D-Day: The Sunderland tank driver who fought on after he was badly injured on the beaches

A Sunderland man’s D-Day heroics can be revealed on the 80th anniversary.

Tank driver William Dunn’s story was first given to the Echo from his hospital bed on June 20, 1944.

The New Silksworth man’s fighting experience of the invasion only lasted half an hour.

Hit by splinters after 30 minutes ashore

He was driving his tank towards the beach in Normandy when it was knocked out of action. He had to abandon the vehicle and wade ashore.

He found an infantry unit which he joined but he was soon hit by splinters and was badly wounded.

He tried to keep running but he collapsed after 20 yards. Driver Dunn was picked up by a landing craft and taken back out to sea.

Seriously ill when his family came to visit

His ordeal was not over. The landing craft sunk and he was taken back to shore by an American duck (a six-wheeled amphibious vehicle) before he was picked up some time later.

The Echo report in 1944 said: “Dunn was so seriously ill that his mother and eldest brother visited him in hospital in the south of England before he was brought home.”

The former Silksworth Colliery worker had signed up for duty in 1942.

A photo of his sweetheart by his hospital bed

But by 1944, he was speaking to the Echo from a hospital bed in Newcastle. A picture of his girlfriend Molly Parker was by his side.

Our story told how his wounds were so serious that he had to have one of his arms amputated.

Hospitals in Sunderland were used to treat the returning wounded soldiers of D-Day - and not just from the Allied troops.

Two hundred Allied troops and nine Germans in Sunderland hospitals

Two hundred wounded Allied soldiers and nine Germans were taken to Cherry Knowle Hospital and 35 walking wounded were taken by bus to Sunderland Royal Infirmary.

“Some of them had facial and head wounds, one or two had their arms in slings and others had minor injuries,” said the Echo report at the time.

“They all looked bright and cheerful despite their long day in the train.”

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