Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Extract
"Then down there in the Channel was a convoy of three long lines of ships, their barrage balloons swaying above them. They came on serenely, as if Goerings Luftwaffe and Doenltz's U-boats had never been invented.
An hour later we flew around another convoy almost as big, ships plodding along like cows crossing a paddock.

A SUNDERLAND was shadowing these ships, and that Sunderland was only one unit in the many thousands which represented the co-ordination between the blue and white striped planes of the Allied Air Force and of the Navy on D-Day, the day when Eisenhower's regatta was held in the Channel.
That co-ordination was perfect, ensuring, the success of the invasion by keeping free from molestation the lines of communication during the vital early hours.
The Sunderland we sighted was captained by Pilot-Officer W. R. Simms, of Newcastle, with Flying-Officer. P. L. Oakley, of Bellevue Hill, and Pilot-Officer J. B. Hartigan, of Mosman, Railway Commissioner Hartigan's son, in the crew.
They told me that hours after we left them they sighted a solitary JU88 and chased him, but the German wouldn't play.
While we and the Sunderland were having such a notably peaceful time, further east the Canadian Beauflghter boys from the same group to which the Australians were attached were giving the German navy hell.
They shot up fast Nazi craft which headed for the assault area. The Canadians had a wonderful time and on D-Night were the envy of the group.
As I climbed out of our little aircraft, after three hours over the Channel, my parachute caught on the door, bellied out, and I hit the ground like a paratrooper. It gave the boys a little amusement anyway.
That night I was miles away at an air station' where Lawrence
of Arabia served for four years as an aircraftman."
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/231688994/24678242