Coleshill veteran shares D Day Landings memories
WHEN dignitaries gather for the 65th anniversary of the D Day Landings tomorrow,there will be a tear in the eye of Midland war veteran James Allt.
For the ceremony on the beaches of Normandy will bring back memories for the 84-year-old former paratrooper, who took part in one of the battles which ultimately led to the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Mr Allt, from Coleshill, was with the 9th Battalion of the Parachute Regiment when it carried out the assault on the Merville Gun Battery on D-Day, June 6 1944. The Battery was a coastal fortification in Normandy built by the Germans to defend continental Europe from Allied invasion.
It was one of the first places to be attacked by Allied forces on D-Day and, once conquered, it cleared the way for British troops to storm onto the shores of Sword Beach.
Members of the Paras destroyed the four enormous guns, each housed within a reinforced concrete casing.
