lances" p79 - that the picture of Armageddon is an Imperial War Museum picture, however I've not yet found its IWM number or a specific identifying IWM reference to it - as I'd like too to see the pictures in the "IWM series" on "eitherside" of "it", as well as see too who the photographer was.
The photo of the Sherman is in the Admiralty Collection. A 23942 https://twitter.com/SeaSpitfires/status/1296383259572686848
THE ROYAL NAVY DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR: OPERATION OVERLORD (THE NORMANDY LANDINGS), JUNE 1944 A23946 DESCRIPTION Object description A wrecked British Sherman* tank on one of the invasion beaches. Two beached landing ship tanks can be seen in the background (LST 165 and possibly LST 298). With a "52" - T23??57. An HQ tank called "Elusive" - felt like an apt name. I tried a quick Google search - but couldn't find an immediate reference to it. * There's a description here - File:The Royal Navy during the Second World War- Operation Overlord (the Normandy Landings), June 1944 A23946.jpg - Wikimedia Commons - that better uses "Stuart tank" rather than Sherman... English: The Royal Navy during the Second World War- Operation Overlord (the Normandy Landings), June 1944 A wrecked British Stuart tank on one of the invasion beaches. Two beached landing ship tanks can be seen in the background (LST 165 and possibly LST 298). And a few searches with "Stuart and "Elusive" brings up some representations - models etc. with the T number as T23657.
The account of the MO - is reported in "None Had Lances" and the corresponding original transcript is with the Wellcome Library at... Wellcome Library | Photocopy of typed transcript of the diary of Dr. Aitken, Regimental Medical Officer, 24th Lancers, June-July 1944, during the invasion of Normandy With D-Day and onwards from p7 on etc.
FOLLOW-UP UNITS ASSIGNED TO 30TH CORPS ARE DESPATCHED FROM FELIXSTOWE TO THE NORMANDY INVASION BEACHES IN LSTs [Allocated Title] Film Number: A70 33-4 Summary/Description: I. Two Royal Navy LSTs wait to enter Felixstowe Docks. LST-406 docks at an embarkation 'hard' and receives a US Army jeep, an RAF Regiment Bofors gun detachment and Royal Engineers (?) through its bow doors. II. A sapper captain appointed ship commander briefs British and American troops on board the LST on developments on the Russian front. III. The tank landing ship leaves Felixstowe to join LSTs and invasion barges and small landing craft in tow behind tugs (?) sailing with Force 'L' for Normandy. IV. The cameraman surveys the activity off 'Gold' Beach. Troops, vehicles, tanks (24th Lancers or 22nd Armoured Brigade) and stranded LCTs can be seen on 'Jig Green' Beach west of La Riviere. LST-406 lands engineering equipment and tanks from 693 Road Construction Company RE and the 4th City of London Yeomanry. British troops (1/7th Queens of Royal Engineers) wade ashore from a US Navy tank landing craft. Prisoners - some non-German - bound for England wait to board LST-406 before the tide turns.
Re. Their LST flotilla... The U.S. Navy at Normandy & (for example) The U.S. Navy at Normandy There is a picture of USN Captain John Drake Shaw here... Ohio State University Monthly December 1945 — Ohio State University Newspaper Archives
D-DAY - BRITISH FORCES DURING THE INVASION OF NORMANDY 6 JUNE 1944 A23902 DESCRIPTION Object description The Free French River-Class frigate FFL LA SURPRISE K 292 (formerly HMS TORRIDGE) and LSTs (Landing Ship Tank) off Gold assault area, 6 June 1944. Operation Neptune - Assault Convoy GOLD 18 June 6, 1944 With... "The British Army Order of Battle for Assault Convoy GOLD 18 during the Normandy invasion is now complete. Arriving on June 6, 1944 @ 1525 hours, it would not be until June 8, 1944 @ 0720 hours that ALL personnel and equipment would be totally off loaded. The French frigate LA SURPRISE escorted 12 U.S. L.S.T.'s towing five RHINO barges with 3,101 battle troops on board. At a minimum, another 940 various types of vehicles entered combat. These included “ cars “, guns, trucks, jeeps, half-tracks, motorcycles, bicycles, tractors, engineering equipment, ambulances, carriers, trailers and 79 tanks for the 8th Armored Brigade. In reviewing landing tables 2921 through 2926 of the second tide for the 56th Infantry Brigade, it appears the top three “ movers “ of personnel by numbers were the 24th Lancers, 82 Battery of the 25th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment and the 505th Field Company Royal Engineers. For the 151st Infantry Brigade and table numbers 2820 through 2825, the “ big 3 “ were the 61st Reconnaissance Regiment, 522nd Field Company of the Royal Army Service Corps and the 4/7 Royal Dragoon Guards. Good job NAVY !" Photo of "La Surprise" taken by the same Lt. J.A.Hampton that took... THE ROYAL NAVY DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR: OPERATION OVERLORD (THE NORMANDY LANDINGS), JUNE 1944
Re. Sergeant Herbert James Griffiths From: BBC - WW2 People's War - My War Storys from North Africa to Normandy... BBC - WW2 People's War - My War Storys from North Africa to Normandy "In 1938 Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, went to Germany to see Hitler. He came back with a piece of paper, signed by Hitler, saying that he would not declare war. People held him up in ridicule but in my mind he gave us a years grace in which to build up our armour which was sorely lacking. An example of which was a Home Guard armed with pitchforks and Broomsticks. It was obvious in 1938 that there was going to be a war, so in the office I worked in, we all decided that we would join the territorial army before war was declared. So in 1938 I joined the 4th County of London Yeomanry — the Sharpshooters which at the time were the 23rd London Armoured Car Company. We went away to training camp in August. When we came back, I went to the pictures one evening and when I came home there was a telegram telling me to report to headquarters with my uniform. I was then in the real Army with the tank regiment of the 4th County of London Yeomanry. The war really started in late 1940, when the allies wanted to get out of France. We had to man the coast in case the Germans invaded. Fortunately for us they didn’t. We were very short of weapons because before the war the government had neglected to arm us as a country and we had had a year only in which to catch up. In the beginning of 1941 I was sent to the Middle East — Egypt. We boarded the ship the Strathnaver with all our kit. Kitbags , packs and rifles. It took 8 weeks to reach Egypt. I was on G deck which was 8 decks down. The conditions were absolutely awful. We slept in hammocks which were slung over the top of the table where we ate. The temperature was very high. We stopped at Cape Town and were meet off the boat by families who took us home for a short while. I was taken home by a lady and her daughter who showed me around the town and then we had tea at their house. They kindly wrote to my wife and told her they had seen me. When we arrived in Egypt, we were kitted out with Crusader tanks with a 2lb gun mounted on them. The division we were in was the 7th Armoured which was known as the Desert Rats. We were the one and only Desert Rats as we had the Rat sign on our shoulder. The conditions in the desert were terrible. We were given a pint of water a day for drinking and washing. If we were near the sea, which wasn’t often we did have sea soap to use but it didn’t lather. So washing was a problem and one day I was really itchy and I found I had lice so I got a change of clothing and dug a hole in the sand, put all my uniform in it and set fire to it all. The commanding officer came over to me and said ’are you deserting Griffiths!’ The food was mainly bully beef and hard tack which was like a large hard biscuit which when you held it up to the light you could see the weevils in it but we ate them all the same! We did have tea and when we had brewed it up we would then dry out the tealeaves and exchange them with the locals for eggs. On Christmas day the mail actually caught up with us in the middle of the desert and in it for me was a Christmas pudding and some chocolate that my wife had posted to me in the August. The chocolate had gone mouldy and was inedible but the home made Christmas pudding was perfect. The sergeant Major heard about this and said ‘I’ll have some of that boy’ We didn’t have any spare time, if we did, someone would find you something to do. The time in the desert was divided into 2 categories, boredom and terror. In September the British troops were bottled up in Tobruk, so we and the rest of the army went to relieve Tobruk in the battle of El Adem. The Italians gave themselves up in thousands and we took thousands of prisoners of wars. Then we pushed them right the way back across Libya and then the Germans landed and their tanks were in offensive against us. They drove us back to below Benghazi where we stayed for months facing them. The Germans then put in a big attack, outflanked us and we had to go all the way back to a place called El Alamein. The blessing of El Alamein was that we had sea on the right and the Qattara Depression which was impassable on the left. We had a narrow line to hold, which we did. Mr Churchill came out and looked at us and then sent out General Montgomry to take over the army. From then on things changed. We stayed there defending our line and the Germans put in several big attacks, which we repelled. Montgomery seemed to know exactly what to do. When we were ready he put in a big attack and we out flanked the Germans (in the desert the game was outflanking — trying to go round behind the enemy). We pushed the Germans right back to Tunisia and then right out of the African continent. When we got to Tunisia we rested. I was in charge of a guard when my corporal came along and said that we had been posted home. I didn’t believe it at first but it was true. Myself and 5 others travelled across the desert by train in a cattle truck for 7 days and then embarked for England to join another regiment called the 24th Lancers, again a Tank regiment and part of the 8th Army Brigade, where we were to train new recruits for what turned out to be the D-Day invasion. We were given two weeks leave and when we returned the 8th Army Brigade was moved down through England towards the South coast. We knew something big was going on it was of course the invasion of Europe. One morning we had an exercise where they issued to us all special rations- we thought; this is it we are off! But at the last minute they called it off, but when they collected in the special rations issued that morning all the chocolate was missing, eaten. They were not at all pleased. On the evening of the 5th June we got into landing craft and proceeded to cross the channel landing the following morning the 6th June. The infantry was in front of us because they had left a little earlier the previous evening. We were suppose to capture Villiers Bocage but we were held up and did not get that far being pinned down. On the 13th July I was wounded in the arm, I saw the Medics and asked them to patch me up, as I did not wish to loose touch with my Regiment. However I was informed that I was going home, and was sent back to the beach where I was X-rayed and then returned to England in one of the Landing craft we had come over in. On return to Blighty I was sent to a hospital in Chester, where I got a message to my wife who came up to visit me. My fighting was over!." Specifically the bit... "On the evening of the 5th June we got into landing craft and proceeded to cross the channel landing the following morning the 6th June. The infantry was in front of us because they had left a little earlier the previous evening." Suggests he landed on the morning of the 7th - as the infantry were landing the previous evening. And as he was in HQ Squadron of the 24th L - this fits. Though too leaves entirely open, other 24th Lancers on the 6th June.