D-DAY veteran Bob Frazer can still vividly recollect the events of Normandy which have left a lasting impression on the 93-year-old from Little Broughton.

Bob served on HMS Tartar, which was a tribal-class destroyer in World War Two, having joined the navy at the tender age of 17.

He served as a signalman on HMS Tartar for two and a half years before leaving for Singapore to fight the Japanese.

During D-Day he had a lucky escape when a piece of shrapnel tore through his jacket and jumper just stopping short of his skin. However he said that other shipmates were not so fortunate.

He recalled that on June 1, at 6pm, they received word to slip anchor from Plymouth Sound, where they were tied to a buoy in an open area ready to sail at 24 hours notice, and go south of Normandy as Germany were sending supplies up by boats to France.

They were told to attack these boats and he said: “We sank some coasting ships heading for France and on June 5 we were told to prepare ourselves to go south of Normandy because we were going to go into D-Day.”

They were one of four destroyers there on D-Day and saw all the aircraft going over and the gliders, landing craft, ships and troops.

He said: “We were on the outskirts of the beaches south of Normandy and saw all the gliders going over and saw a glider with tail broken that had come down and we managed to take 16 American soldiers off it.”

While they were there admiralty came through and told them that there was some German destroyers present and the message was to “stop them at all costs”.

Bob said: “We had a real dogfight and sank two of them. One made for Brest and the tide was taking him one mile out, the fourth one got into Brest port and we told the aircraft who came over and they bombed it.”

However during the fight four of Bob’s crew-mates were killed on the bridge and the mast of HMS Tartar was badly damaged.

Bob is very matter of fact about D-Day and what they went through.

He added: “We didn’t worry at the time, it never bothered me. I never thought anything about it, we took it for granted. Afterwards, looking back, you don’t know how you didn’t worry about it.”

But losing crew-mates did leave a lasting impression.

Bob said: “The problem was the way they were killed. When you think back now you see how terrible it was.”

He described shrapnel falling all over them and 16 men and officers were injured, including the captain.

On one occasion the signalman next to him was hit by shrapnel. He said: “On action stations I was the signalman turned operator always on the bridge.

“Once a bit of shrapnel came down to the leading signalman, who I was with, and a piece came down and took three of his toes right off.

“His boot just filled with blood and the surgeon commander came right away with morphine and he was carried down to the sick bay.”

After HMS Tartar’s mast was damaged they had to go back to Devonport to get it repaired and were travelling at just six knots an hour as the mast was hanging over the side.

They came through an area with U-boats and Bob said they were fortunate not to be seen as they were a sitting duck at such a low speed.

After a two month wait while they had a new mast fitted, HMS Tartar then had a new role.

By this time allied forces had worked their way through France and into Germany and they were no longer needed there, so they were sent to Japan.

There he experienced the kamikaze pilots and had a narrow escape.

He said: “When the aircraft came over they pointed to a ship and came straight down on top of it as the aircraft was full of bombs on board.

“The kamikaze pilots were instructed to take out the destroyers. The captain would be watching out for this and frequently say hard to starboard or hard to port at 40 miles an hour while you just went right over and the planes went into the sea.”

Bob came home to Cumbria in 1946 and his love of all things naval continued as he worked at the Port of Workington for the next 41 years.

His first job on leaving the navy was as a Customs and Excise Officer, which he did for 10 years and then he worked as a ships agent for 31 years.

Pragmatically Bob said he enjoyed his time in the navy and calls his four years an education. He said: “It was a really interesting four years of my life and I wouldn’t have missed it.”