D-DAY HERO ISLANDER’S TOP TIPS FOR LIFE: BE ACTIVE WITH AN OPEN MIND

The Second World War inflicted a heavy toll on every part of the world, from the biggest cities to the most remote locations.

Orkney and Shetland’s young men were frequently called into action and their communities were used by the RAF or other military bodies.

The conflict sparked a rapid escalation of technological advances and often required forces recruits to think on their feet.

Few Scots were more adept at that than a Shetland lad, Geordie Mainland, who was born in 1924 and left school at 13 without any formal qualifications, but quickly proved that he could turn his hand to all manner of machines and motors and grasp what made them tick.

Mr Mainland – who played a pivotal role in the momentous events of D-Day in 1944 – has chronicled his extraordinary life in the book And That’s The Way Of It, written by his son Jim.

It records myriad memories of the different experiences he faced, both in war and peace, which have been lovingly collected together.

At the age of 94, this proud islander was awarded the Legion d’honneur by the French government and was formally presented with the medal by the authorities in what he described as a “proud moment” for him, his wife Joan and their Shetland family.

Mr Mainland Sr was involved in the operations of the 712th Landing Craft Personnel (Survey) Flotilla, which are not widely known.

Yet, while their history might have been downplayed, he has amply paid tribute to those who took part in often desperately dangerous activities during one of the decisive campaigns of the Second World War.

As somebody who grew up interested in machinery and what made things work, Mr Mainland responded without fear to the often dizzying speed of technological innovation. But he will never forget the horrors which unfolded in and around Normandy as the Allies and Germans locked horns.

He said: “On the beach, all hell broke loose. During all this time, I was in a daze. It seemed unreal.

“But there was so much going on I don’t remember feeling afraid.

“Something happens to you in a situation like that. Something motivates you to keep going in spite of it and you just get caught up in it.

“But there were some terrible sights. It was carnage and everyone was coming under heavy fire.

“All this were just off and the first unforgettably us.

“In the days following D-Day, we were busy buoying the wrecks. On one occasion, we came under heavy machine gun fire from a big house, a villa, which was on the peninsula.

“Another duty we were given, a particularly unpleasant and upsetting one, was being ordered to sink bodies that were floating off the beaches, using Lewis guns. There were dead bodies floating everywhere, in the sea and stranded on the beach. For a time, nobody was able to recover them.”

It was a world removed from the circumstances in which Mr Mainland spent his early years.

Home was a small croft without electricity or running water in the days when a hard living was eked out from fishing and working the land.

As his son said: “Geordie’s recipe for what they nowadays call ‘wellbeing’ is simple: Keep active, keep an open mind, don’t take things too seriously – and, if you can, don’t forget to find some time in among it all to prepare the chips.”

After the war and the celebrations which broke out on VE Day, Mr Mainland’s far-travelled career took him to some unusual places and landed time, we the beach night was hectic for him with missions.

Nothing was more bizarre than when he was working thousands of miles from home in South Georgia and was tasked with bringing back penguins from the far southern Atlantic to Edinburgh Zoo.

He recalls: “The penguins were very plentiful in South Georgia, of course, and it was an easy enough job for us to round them up.

“We often saw them around. The king penguins were the tamest – they would even come and spectate if we were having a football match at the base by Leith Harbour.

“While returning to Scotland there was even a crewman whose responsibility it was to look after the penguin ‘crew’ on board the Southern Raven.

“Accommodation was specially provided for them. There was a tarpaulin pond situated underneath a shelter deck and it meant they could be housed in relative comfort.”

He witnessed many awful scenes during the Second World War, but Mr Mainland has kept himself grounded and remembered life is to be enjoyed.

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■ The book is published by The Shetland Times Ltd. More information is available at shetlandtimes. co.uk