Sheffield man begins walk of Normandy beaches to mark 80th anniversary of D-Day
Jim Morton is due to finish on the beach where his father was serving in the Royal Navy
A Sheffield man whose father was serving in the Royal Navy on D-Day is starting a 100 mile walk of the landing beaches of Normandy.
Jim Morton from Penistone previously became known for walking the entire coastline of Great Britain in 2021 over the course of 537 days. He raised £40,000 for the Gurka Welfare Trust which supports Gurka veterans and their families.
He’s now hoping to raise another £10,000 by walking the five landing beaches of Normandy, culminating in what was known as Sword Beach on 6th June to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Sword is where his father was based that day and Jim told us it will be emotional:
“That will be very poignant for me thinking that 80 years ago to the day my dad had been there.
“He spent the first part of 1944 up in Scotland practising landing troops on various beaches – rocky beaches, sandy beaches, all sorts of beaches - because they didn’t know where D-Day was going to be.
“When the actual day came about it should’ve been the 5th of June but the weather was so bad they put it off for 24 hours.
“On the 6th of June one ship was sank on Sword Beach, it was a Norwegian destroyer called SS Svenner. What happened was, at about half past five in the morning before any of the troops had landed on the beach, two fast patrol boats shot out of Le Havre Habour and set out to where the British ships were.
“They fired torpedoes at HMS Largs which was the headquarters ship, missing her and slamming into the Svenner which sank and folded up like a penknife.
“My father’s landing craft had just been put into the water and instead of going to the beach with troops, he spent several hours going sideways to the Svenner picking up survivors.
“He picked up people with limbs missing, people who weren’t injured at all and he picked up dead bodies as well.
“And he was only 21. He actually looked about 12 on photos. That one day defined his entire life. It must’ve been horrific for them.”
Jim also served in the Royal Marines and worked closely with the Gurkhas while working as a teenager on HMS Gurkha in the 1970s.
He is due to begin his walk today, starting at Utah Beach followed by Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.