Taffy James – Sixth South Wales, RASC, aged 24

Taffy James served with the Number One Transport Core and was stationed at Somersham before D-Day.

His first task on the night of June 5 – the eve of D-Day - was to help load 300 lorries with petrol and ammunition at Southampton.

The cargo was to be a vital life-line for troops in the coming weeks.

The RASC core landed on Sword beach on June 6 and in just four days, they had buried 36 of their comrades.

“We buried them in a little orchard near the beach,” explained Taffy in an interview for The Hunts Post in 1994.

“It hurts a lot just to think about it – some of them were so young.”

The company travelled around France replenishing supplies for troops, but their vehicles failed to act as a shield from the might of the German army.

Taffy described how he cheated death on a desolate French road.

“The lorry I was in was carrying fuel, so when the enemy planes went overhead and started bombing us, I jumped out and dived into a field.

The next day he was horrified to see a sign in the field which read ‘Achtung Minen’ which translated is ‘Attention Mines’!

“I had a lucky escape that night,” he said.