100-year-old Lancashire D-Day veteran says Remembrance Day still vital

  • A video report by ITV Granada Reports Reporter Paul Crone

In the build up to Remembrance Day, a 100-year-old D-Day veteran from Lancaster has shared his journey from storming the beaches of Normandy to being one of the first British soldiers to witness the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp.

Richard Brock, a former East Lancashire Regiment soldier was 20 years old when he made the trip from his home in Lancashire to Portsmouth for the D-Day assault.

In the battles that followed, all but 19 of the 130 men in Mr Brock's company were killed.

Richard was part of a handful of North West veterans who returned to Normandy this summer for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

It was to mark Operation Overlord which took place on June 6th, 1944.

More recently, Richard was a guest of honour at the Sandbag Café for armed forces veterans in St George’s Church in Preston.

Still in excellent health and spirit - it was a chance to look back on the memorable trip to France, and speaking at Bayeux War Cemetery in front of a tv audience totalling 2 million.

He says he will never forget the comrades he lost in 1944 and the losses suffered in his battalion.

Richard said: "When we went over, in my company, there were about 130 chaps.

"When we finished in Hamburg when the war finished, there were 19 of us. It has to be told.

"They have to know what happened because if it wasn't for the heroes, the lads who passed on in Normandy, life would have been different here today."

Richard talking about his memories of D-Day, and his journey through Europe.

Richard is believed to be the last surviving member of his battalion.

Speaking in June, he said: "I don’t think you’re proud, you’re just sad for your pals that you’ve missed.

"All your mates were getting knocked off. I think I’m the last one.

"But I’ve been very lucky in life, I’ve had a very wonderful life and I wouldn’t change it."

He will be wearing his poppy with pride on Remembrance Day, with thoughts of his trip to Normandy in June in mind.

And not surprisingly, Richard still thinks he has one more trip to Normandy left in him next summer.