german or french cruisers world of warships

“We’d grown up in families who’d been through ’14-’18.

Too young to join the French army, he enlisted in the navy aged 17 in February 1940, and as a gunner in the battleship Courbet took part in the defence of the port of Cherbourg and the mouth of the Vire in Normandy. Léon Gautier was born in Rennes, Brittany, on October 27 1922, and in September 1939, when France declared war on Germany following the German invasion of Poland, he was working as an apprentice car body maker. “Ten men were killed that day and 36 were wounded and evacuated, including our commander, Kieffer. We don’t even remember being wet, “ he recalled. We were being fired at but we had a job to do and didn’t think about the danger. “I had to go into the dunes and take on the German defences. On the beach, they cut through barbed wire under a hail of bullets. Wading ashore through chest-high water and carrying four days’ worth – 30kg – of rations and ammunition, Gautier carried his Tommy gun above his head and a picture of his British fiancée, Dorothy Banks. “The British let us go a few metres in front, ‘Your move, the French,’ ‘After you’, ” Gautier recalled.

“That was a great honour,” Gautier told the BBC, “and we thanked him very much for giving us the opportunity.” “Tirez les premiers!” (Be the first to shoot). “Messieurs les Françaises,” he boomed at the vessels carrying members of the Free French forces through the breakwaters.

German or french cruisers world of warships