"One of Britain’s last surviving D-Day veterans has died aged 99, months before the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings. Walter Bigland was just 19 when he disembarked from a landing craft on Sword Beach with 45 Commando on June 6, 1944, wheeling a bike with a rubber dinghy on his back plus four grenades and 100 rounds of ammo. The great-grandfather of Aintree, Liverpool later recalled: “I was carrying around 80lb in my rucksack. I managed to get the bike down the ramp, but I hardly rode it because the roads were just covered in debris. “I have been called a hero in the past, but it’s water off a duck’s back to me. We were quite calm on the approach to Normandy because it just felt like another exercise. “Most of us even managed to have a doze on the way.” Walter joined the Marines in 1942 at 18. He added: “All the men on those beaches were heroes.” One of Britain’s last surviving D-Day veterans dies aged 99 | UK | News | Express.co.uk
