CONTROLLING the fighter planes over the beaches was Les Nower's job until his ship was torpedoed.

Les worked as a clerk in the control room of a Fighter Direction Tender, a ship which tracked the movements of enemy aircraft and gave directions to Allied planes.

The ship started operating at 7.25am on D-Day and Les remembers seeing the American battleships bombarding the coast.

"It was awe-inspiring," he said.

Plots giving the whereabouts of enemy aircraft came into the ship in code by wireless telegraphy and an operator wrote the message down without understanding it for someone else to translate.

Les's job was to help the controller, who would communicate with and direct the Allied aircraft so they could attack the enemy planes.

He would work for four hours at a time with a four-hour break before beginning his next shift.

Conditions on the ship were cramped.

"The accommodation was only made for short sea journeys for tank crews," Les explained.

"We had three bunks in our small living space and we just dossed down in there.

"If you were away from the port for more than a week you were living on dehydrated food," he added.

But the men got used to it and there were good things too, he said.

"We played cards. And we got the rum ration every day," he recalled.

The ship would operate for two weeks before coming back for 48 hours to reload its supplies.

On July 7, 1944, the men were due to be relieved the next day but were torpedoed at 1am and had to abandon ship.

Les recalled: "I did two things that morning I never did before or since. I went hand over hand down the rope into the water and then had to swim to the float some distance away I can't swim but I had a lifebelt around me."

He continued: "I was picked up just after 3am but four RAF men were lost.

"Fortunately, because of the acoustic mines, the ship was not moving so the torpedo hit it at the front. If it had been moving the torpedo would have hit the middle and we would all have gone."

Les was taken to Portsmouth and was subsequently moved to Norfolk where he worked as a deputy controller, again helping to intercept enemy aircraft.

After the war he went back to work as a solicitor's clerk, later becoming a legal executive.

Now 83, he still lives in Sandwich, where he was born. He was married to his wife Margaret, whom he met during the war, for 59 years.