Harry Mallington, Coxswain in the Royal Navy, Veteran of the D-Day Landings  - Interviewed at the D-Day Museum Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK

Photographed by Dan Bernard and Gail Baird for 131 Design for the Westbury Manor WW2 celebration on March 27th

Frank Rosier - WWll D-Day Veteran, Normandy, France
"We had just fought our way to the first village on D2 (day 2 of the D-Day landings) and were hiding in a culvert from a German Panzer division. I saw a shop hidden away from the main village and noticed it was a sweet shop. I turned to my mate and said: "I’m going over there, do you want some sweets? I ran over, kicked the door in, filled my pockets full of sweets and ran back to my mate in the ditch and started sharing those sweets out with the rest of the unit."

What got us, listening to this, is that this was the story of an 18 year old lad, the day after the Normandy landings who was thinking about totally normal behaviour in the most unnatural circumstances. The difference with this story is that within 30 seconds of his return, a German Panzer tank destroyed the shop with one shell.