Ralph went on-board the Royal Navy LCT952, a landing craft tank.
The landing craft, tank (LCT) (or tank landing craft, TLC) was an amphibious assault craft for landing tanks on beachheads. They were initially developed by the Royal Navy and later by the United States Navy during World War II in a series of versions. Initially known as the "tank landing craft" (TLC) by the British, they later adopted the U.S. nomenclature "landing craft, tank" (LCT).
Over 7,000 ships were eventually used in the overall operation, nearly 4,000 of those were Landing Craft. Over 800 'Landing Craft Tanks' (LCT) were used on 'D-Day' itself.
Ralph's role in the D-Day landings was a newly qualified 'Ship's Signaler', which meant he was responsible for all communications, using Semaphore, Morse Code and Signal Flags.
Ralph's journey started at Newhaven in East Sussex, England. He was part of 'Sword' group on (mine swept) route number 9 which made their way to the French beaches near Ouistreham. The route took around 22 hours because of the distance traveled to avoid the German mines.