A beachmaster's work under fire at Normandy

Clarke recalls an unnamed Royal Navy beachmaster continuing to marshal the beach while wounded and refusing to stop for treatment. The account describes roughly three days of bleeding before a medic stitched him up, followed by a return to work, and seven days without sleep. Another episode has the officer assaulting a machine-gun position with a borrowed swagger stick because he wanted the site for his headquarters. The details of that assault vary between accounts. The officer later joined the same postwar sleep study as Clarke's grandfather. Functional insomnia and the possible effect of adrenaline are offered as explanations for his endurance. These recollections concern beach-control personnel whose recognition is judged inadequate.