Folks, it is both a privelidge and a very great pleasure to present Mr Stanley (Stan) Fox.
Stan is now approaching 90 years old but still has the cheeky spirit, and dogged determination that quite possibly helped to keep him alive as he waded ashore at Normandy on 6th June, 1944. Yep, Stan was a Royal Marine, and was one fo the first British troops to land on D-Day!
I have known Stan for a number of years now, and had almost given up on ever seeing him on ANZAC Day. Imagine my surprise when I was told (by his Daughter) that he was actually participating in the Parade, being driven in one of the vehicles.
I have a book, "D-Day: Dawn of Heroes" which Stan has autographed for me, complete with service number. He's such a great old bloke, our Stan, and still has very vivid memories of D-Day. He once described the unloading of his landing craft, where some of the men were so keen to get at the germans that they wanted to be first off the barge. Stan recalls that when the door was lowered, those men were cut down by german machine-gun fire. The guns had been trained on the door, waiting for it to lower. Most of the first men off were killed or wounded. Stan went over the side of the landing craft and swam away from the LC as fast as he could. He is a very lucky man to have survived the swim ashore, and doesn't mind saying he very nearly drowned in the scramble.
Many of the things Stan told me, I since found to be reflected in the movie "Saving Private Ryan", which I had not seen at that time. The movie was slightly less graphic than Stans recalling of the day.
Here's to you, Stanley Fox! And all your comrades
