"I was assistant driver on a swimming tank. Armour usually followed the infantry in an invasion, but we were going to sail in to the beach before our soldiers and take out the German machine gun nests. In the water, our tanks just looked like small assault boats. We would be a big surprise for the Germans when we came out of the surf.

In sight of the beach, my tank was the first to launch from the LCT [Landing Craft Tank]. The other three tanks never made it into the sea. The canvas screens which kept the waves out and kept the swimming tanks afloat had been ripped on each one, so they stayed onboard.

The sea was pretty heavy, we'd never practised in that kind of weather and I'm not sure why they let us go. The swell was really big. One moment you'd ride a crest and get a view of the beach, the next you'd be at the bottom of a trough and just see water all around you.

The motor driving our twin propellers was working quite well, but the struts holding up the canvas screen started to buckle. I was bracing the strut on our right side, but I was in no doubt we were in serious trouble.

We were the first tank to sink. It went straight down with a big gulp, dragging a couple of guys down with it. They floated back up, but one of our life rafts didn't work at all and the other only half-inflated.

The water was really cold and we just had to wait for the LCT we'd left only minutes before to pick us up again. Of the 32 tanks to launch out to sea, 27 sank.

That lost firepower could have made a big difference to the soldiers fighting on Omaha. The LCT sailed right up to the beach to drop the other three tanks, then we were taken back out to sea."