'We were there to do a job': Lybster's Normandy veteran Robbie Larnach never forgot his comrades
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Robbie Larnach was "absolutely terrified" as he came ashore at Normandy's Sword beach in June 1944. "Anybody that says they weren't terrified landing in Normandy, they're telling lies," he once said.
Robbie, who died at Caithness General Hospital on Sunday, aged 98, was a 20-year-old Driver/Mechanic in the Royal Artillery when he arrived in northern France in the aftermath of D-Day to play his part in events that would change the course of World War II. He was in charge of a four-wheel-drive vehicle towing a 25lb gun as it emerged from a barge.
Speaking in 2018 at his home in Lybster, he recalled: "We boarded the ship and lay in the Channel for about four days before the weather was suitable and we could make the landing. We landed in Normandy and our first objective was to capture the town of Caen.
"I can always remember when we got off the barge the whole front of the barge dropped down and you just drove into the water, and the water was running round your feet... Holding on to the steering wheel and saying 'keep going, keep going, keep going', until the nose of the vehicle I was driving eventually came out of the water.
"There were shells exploding round about until we managed to get ashore."
They encountered resistance and endured hardships but gradually advanced through France, Belgium and the Netherlands and into Germany before linking up with the Russians.
Robbie would never forget the comrades he lost. In recent years he made four return journeys to Normandy and six trips to the Netherlands, always accompanied by his son Noel.
"He didn't go on any of these trips until my mother died in 2017," Noel explained this week. "He never even spoke about it, but then when you got him there with like-minded people, other veterans as well, you'd get them talking and it was amazing. You could sit and listen to them for hours and hours."
Robbie was born in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, in 1924 and his family moved to Caithness when he was a child.
A keen footballer, Robbie became a prolific goalscorer for Lybster FC. At one point the village team had no fewer than seven Larnach brothers in its ranks. He said: "As the family grew, the Lybster team seemed to grow."
One day, after finishing work at Wick aerodrome, he ran all the way to Lybster in time for an evening match and managed to play the whole game. "I went out and played my 90 minutes of football after running for 14 miles," he said.
Robbie also remembered playing against prisoners of war at the Watten camp.
A representative from Edinburgh club Hibernian was keen to offer him a trial. "I was just coming back out of the army and I said 'thanks but no thanks'," Robbie said. "I was approached at the wrong time."
He also played for Wick Academy, Wick Groats and Perth-based Jeanfield Swifts. In November 2018 Robbie was pleased to be invited to attend Groats’ 125th anniversary celebrations. "We had a wonderful night," he said.
In his professional life Robbie worked in civil engineering and was involved in the Skye Bridge and Kylesku Bridge construction projects.
Robbie was predeceased by his wife Elizabeth. He is survived by sons Noel and Magnus and daughter Valerie. Another daughter, June, passed away in 1985.
His funeral service is in Lybster Church of Scotland on Monday at 1.45pm.
In November 2022 Robbie, again accompanied by Noel, took part in the Remembrance Sunday parade at the Cenotaph in London – which meant the Lybster veteran was unable to attend the service in his home village, as was his custom.
Noel said: "That year just past, that's probably the first year he missed laying the wreath. He was the oldest one in the village so they used to ask him."
He described his father as "very unassuming".
In an interview for the online oral history project Wick Voices, Robbie reflected on his wartime experiences and said: “We were there to do a job, and it was a case of ‘get on with it’. I always thought that I was one of the very, very, very lucky ones."
