6th June will be the 60th Anniversary of D-day when Allied Forces invaded mainland Europe over the beaches of Normandy. Among the countless members of the armed services who risked their lives in the struggle for liberation there would have been a similarly innumerable collection of stories of bravery to tell. Looking through the Museum’s collection of WW2 memorabilia, I found it impossible to pick one item to illustrate the story. When so many had risked all, how could I favour just one over all the others? I decided I would tell my own Dad’s story.

Ken Dixon was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, in August 1924 - so not a Purton man. He volunteered for the Navy in 1942, aged 17, rather than waiting to be conscripted. Preferring the Navy to the other services, he would be unlikely to get in without volunteering. As he told me, "in the RN, wherever you went, your commanding officers went with you… and so did the hotel!"

He was accepted into the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and posted to the cruiser HMS Diomede, at Rosyth. Diomede steamed to Scapa Flow to escort a convoy to Archangelsk in arctic Russia. The voyage “seemed years and was bloody cold”. On his return, he received 8 weeks of Officer Training and 4 weeks of Advanced Navigation. Commissioned as Sub Lieutenant, he was posted as Gunnery Officer on HMS Seagull in the 1st Mine Sweeping Flotilla.

Later he volunteered for Coastal Forces and, aged 18 in June 1944, found himself Navigation Officer of Motor Launch ML 571 – built in Canada from little more than wood. The 42nd ML Flotilla were sent in to the Normandy coast 24 hours before H-hour* to take out as many German E-Boats as possible before the main invasion fleet arrived. Accomplishing this and with no following orders, they made for the incoming fleet and reported for new instructions. They were told, “Oh, we didn’t expect you still to be around, chaps. Sure we can find you something…”

After patrols during the landings around Arromanches, Ken served on ML 571 for the rest of the war eventually becoming skipper of the boat and later commander of the flotilla, aged 21. It has always amazed me the responsibilities that were carried by such young men in those difficult times. I salute them all..

*H-Hour was the precise time on D-Day that the invasion was to commence.