D-DAY 60TH ANNIVERSARY: D-DAY veteran Alf Collett fears the brave actions of himself and his colleagues will end up consigned to the history books unless more youngsters are made aware of the sacrifice.

The 79-year-old widower, from Warminster, served D-Day hunting for German submarines supporting the troops as they invaded the Normandy beaches.

On Friday he joins up with hundreds of D-Day veterans for a special tribute in France.

He said: "I think it's the last time many of us will be able to go back to Normandy. It was the largest invasion by sea that has ever been and it deserves to rank alongside the battles of Trafalgar and Jutland.

"We saw plenty of action at that time and by the time D-Day came round we were U-Boat daft.

"Everybody was just doing a job during D-Day, as we were most of the time throughout the war."

Veteran seaman Mr Collett sailed on HMS Goodson, which was torpedoed by a German submarine weeks after D-Day.

He said: "We are getting more and more services rather than less and less and everybody has been getting together for the last few years, even the sons of veterans turn up after their fathers have died.

"But I don't think it will carry on when we are all gone, D-Day will pass out of the memory like Trafalgar or Waterloo."