Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Laurie Woods always wanted to fly. “Flying is a wonderful thing,” he said. “But when fellas start shooting at you, it’s a different story.”

Laurie served with Bomber Command during the Second World War and was one of more than 3,300 Australians who were involved in the D-Day campaign. 

Flying Officer Lawrence 'Laurie' William Woods 

“We would have anything up to 500 heavy guns firing away at us,” he said. “And when I say heavy guns, they were using the heaviest shells to get to the height where we were … They were the type of shells that were used for battleship-to-battleship fighting, so it wasn’t a picnic _{(AWM memorial collections - Laurie Woods comments)}

Laurie was a bomb aimer with No. 460 Squadron when Allied forces launched Operation Overlord on D-Day, 6 June 1944, to liberate France and Western Europe from Nazi occupation. 

Of the 49 original aircrew posted to No. 460 Squadron with him, only eight men were left alive in October 1944 _{(Extract from AWM memorial collections) https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/lawrence-woods-and-d-day}