Guard of honour at funeral of one of the last D-DAY HEROES
LIEUTENANT WALTER MARSHALL ‘LIVED HIS LIFE FOR EVERYBODY WHO NEVER MADE IT’
ONE of the last remaining veterans of the D-Day landings, Lieutenant Walter Marshall, has sadly died. He received a guard of honour at his funeral at St Peter’s Church, where his coffin was draped in the Royal Ensign.
Veterans representing the Royal Navy, RAF and Army attended and his coffin was led by piper John Best.
Former Royal Navy Intelligence officer Walter, 95, received France’s highest honour, Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur medal, for his role in helping to liberate France in the D-Day landings.
The D-Day landings, which he described as “hell on earth” were his second mission to the French coast.
Walter, 19, and his comrades went in three days earlier to carry out surveillance of German defences. Known as D-Day Minus Three, the top secret mission in a boat went undetected but gave the Allied forces critical information about where to land and the locations of German munitions.
He already had nearly five years in the Royal Navy before D-Day, having left school at 14-and-a-half years.
Commemorating the sacrifices of many of our war heroes at the 75th anniversary of D-Day last year on June 6, The Queen said the veterans demonstrated “more than courage and endurance”, showing “unconquerable resolve” in a speech marking the start of commemorations in Portsmouth.
“The fate of the world depended on their success,” she said.
Talking to the Grimsby Telegraph last year, he said: “I was terrified.”
“My worst fear was that a German sentry would see the lights we were using to signal for the boat to come and take us back across,” he said.
His role was to identify which areas were suitable for landing troops by air.
The Germans had flooded many of the French fields along the coast in order to disguise deadly stakes. Some were fitted with explosives to kill paratroopers.
Other stakes were positioned to rip gliders to shreds if they attempted to land on the ground. Thanks to Walter and his team, commanders of Operation Overlord were able to plot maps of where the German gun emplacements were positioned, the number of tanks they had and the munitions stores. Having returned safe to Portsmouth from his first mission, Walter was again back in action on Gold Beach on June 6.
“This time I stayed until September 19 and this time my job was to guard the 50th Division landing and be a liaison officer for Gold Beach.
“It was hell on earth. I was absolutely terrified. It was a bloodbath. You were wading through blood of young troops and the men dead in the water and on the beach. The sea was red. It was shocking.” Cared for at his home in Cleethorpes by wife Marlene and daughter Mandy, Walter told how he felt “elated” that he got through the battle for Gold Beach and survived the Second World War.
He added: “I am very proud of the men I served with. They gave their all and I am just pleased to be here. I just keep going as long as I can.”
He is head of a four-generation family, as his daughter, Mandy Loughran has three sons and three grandchildren.
Walter was honoured at a ceremony at the Albert Hall led by The Royal Family for the 75th commemorations.
“They were all laughing when I told them about my experience of being over in Normandy before the invasion and how my tin cans were shaking so much because I was so terrified, that even Hitler could hear them,” he said.
Walter said: “It is a privilege to have got back and I am here to tell the tale.”
Nephew Gavin Marshall, a member of the Armed Forces team, said: “Walter was always happy and smiling and lived his life to the full. Walter was a survivor and he lived his life for everybody that never made it.”