BY THE time D-Day arrived, Roy Emmington, from Chatham, had already seen plenty of the war at sea.

Having joined up at HMS Ganges, at Shotley, in 1938, he had been aboard HMS Warspite when she was dive bombed off Crete. He had been involved in the second battle of Narvik and had served aboard vessels escorting the Atlantic convoys.

In the months before D-Day he was promoted to Petty Officer and was put in charge of a torpedo party aboard the Captain Class frigate, HMS Tyler.

"We were sent to Tobermory, in Scotland, to get ready for the invasion," he said. "They had Spitfires firing live ammunition at us."

Roy recalled the legendary Admiral Stevenson - nicknamed "Monkey Brand" - who was in charge of training.

"He threw his hat on the quarter deck and said: ‘That's an incendiary bomb'. The bosun's mate kicked it over the side.

"Monkey Brand said: ‘Well done my man. Now call the sea-boat away and God help you if my hat sinks before they reach it."

D-Day morning saw HMS Tyler in Chatham Dockyard where repairs had been carried out. She cruised down the Medway to Southend where they picked up four troop ships they were to escort to the Normandy coast, following behind minesweepers.

The Channel was full of ships, and tugs towing the massive caissons that were to form part of the Mulberry Harbour.

As they arrived off Normandy, Roy saw his old ship HMS Warspite, which had been firing at targets onshore to help clear the way for troops.

"It was very quiet when we got there at about 10am," said Roy. "We couldn't understand why it was so quiet.

"Our troops transferred to landing craft to go ashore. As we were steaming around I noticed lots of bodies of American troops in the water. Nearly all of them were black.

"The captain of some landing craft had let the door down too soon and they jumped out into deep water. With all their kit on they couldn't hope to survive.

"These men weren't fighting troops. They were Pioneer Corps, the navvies sent over to dig the graves and the latrines. There must have been 50 or 60 of them."

HMS Tyler then spent three months running backwards and forwards from the Isle of Wight escorting two former train ferries now used as troop ships.

When she wasn't doing that she was hunting for submarines but none were ever found. There was never an opportunity to fire her torpedoes or drop her depth charges.