Harry Prescott never reached the beach on June 6 1944. His landing craft was blown from the water coming in with the Commandos, one of the new-style of fighters created on the orders of Winston Churchill.
I was sunk. We were a quarter of a mile out. We hit a mine or got shelled, I don't know which. I saw the landings from the water and was picked up and returned to fight in France a week or so later, says Harry, now 92.

In 1943, Harry joined 47 Royal Marine Commando, trained at Achnacharry, the Scottish paramilitary academy known as Castle Commando, with an eventual mission to liberate the French fishing town of Port-en-Bessin on D-Day itself. The secret plan was to make it ready as one of the first petrol ports to feed the allied advance. We were meant to march 12 miles inland to take the town from the rear. But I never made it.