'Life is precious and so is freedom': 99-year-old D-Day veteran from Merseyside
D-Day veteran John Dennett talking to Granada Reports Paul Crone
A 99-year-old D-Day veteran is one of many making the journey back to France for the 80th anniversary D-Day commemorations, with the poignant words: "life is precious, and so is freedom".
John Dennett, who lives in Wallasey on Merseyside, joined the Royal Navy at the age of 17 in March 1942.
He was an anti-aircraft gunner on one of the 7,000 ships which took soldiers to the beaches in Normandy on 6 June 1944, to make sure they did not get shot from overhead.
The D-Day landings saw 156,000 Allied troops arrive for a combined naval, air and land assault on Nazi-occupied France.
At least 4,414 troops were killed and another 5,900 were listed as missing or wounded during the operation, which was the largest amphibious invasion in military history, and marked the start of the long campaign to liberate North-West Europe from Nazi occupation.
ITV project interviews the last remaining D-Day veterans >
John is one of at least 30 surviving D-Day veterans traveling on a ferry back to those beaches in France for special commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary on Thursday 6 June.
He told Granada Reports: "They say there're not many of us veterans left, but there's more than you think.
"To me, this is a time of remembrance for what happened all those years ago, 80 years is a long time, I go back as often as I can because I stop to think sometimes 'I'm still here, I'm lucky' but the amount of people that died that day, I didn't realise it was that many until much later.
"We lost thousands, a lot of mothers never saw their sons again".
John, whose 100th birthday is in July told ITV News he lives life to the full and never takes anything for granted.
"Live every minute because life is precious, and so is freedom, and we got freedom so enjoy it while you can, and treasure it," he said.
John Dennett was awarded at MBE in the 2023 New Years' Honours list, the first under King Charles, not just for what he's done for his country, but also for what he's done for his community.
After the end of the second World War, in 1949, John and his wife Joyce, started a junior football team in Wallasey, Ashville FC, named after the road they lived on.
75 years later, the club is still very much alive, with John remaining very much a part of it.
In July 2023, to mark his 99th birthday, the renowned Merseyside street artist Paul Curtis painted a mural of John on the wall of Ashville FC's clubhouse.
Paul said: "This project was a real privilege for me.
"I have painted murals for footballers, actors, musicians - people we quickly idolise as heroes, but we often forget the true heroes that don't have that fame or glamour, but did more for us than we can imagine."
Dozens of veterans, many of them in wheelchairs, were on board Brittany Ferries ship Mont St Michel on Tuesday morning as it left Portsmouth for France.
The ship was accompanied by Royal Navy patrol vessels Trumpeter, Medusa and Basher as well as HMS Cattistock and the Training Ship Royalist, with tugs spraying water as it travelled out of Portsmouth Harbour.
Several small boats and yachts also waited outside the harbour to see the ferry off on its journey.
The Jedburgh Pipe Band played the ferry out of the harbour and a Royal Air Force flypast circled low overhead.