Wilmington D-Day veteran Ian Hammerton tells of Normandy landing 69 years ago

Ian Hammerton was just 22 when he landed at Juno Beach at 7am on June 6, 1944, as commander of five tanks belonging to the 22nd Dragoons.

The 91-year-old had to aid the advance of Canadian soldiers by clearing mines using special chains called flails attached to the front of the tanks, which each held five soldiers.

Things went far from smoothly for Lieutenant Hammerton as his vehicle broke down trying to pull debris away from a concrete ramp left over from where he had reduced a barrier to a pile of "twisted metal" with a 75mm gun.

Despite being greeted by vicious enemy fire and a sea wall festooned with barbed wire, he was glad to be back on dry land.

Lietanant Hammerton (centre) with his squadron. 

The grandfather-of-three told News Shopper: "All I wanted to do was get off that wretched boat because I had been seasick all the way across.

"We picked up the Browning machine gun, filled our pockets with grenades and carried as much ammunition as we could.

"We managed to get up the ramp and establish a gun position."

Abandoning the stricken tank and continuing on foot, Mr Hammerton came across a priest tending to a wounded Canadian soldier.

He said: "He had been hit in the face and he wanted a fag but there was nowhere to put it.

"I have never forgotten that.

A flail tank in action.

After spending the rest of the day clearing mines, Lt Hammerton and his squadron finally managed to snatch some sleep.

He said: "We managed to rescue our blankets, which were sodden of course, and some food from the tank and we brewed up what we had and went to sleep underneath the tanks at about 1am.

“There was no opportunity of digging trenches.”

Lt Hammerton’s war was far from over as he joined the Allied advance into northern France towards the town of Falaise.

He said: “I had a number of near misses all the way up to the last day.

“A telephone pole was hit and the top of that came down on top of my tank and I got tangled up in telephone wires.

Mr Hammerton took part in the assault on Venlo in the Netherlands in 1944. 

“That was in the village of Glinde near Bremen in northern Germany the day before the ceasefire.”

Born in Hither Green, Mr Hammerton grew up in Dartford where he went to Dartford Grammar School before enlisting in the Territorial Army at Clapham Junction in August 1939 at the age of 17-and-a-half.

The Norfield Road resident made it home after the invasion 69 years ago last Thursday (June 6) and became a music teacher at Hurstmere School in Sidcup specialising in the flute.

The Joyden’s Wood warden added: "I was speaking to one of my troop recently and he didn’t want to know anything about the war.

"He and his wife have put it completely out of their minds.

"I have the opposite view: I think people want to know about it."