Photographing Victor Urch

Wonderful to meet up with and photograph Veteran Victor Urch at his home in Stroud, Gloucestershire the other day...

During the War, Victor served as a Leading Seaman Gunner in the Royal Navy in control of a Landing Craft bringing Canadian Troops to Juno Beach on D-Day...

"The order to go was eventually given, and with our Canadian colleagues on board, we left our holding point, heading towards the beaches of Normandy; Juno Beach being our ultimate destination. At first the journey seemed endless, but as we approached the French coast the enormity of our task dawned.

The level of noise from gun fire was tremendous as we lowered our ramps, and dropped-off our first wave of Canadian Soldiers, some 200 yards from the beaches close to Courseulles-sur-Mer. Wishing them good luck, we returned to help load and disembark other soldiers from waiting vessels, repeating this exercise several times over the following days and weeks"

Can't wait to visit Victor again to deliver his mounted portraits and to record a short interview with him that will then appear in the Memories Page.