Jim Doran
9th Battalion Parachute Regiment. D-Day Landings.


“I have very poignant memories of mates that never made it. The worst thing I remember? Being under constant shell-fire. It happened to me at a place called Merva in Normandy, after we landed. It was most terrifying. Out of 700 paratroopers that were dropped, only 150 reached their objective. The others were blown off course, landed in marshy ground, drowned, or captured. But never-the-less the operation was highly successful. As I was dropped over Normandy I thought, ‘this is it, sink or swim’. There’s real fear. In my case, I feared losing a limb more than death.”