D-Day veteran Don Sheppard dies aged 104

In a 2019 interview, Mr Sheppard, from Basildon, Essex, described D-Day as a “waste of life” but recognised the landings as being “so important”.

He said: “I know we had to defend ourselves… but young guys like me 20, 21, who never lasted five minutes, some of them got killed before they got off the boat.

“Tragic, absolutely.”

When he arrived at Juno beach around 4.30pm, Mr Sheppard said the Germans had “really got the distance and shells were coming over like rain”, with battleships also firing over their heads.

“We lost quite a few guys,” he said. “We (the survivors) were lucky really.”