John Shanahan was born and raised in Cork. As a citizen of the Irish Republic, John was under no obligation to take part in the war. Nevertheless, in August 1941 at the age of 20 he made his way North and crossed the nearest border with Ulster at Newry. Once volunteered, John was enlisted into the Pioneer Corps, transferred to Belfast, then by ship from Larne to Scotland and onwards to Huyton in North Liverpool.
After being based for several months in Luton in defence of munitions facilities, John was ironically transferred to the Royal Irish Fusiliers and sent back to Ireland for training in Omagh. After preparations to be sent to Crete, John’s uniform changed again as he was transferred into the Royal Ulster Rifles. By this time training for the Second Front had begun in earnest, with the ‘Rifles’ now based in Norfolk.
Although many troops were sent to Scotland to take part in practice landings, John’s Brigade carried out mock street fighting in the heavily bombed dockland areas of Hull. Residents had been moved away and the bombed out streets became an ideal training ground for the sort of urban warfare which was anticipated throughout the campaign through Northern Europe.
As D-Day approached the Royal Ulster Rifles were moved to the South Coast and boarded one of the Liberty Ships in Southampton. The Regiment was separated into three Brigades, each taking part in consecutive landings. John was in the second wave on D-Day 6th June:
"We were transferred from the Liberty Ship onto small landing crafts; this was about 4 miles offshore. We hit Sword beach just after 0900; actually we landed in about 4 feet of water. My big concern was not to get my rifle wet! The landing area was heavily defended and we met mortar and heavy gun fire... of course there were some who didn’t manage to get as far as the beach. Once ashore, our battleships continued their heavy bombardment inland. Although we met strong resistance, we had to be careful not to advance too fast and overtake their reach.
The funny thing I remember is that many of us had been issued with fold-up bicycles. I’ve often thought this must have been some sort of psychological trick – to make us believe we could just walk up the beach and cycle over to Caen. Once we got off the beach there was a big pile of these bikes at the side of the road; it was obvious we wouldn’t be cycling anywhere!"...
