Royal Navy veteran Peter Smoothy recalls D-Day heroics on his 100th birthday

A hero who stared death in the face on turns 100 tomorrow. 

In June, braveheart Peter Smoothy choked back tears as he stood on the same beach where he saw giants fall.

For the 80th anniversary commemorations he accompanied the Daily Express to Juno Beach to where he helped ferry soldiers and equipment as part of the mighty Normandy invasion.

After the Second World War Peter was landlord of the Four Fathoms in Herne Bay, Kent, for more than 40-years. 

The pub, run by brewery Shepherd Neame, had planned to throw a glittering celebratory lunch for the warrior on Tuesday, but Peter has been unwell and will instead spend his momentous milestone in hospital.

But displaying the kind of indomitable grit that makes him and his chums The Greatest Generation, courageous Peter brushed his illness aside and gave a smile from his bed in the Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother Hospital in Margate as he read his favourite newspaper. 

And to cheer himself up on his momentous milestone, he read our exhaustive coverage from June 6, exactly 80-years on from D-Day, when he made our front page under the headline Eternally In Their Debt.

Back in 1944 Peter was just 19 and serving aboard on Landing Ship Tank 215 which came under heavy and constant bombardment. He was part of a crew of 99 men aboard a vessel which lleft Gosport carrying 30 tanks on the inner deck, 45 lorries on the upper deck, and 200 soldiers who were drivers and crew for the vehicles.

Standing where the gates to hell opened he said: “I am so proud that we did it – it could have been so different.

Peter added: “We loaded at Gosport eight days before D-Day, with several hundred Canadian and British troops, Sherman tanks on the upper decks and ammunition, food and water.

“We sailed out of The Solent on the evening of June 5 with hundreds of other landing craft of one sort or another. The minesweepers had been in front of us. The Germans didn’t really know we were coming. At about 2am on D-Day, halfway across the Channel, we were called to action stations.

“We got into Juno Beach at about 7.30am on D-Day. There were quite a few shells firing at us. The ones you could hear were all right. It was the ones you couldn’t that were the deadliest.

“There were shells dropping about, but we didn’t get bombed. The first wave of beach landings had been in front of us. They’d had the worst task finding themselves immediately face to face with the Germans. In our flotilla there had been nine ships, but after a few crossings we didn’t know where the rest were. We were like a hen who’d lost her chicks.”

Teenage Peter and his crew sailed across The Channel as part of a giant armada, as troops stormed five beaches along the northern French coast – codenamed Omaha, Gold, Sword, Juno and Utah.

Operation Overlord saw 156,000 Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen invade Normandy as part of the greatest military invasion in history.

Some 22,442 soldiers under British command died on June 6, 1944 and the bloody three-month battle that followed. Yet their heroism and bravery hastened the end of the Second World War. 

Peter said: “We were all very young men and said at the time, ‘If our names are on a bullet, it’s our bad luck’ – we were lucky that our names weren’t.

“We sailed out of The Solent on the evening of June 5 with hundreds of other landing craft. The Germans didn’t really know we were coming. At about 2am on D-Day, halfway across the Channel, we were called to action stations.

“We got into Juno Beach at about 7.30am. There were quite a few shells firing at us. The ones you could hear were all right. It was the ones you couldn’t that were the deadliest.

“When we finally got to the beach it took us 3-4 hours to unload with shells whizzing over our heads and when we were ready to leave, the tide had ebbed, and we couldn’t get off.”

His landmark birthday – and birthday card from King Charles – comes just days after Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day.

Peter has been part of the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans family for many years, joining them on trips to the Netherlands and Normandy and, in September, enjoyed a day at Chatham Historic Dockyard to salute his fallen chums. 

Taxi Charity Vice President Dick Goodwin said: “Peter is a wonderful gentleman who it has been an honour to get to know over the years. He played an important role on D-Day and it is a privilege to know the men who were there in 1944.

“Peter is currently in hospital and I know all the charity volunteers and supporters will want to join me in sending him our very warm wishes as he becomes a centenarian.”