TROOPER Henry Jim' Smith was not supposed to be involved in the D-Day landings until a tank gunner fell sick.
Without a second thought he volunteered and before he knew it found himself at the very front of the invading force in a top-secret mine-clearing tank.
He was just 21 when his five-man strong flail tank made its way up Gold beach five minutes ahead of the main landing.
The driver, who had swapped into the gunner's seat for the invasion, had been afloat in a flat-bottomed landing craft since June 2.
Rolling around in the rough seas that accompanied the first landings, his crew managed to avoid motion sickness, which plagued so many others, thanks to someone laying their hands on anti-seasickness tablets.
After a four-day wait off the Isle of Wight and then in the English Channel, the group of six tanks landed near Ver-sur-Mer.
Given the task of clearing a path through the minefields the specially adapted flail tanks, known as Hobart's Funnies or the Crabs, were the first to land on Gold beach on 7.25am on June 6.
When the landing craft dropped its load of tanks ashore, they were met with enemy fire from an 88mm gun in a concrete post.
Mr Smith said: "We convinced the captain to try and let me disable it. I asked to be loaded with armour-piercing rounds to try and penetrate the gun mantle.
"I decided to try and hit the barrel of the gun while they were reloading. I aimed and fired, the round hit the gun barrel, deflected and made its way between the mantle and the concrete killing all the crew."
Now 81, the great-grandfather-of-one lives in Alwold Crescent, Lee, where he has been a crossing assistant for more than 16 years.
An active member of the Normandy Veterans' Association Mr Smith is rightly proud of the role he played in D-Day and in helping secure the beach that day.
