Thomas' story: Serving on a floating bomb
Thomas, then 18, served on a landing barge oiler (LBO), the biggest barge on the Thames. It had been converted into an oil tanker for refuelling landing craft.
"On 6 June, we sailed with the Americans to Utah Beach. From there, we supplied oil to any ship or craft that wanted oil. These little wooden crafters would pick the troops up from the troop ship and then move into the beach, and that's when they'd run out of petrol. They used to come alongside and get filled up.
"That's what we were doing when we landed in France with the American army. I went along to the different beaches - Omaha, Utah, Gold, everything.
"It was a little bit rough, especially the English beach with the Mulberry Harbour. The harbour master, when we went alongside, he gave us a few words to clear off, in good English. Obviously they were afraid that we were full of oil. They didn't want to blow anything up."
There was always the risk that the ship would blow.
"In the D-Day commemorations in 2019, I had the privilege of meeting the Queen and she said, 'You were on a floating bomb.' She knew what I was talking about; what my ship was.
"I was impressed with her knowledge because you don’t often hear those ships being mentioned. You always hear about other ships, but never the ship I was on...
"One of our sister ships was coming alongside us and it blew up. I always remember someone on the other boat saying to me the day before that they were never going to see England again and his premonition came true.
"That was very... well, it was just one of them things."
Thomas saw many terrible sights.
"When I first went to France, we were picking up troops that had been killed and were floating on the water. And we were sent a message from this big cruiser ship and they said, 'Don’t go picking anymore up because there are too many. Just put them back in the sea again.'
"So we just let them go floating back and that’s how it was. We couldn’t recover anymore bodies because the Americans didn’t want us to...
"The amount of ships that were going to France, and the amount of planes that were flying above... thousands of planes going over... I'll never experience a thing like that again."
"I wouldn’t want any youngsters to go through that. What makes it worse is the youngsters going into these wars. I was 18 when I went to D-Day."
Blind veteran
Being with the American troops had its perks.
"It was handy being with the Yanks because we always had good food. We couldn't cook onboard - there was no light or matches or nothing in case we blew the thing up.
"You always ate cold food. There were these special ships where they cooked the meals and then come alongside and just drop the food off each day. Some days we couldn't have food because they couldn't deliver, but that’s how it goes. You had to take it as it came. Being with the Yanks, we were well off I think."
Equipment is life-changing for veterans like Thomas.
Each blind veteran is individually assessed to see what support they need. Thomas says it makes "a vast difference" to his life to have specialist equipment, particularly his talking watch. Although he can't see what the time is, he just presses a button and it tells him. He finds this especially reassuring when he wakes up during the night.
You can make a vast difference to the lives of more blind veterans.
More D-Day stories from our blind veterans
George's story: Witnessing the slaughter
As a gunner defending the convoy, George remembers the horror as the Americans he escorted tried to land.
Joe's story: Defending the Mulberry harbour
Defending the floating harbour off Omaha beach, Joe witnessed the slaughter of American soldiers.
Bob's story: Shooting down the enemy
As a gunner on merchant ships, Bob's job on D-Day was to protect American soldiers on their way to Normandy.
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