A D-DAY veteran who was on the beaches at Normandy has spoken about his wartime experiences in the Royal Navy.

Horace Hornsby, 85, of Clifford Avenue, Bishop Auckland, served with the Royal Navy from June 1942 to April 1946 as an able seaman.

Mr Hornsby was aboard a Landing Ship Tank on June 6, 1944, when Allied Forces began the invasion to liberate Europe from Hitler’s Nazis. His ship’s job was to import and export troops and machinery from the French beaches. “This was the big invasion,” he said. “This was it. Once we landed we couldn’t go back.

“We weren’t all blood and thunder. We had a quiet time of it.

“The small boats went in first and they were the ones that got killed.

“The beach masters called us in in the early hours of the morning and we got our tanks and troops off.”

Mr Hornsby said he was lucky to go through the war “without a scratch”, and left the Navy in 1946 to be with his wife, Pearl, now 85.

He was awarded The France and Germany Star, The 1939 to 1945 Star, The Italy Star, The Burma Star, a victory medal and the Pro Libertate medal from the French for his services at Normandy.