A special party was held in Leeds in honour of one of Britain’s last remaining D-Day veterans.
Jack Mortimer, 102, was just 20 when he bravely stormed Nazi-occupied beaches while under fire.
He was a corporal with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps during World War Two and part of the Allied forces that landed on Sword Beach in Normandy on D-Day on June 6, 1944.
Jack was tasked with transporting troops during Operation Neptune – the name given to D-Day landings – as the Allied forces pushed into mainland Europe.
The valiant dispatch rider rode in his Jeep as enemy mortar shells exploded around him.
At a special celebration of his life and achievements at his Leeds care home, Jack looked back on that fateful day and told GB News: “I landed it (in) about three feet of water, and I made it all right; I made it back on D-Day.
“There were guns going off and pistol shooting all over the place, and I don’t know how I survived, but I survived.
“There were thousands and thousands of ships on either side of us, loads of vehicles, tanks and artillery.
“It was dangerous, it was noisy, smoky, and smelly, and I saw lots of casualties.
“I’m proud to be a D-Day veteran. We were all trained to do a little job. We all did our job, and we all did it well.”
After the landings, Jack advanced onto Caen, Northern France, with other infantry and later delivered messages to commanders on his motorbike while dodging the enemy.
He also served in Antwerp and the Hook of Holland, where he remained until the end of the war.
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D-Day was a successful but costly operation – by the end of June 6, Allied forces had suffered nearly 10,000 casualties, of which 4,000 were fatalities.
To this day, it is the dead Jack remembers and says his fallen comrades deserve recognition.
“The true heroes are the ones that are lying (sic) in the graves. They’re the ones who didn’t come home, and they should always be remembered,” he said.
As part of remembering the fallen, Jack also remembers the announcement of VJ Day, which is 81 years ago today.
When Europe celebrated the surrender of German forces on VE Day, thousands of British, Commonwealth and Allied Armed Forces personnel were still involved in bitter fighting in the Far East and the Pacific.
The conflict only came to an end after two atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Soviet forces declared war on Japan.
At Jack’s party, the 81st anniversary of VJ Day was also commemorated by the Royal British Legion. Jeff Gantschuk, Chairman for the Guiseley Branch of RBL, told the People’s Channel: “It’s sometimes classed as a forgotten conflict, but the sacrifices those people made out there, they had horrific conditions to deal with.
“For those who have survived, we really do need to honour them and respect everything that they’ve done.”
It is also important for the Royal British Legion to thank veterans like Jack for the part he played in World War Two, and Jeff added: “It’s wonderful to get to his (Jack’s) age. It really is. He’s achieved so much, and he’s been with so many celebrities, you might say, and royalty as well. He’s a cheeky chappy at times. He really is, and he’s a lot of fun to be around.”
Jack’s fiancée Flo waited for him throughout the war, and the pair got married during his first period of leave, roughly one year after D-Day.
He became the general manager of a clothing company in his home town of Halifax when he left the army after the war.
The pair were together for 78 years – with Jack regularly visiting her even when she needed to live in a care home during her later years, and he is now living in the care home that she also stayed in.
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