And here's another.......

[Peter Laidler]

Bren guns were also the defensive armament on many Navy ships. One minesweeper crewman on duty shortly after ‘D’-day wrote to the author
“… …we were about a mile out from the shore on air-guard duty on D+3 and saw an army Bedford QL lorry quietly bobbing about, almost awash, slightly nose down in the water that was lapping up the rear sides. The top canopy had been ripped to shreds but tied down in the back was a large amount of tentage and wooden storage boxes that looked suspiciously like parallel cardboard coffins. The tentage had ballooned out with trapped air making the vehicle semi-buoyant. There was a lot of other debris around and it stood out like a sore thumb. We had seen several loose DUKW and weasel amphibians and sunk them with machine-gun fire so we did the same with the lorry. We got in close to make sure that nobody was aboard or injured. Previously, we’d pulled several floating bodies out with large nets and left them covered on the rear deck. We pulled away to get a safe distance because we’d heard that some vehicles contained petrol and ammunition that would explode and blast us. I opened fire with a few magazines of Bren-gun fire but believe it or not, with the lorry wallowing as well as the ship, it was a difficult target, even at 40 yards. I hit it many times in the back and sides but it didn’t make any difference. The bullets were pounding the water all round it. The gunnery officer told one of the aft Vickers A-A ‘pom-pom’ crews to engage it, which they did. It didn’t take long and the old Bedford just puffed and wheezed a bit and went gently to its watery grave. It’s funny, I often thought about that old truck and the people who made it and drove it. I wonder if they would ever have thought that we sank it in the channel. From our position against the land, I could still pin-point it. Even after all this time and of the most horrible things I saw, it’s a thing that remains in my memory”

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