As the Allied forces moved inland, the invasion fleet continued in support, transferring supplies and equipment, bombarding enemy positions and evacuating the wounded.
On 12 June, whilst working close inshore, the 'little ship' came under fire from an enemy unit which had penetrated the Allies' 'Ring of Steel'. To make matters worse, the tide had dropped and the ship became entangled on an underwater obstruction. The MTB took a direct hit amidships. Douglas Reeman was hit by splinters and seriously injured in both legs. Amidst the smoke, flames and shouting, he remembers vividly the feelings of pain and despair as he was dragged from the sea and up the rain-soaked beach by bloodstained army medics. After emergency treatment, and drugged against the pain, he was put aboard a landing-craft for the passage home.
Douglas spent the next few weeks in hospital, then returned to the war. This time he went to Icelandic waters on anti-submarine patrol. The MTBs then re-grouped in the English Channel and 'were in at the kill' during the last weeks of the war.
When the guns fell silent for the first time in six years, Douglas was in Kiel Harbour. There were a lot of faces missing who should have been there on that bright day in May 1945. Men 'killed in action', who paid the supreme price of victory; men like Douglas, seriously injured, who remembered the battle as if it were yesterday; and men unscathed who could only say 'Thank God, I survived!' For them and for all the men and women who fought and won World War II, the spirit of D-Day, 6 June 1944, must always be kept alive.