Veterans land at Timsbury
A party of D Day Veterans once more took to the water when they visited Warsash Maritime Academy’s new manned model ship handling centre.
Coming from a maritime background, they were keen to see how 21st century seafarers are trained to handle large ships safely and avoid hazardous situations at sea.
Warsash Maritime Academy, part of Southampton Solent University, is a leading provider of training for seafarers from all over the world and the new centre - one of only five in the world - specialises in training marine pilots and ship’s officers in the art of slow speed ship handling.
During the landings in 1944, Vernon House was a deck boy on the SS Coalville - an old collier that was deliberately run up onto Gold beach filled with jerry cans of petrol for the thousands of vehicles pouring ashore.
Reginald Neile’s ship, HMS Gazelle, was a mine sweeper with the 40th Mine Sweeping Flotilla and led the way for a battleship bombardment group to approach Sword and Juno beaches in order to engage the enemy.
After the war, Reginald worked on the Warsash Campus in the late forties helping to convert it from its wartime role as HMS Tormentor into the School of Navigation.
Vernon and Reginald - accompanied by Bill Wakefield and Ken May of the Normandy Veteran’s Association – were given a tour of the facilities and trips on the lake by Senior lecturers Gordon Maxwell and Peter Barber, and Technician John Waterman.
Bill Wakefield summed up the feelings of the party when he said: “A wonderful training centre and a wonderful visit; thank you for your kindness and hospitality.”
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