An unflappable veteran who is thought to be Newark’s oldest living D-Day veteran labelled his part in the Normandy landings as ‘easy’.
Albert Robb, of Newark, joined the Royal Naval Special Reserve in 1939 at the age of 21 and went on to serve in the Second World War Arctic convoys. As the nation pauses to reflect on the 80th anniversary of D-Day today (Thursday), he has now reflected on his role in that operation as well as his other wartime exploits.
Albert served on the HMS Ajax and HMS Meynell after leaving his job at 20 as a fitter for Worthington Simpson.
Now, at the age of 105 and having been awarded 12 decorations from four countries, he remembers his times in the Navy with great pride.
Mr Robb said: “I wasn’t scared to be on sea or of the war, I always thought if you're going to get killed, you're going to get killed.
“Whether you're laughing, whether you're scared, it doesn't make a difference and that's how it was.”
During his time on the Leander-class light cruiser, he was part of operations in places such as Egypt, Greece, Malta and Crete.
Describing his missions on the Ajax worse than the Artic convoys or D-Day, he described the latter as “dead easy” in comparison to other action he experienced and saw.
Two days before D-Day he and his fellow crew were sent from Scapa Flow, a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland in the last Artic convoy.
The day before the invasion, Albert was escorting the large convoy across the Thames off the south end and, on D-Day itself, he was in charge of escorting and protecting the convoys.
“We were at Gold Beach on D-Day morning and after we got there, it was early in the day. We got sent to patrol the seaward side of all the shipping because there was a danger of e-boats and submarines.
“We did that overnight and, at dawn the following morning, we picked up speed, nipped over to Portsmouth, picked up another convoy, brought that back and that was the procedure for most of the time until the last Germans were kicked out.
“D-Day was the easiest job I have ever had, it was dead easy. We had so much action before, don’t forget we had just come down from a batch of convoys to Russia and that was rough, because of the weather mainly.
“A lot of shipping was lost and there were submarines and aircraft we had to fight. Plus the weather was terrible.”
He added: “There was plenty of ‘bang bang bang’ but apart from that it was an easy job.
“We have done a lot of good with our presence by keeping things like e-boats and mini-submarines but I never been back there and I don’t plan to.”
From sinking ships to lost friends, Albert has seen and lived through his fair share of war and destruction — but he still would not change his decision to join the navy if he had his time again.
“I wouldn’t miss it for anything,” concluded Mr Robb.
