Colin Douglas Maud D.S.O., D.S.C. was a Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 Lieutenant Commander who captained HMS Icarus

HMS Icarus (D03)

HMS Icarus was an I-class destroyer that served with the Royal Navy in World War II.On 29 November 1939, Icarus sighted the German U-boat U-35 between the Shetland Islands and Bergen , but was unable to launch an effective attack because her ASDIC was out of commission. Fellow destroyers and ...

 and acted as Juno beach

Juno Beach

Juno or Juno Beach was one of five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during the Second World War. The sector spanned from Saint-Aubin, a village just east of the British Gold sector, to Courseulles, just west of the British Sword sector...

 master at the D-day landings in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

He enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1932. At the beginning of World War II he served in HMS Sandwich

HMS Sandwich

Six ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Sandwich, either after the English seaside town of Sandwich, or one of the holders of the title Earl of Sandwich, particularly Vice-Admiral Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, or First Lord of the Admiralty John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich...

 in Chinese waters, and later served in convoys to Murmansk

Murmansk

Murmansk is a city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It serves as a seaport and is located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland...

. When his destroyer HMS Somali

HMS Somali (F33)

HMS Somali was a Tribal-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War II.-History:She was built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear....

 that he commanded was sunk, Maud spent an hour in the water claiming his survival to the fact that he had drunk a bottle of whisky before going overboard. As a result he ordered the men under his command to carry a bottle of whisky that pleased his command.

He retired from the Royal Navy in 1956.

In the movie The Longest Day

The Longest Day (film)

The Longest Day is a 1962 war film based on the 1959 history book The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan, about "D-Day", the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during World War II....

he was played by Kenneth More

Kenneth More

Kenneth Gilbert More CBE was a highly successful English film actor during the post-World War II era and starred in many feature films, often in the role of an archetypal carefree and happy-go-lucky middle-class gentleman.-Early life:Kenneth More was born in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the...

,. A dog actor plays the role of his real life dog, Winnie, however it was not a German Shepherd as in real life. As Werner Pluskat

Werner Pluskat

Werner Pluskat was a German Major, commander of the 352nd Artillery of the German 352nd Infantry Division during Allied invasion in Normandy 1944....

 already had a dog of the same breed in the film, Darryl F. Zanuck

Darryl F. Zanuck

Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...

 "improved upon history" by making Winnie an English Bulldog.Maud acted as a technical adviser on the film and provided More with his own shillelagh

Shillelagh (club)

A shillelagh is a wooden walking stick and club or cudgel, typically made from a stout knotty stick with a large knob at the top, that is associated with Ireland and Irish folklore.- Construction :...

 that he carried on D-Day.

In 1950 he presented the Karachi Yacht Club with a sailing trophy named after him that was a replica of Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...

's Zamzamah.