John Fiddler

John joined the Navy at 18 years old when he was called up during WW2. He comes from a Merchant Navy family, so he naturally hoped he’d be in the Navy. John worked as a Leading Supply Assistant. As well as the important job of issuing the rum to all the officers every day at 11am (up spirits!), he also plotted ships coordinates to help work out what other ships were doing and plot their whereabouts on a big chart.

John served on tank landing ship LST302, and left Portsmouth on D-Day +2 (June 8th 1944). His ship took over tanks and cargo to the troops on the ground in Normandy, but also patrolled and protected other ships that were heading in to the French Coast.

John remembers the weather being “a bit rough” during this time. He said “the water was very choppy but fortunately I’ve never been seasick. If you were seasick they sent you ashore and marked you down as unfit for that kind of ship. Those men wouldn’t have been able to do anything, they were so sick!”

John has since settled in Cardiff, and attended the Royal British Legion’s commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day at the National Memorial Arboretum in June 2024.