D-DAY MEMORIES: CLIFF Jones was just 22 when he and his unit from the Royal Artillery landed on Gold Beach.

Born in Trowbridge, he had trained as a plumber, but he drove onto the Normandy beach the day after D-Day at the wheel of a giant lorry, pulling the radar which would be used to track incoming German fire.

Mr Jones, of Frogwell, Chippenham, recalled the days which led up to the invasion. "Three weeks before, we had moved to a base near Ipswich and stayed there for three weeks. We weren't allowed out, there was barbed wire around us," he said.

"We'd been training intensively for two years and although we didn't know it at the time, it was for an invasion.

"We were issued with ration packs and French money, which looked strange because I had never been abroad in my life.

"We embarked onto the boat at Felixstowe on a Landing Ship Tank. At Felixstowe, we sat in the bay for five days," said Mr Jones.

"We didn't know what to expect, but I suppose we just trusted that we would be okay. Then one night the boat moved off while those that could sleep were sleeping and we woke up the next morning to an amazing sight.

"We were in an area of the English Channel nicknamed Piccadilly Circus," he said.

"It was a marvellous sight as it was where all the ships diverged before going off towards their different beaches. I sat there and looked at the thousands of craft, the whole skyline was full of them. I shall never forget it."

Mr Jones and the rest of his battery arrived off the coast of Gold Beach on D-Day and were due to land at 2pm, but their commanding officers had other ideas.

"We had heard the firing and fighting as we crossed, but by the time we arrived all the brave men had gone in and sorted things out," he said.

"Fighting was still going on over to our right, but although there were a few bodies in the water, the British wounded had all been taken back across the channel on the transporters.

"Our boat went up the beach and the ramp went down, but it was quickly decided that it was not safe for us to take all our vehicles on to the beach," said Mr Jones.

"There was wreckage everywhere. There were thin paths that had been cleared of mines, but our vehicles were so big, that it would have been too dangerous to try and get them through.

"So we went back out into the bay for another 24 hours and landed on D-Day plus one. We drove up the beach in convoy, I was first off and I remember thinking that if firing were to start, I'd be the first one to go," he said.

"By 3pm, we had set up our battery, put our vehicles under camouflage and were firing at ground targets."

In the remaining months of the war, Mr Jones' unit was attached to the Canadians and moved through France.

"We were shelled by the Germans and at Dieppe, where the Canadian Army had earlier been massacred on the beach. We were made to wait outside the town while the Canadians went in to take it they had a score to settle with the Germans," he said.

"Then we moved on up through Belgium and on to Antwerp, where our role was to provide anti-aircraft support to the advance guards. The RAF had bombed the dykes which had filled with water and I was called in from my unit to service vehicles.

"But V2s and V1 bombers were dumping on Antwerp at that time and I could have easily ended my war there once or twice, for good."

De-mobbed in January 1947, Mr Jones returned to Wiltshire and now, at the age of 82, is looking forward to his seventh return to Normandy.

"I can feel myself becoming very quiet and reflective, just before I go there," he said.

"I am particularly looking forward to the marches and am always in hope of meeting some of the old boys from my unit. We all went our separate ways after the war but it would be very nice to find out what they went on to do after we travelled so far together."

See this week's 4 page 60th Anniversary of D-Day special in the Gazette & Herald