Lt John Brunel Cohen
Royal Marine who commanded small landing craft on D-day
LT JOHN BRUNEL COHEN, Royal Marines, who has died aged 96, commanded a squadron of eight small landing craft on D-day 1944.
Cohen’s slow-moving Landing Craft Mechanised (LCM) started their Channel crossing ahead of the Allied armada and were well on their way to Normandy when, on the night of June 4, the landings were postponed after a forecast of bad weather.
Turning back, Cohen’s craft had not reached shelter when the decision to land on June 6 was made, and he turned again for France. His orders were that “in the event of difficulty in forming up in the dark or becoming separated in low visibility etc, the golden rule is let the whole confusion proceed at an even speed of advance”.
The open-decked, flat-bottomed LCMS, measuring 48ft 6in long and 14ft wide, were tossed in rough seas, and, when it became necessary to refuel using jerrycans, it was impossible to avoid spillages which left a strong stink of diesel. After a night and a day at sea it was a triumph that Cohen’s squadron arrived together as darkness fell off Juno Beach. There he anchored, under shelling, until unloading could begin at first light.
For the next few days, Cohen ferried stores from the bigger ships anchored further out to sea, with no lee until the artificial Gooseberry harbours arrived. Only after their mother ship, the excunarder Ascania, arrived were reserve crews available and Cohen and his men could enjoy the comfort of a 24-hour respite once a week.
Cohen recalled that in a break in ferry duties his squadron was ordered to berth alongside the battleship Rodney to act as a buffer in case she was attacked by torpedoes. The noise of her guns firing over his head permanently damaged his hearing.
He recalled also, while his “boys” were brewing tea on the beach on June 16, seeing King George VI step unexpectedly down from a DWKM or Duck (amphibious truck). Cohen wanted to offer the monarch a cuppa.
Cohen’s LCM operations only came to an end two weeks after D-day when a fierce storm swept upchannel damaging several of his craft. In 2014 he was delighted to accept the Legion d’honneur, which was presented to him at a small ceremony at the French Ambassador’s residence.
John Brunel Cohen was born on June 13 1922 in Portland Place, London, and educated at Cheltenham College. Soon after war was declared he joined the Royal Marines, trained at the officers’ school at Thurlestone, Devon, and in 1943 volunteered for hazardous sea service, which proved to be in LCMS.
Postwar Cohen was successful in several careers, first in shipping and then as a Lloyd’s broker.
Cohen’s father, Major Sir Jack Cohen, had lost both legs on July 31 1917, the opening day of Passchendaele, served as MP for Liverpool Fairfield from 1918 to 1931 and was active in Jewish affairs.
As well as campaigning for the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act in 1944; and serving as chairman of Remploy, he cofounded St Dunstan’s (now Blind Veterans UK) a charity providing support and services to vision-impaired ex-armed Forces personnel, and the British Legion, and founded the Not Forgotten Association (NFA).
John Brunel Cohen too was chairman of the NFA from 1979 to 1993, for which work he was appointed OBE.
Also, like his father, he became master of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners, representing the company at events to commemorate the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.
He married Simone Everitt in 1951, and after her death in 1969 he married Christine Blamey (née Dixon) in 1972. She died in 2007 and he is survived by twin sons from his first marriage and two stepdaughters and two stepsons.
John Brunel Cohen, born June 13 1922, died January 30 2019