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D-Day veterans will be travelling thousands of miles from the US, Canada and Britain to attend next month's 60th anniversary ceremonies in Normandy, but for one ex-soldier the journey to the beaches is just a short walk from his front door.
One of the handful of surviving French participants in the landings, Leon Gautier lives at 102, route de Lion, Ouistreham - only a few hundred yards from the German pill-box which he stormed on 6 June 1944.
Mr Gautier, who is now 81, was a member of the so-called "Kieffer Commando" - a detachment of 177 Frenchmen who formed part of Lord Lovat's 1st Special Service Brigade on D-Day.
He remembers being embarked on 5 June at Warsash on the Solent, and a night of choppy weather in a landing craft containing about 90 men.
"When we got near to the coast the gun batteries opened up. And then our commanding officer Colonel (Robert) Dawson made his famous remark: 'Messieurs les Francais - Tirez les premiers!" Mr Gautier recalls.
BBC Read More
One of the handful of surviving French participants in the landings, Leon Gautier lives at 102, route de Lion, Ouistreham - only a few hundred yards from the German pill-box which he stormed on 6 June 1944.
Mr Gautier, who is now 81, was a member of the so-called "Kieffer Commando" - a detachment of 177 Frenchmen who formed part of Lord Lovat's 1st Special Service Brigade on D-Day.
He remembers being embarked on 5 June at Warsash on the Solent, and a night of choppy weather in a landing craft containing about 90 men.
"When we got near to the coast the gun batteries opened up. And then our commanding officer Colonel (Robert) Dawson made his famous remark: 'Messieurs les Francais - Tirez les premiers!" Mr Gautier recalls.
BBC Read More
