Dad was D-Day hero

Transcript

00:00This is Vivian Bowman. We're at the D-Day commemoration at Belfast City Hall.

00:07And Vivian, you were telling me about your father, R.S.M., Billy McConnell,

00:13and he was towed into France on D-Day in a glider.

00:18And these were commonly known as cardboard coffins.

00:21He says that he could have put his foot through it. It was so light.

00:25That must have been quite a nerve-wracking experience for him.

00:31Yes, it was. Well, I mean, I don't know.

00:34I mean, they were young lads, you know, at the time, he was 19, and he didn't...

00:39It was exciting, I suppose, you know, and they just did what they were told.

00:44And so he went on to fight. He survived D-Day and obviously saw an awful lot of action.

00:48He did.

00:49He had done quad in Borneo and Palestine and Cyprus.

00:54But there was a tragic story about him.

00:56He saw his friend killed there shortly after D-Day in France, his best friend.

01:00What was his best friend's name?

01:02Bobby Steveson.

01:03Bobby Steveson.

01:04He was from his own town. Well, he was from Calgary, the same place as him.

01:09And...

01:10Outside Ballet Globe.

01:11It just said goodbye to Bobby and he turned round and then he was gone because a shell hit him?

01:17And that was him for us. He was no more.

01:21He was just completely disintegrated?

01:23Yes, he was.

01:24And how did your dad feel about that?

01:26I don't know. I mean, he never really talked about it.

01:29What he did was he just... I know that it hurt him many years later because we went back.

01:36We went back every year from 1996, and he would go and visit that, you know,

01:42and sit there on his own with him, you know.

01:45In the very spot where he died?

01:46Well, he would sit where the memorial is, you know, and he knows.

01:52I don't know what way they reacted on that day, you know.

01:55They had to get on with what they were doing, you know.

01:58So, they would have just went on with it.

02:01It must have been heartbreaking, but it would be today, you know.

02:04Everybody would feel that way.