One of Britain’s last D-Day veterans dies aged 100
One of the last remaining D-Day veterans has died only three months after celebrating his 100th birthday.
Joe Cattini, from Fairoaks in Hampshire, died on Tuesday evening, Sarah Burr, the World War Two survivor’s granddaughter, said.
‘A life so well lived. One of the last D-Day veterans left. We are so proud of him and loved him so much,’ she said on Twitter yesterday.
British Normandy Memorial trustee Nicholas Witchell said: ‘Another giant within the Normandy Veteran community has left us.
‘We mourn Joe Cattini’s passing and remember the man that he was. I recall the support he gave to me and the memorial project in its earliest months.
‘Thank you, Joe, for everything, from your service in Normandy to being the delightful man that you were. You will remain in our hearts.’
The oldest of four boys, Joe’s parents owned local cafés in Elm Terrace.
Joe served in the army for five years from 1941, becoming one of the thousands of Allied troops involved in the Normandy landings, otherwise known as D-Day.
On June 6, 1944, more than 156,000 American, British and Canadian troops crossed by air and sea from Britain to five beaches in France.
In history’s greatest amphibious invasion, almost 7,000 vessels and 11,500 aeroplanes took part to turn the tide of the war against Germany.
Among them was Joe, who landed on Gold Beach as a Bombardier in the 86th Field Regiment RA of the Hertfordshire Yeomanry.
Only a handful of D-Day veterans, many in their 90s, remain to recall the feeling of dropping into the freezing sea and storming neck-deep in water towards beaches rammed with 50,000 German troops, four million land mines and lengths of barbed wire.
Joe took part in the front lines of Luc-sur-Mer and Ver-sur-Mer, now the location of the British Normandy Memorial. The mural has the names of the 22,442 British soldiers who lost their lives on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944.
D-Day, which took years of planning to achieve, saw the Western Allies dupe the Nazis into believing the invasion would burst into Pas-de-Calais, the closest French coastline to England.
All five targeted branches were secured by Allied forces within five days – at least 4,400 Allied troops lost their lives.
But the battle came to symbolise a key turning point for the Western Allies, paving a path for them to launch their advance on Germany.
Visiting the British Normandy Memorial in June last year, Joe reflected on how the beaches are now dotted with cemeteries with the graves of soldiers united in their efforts to topple Adolf Hitler.
Joe had been made an ambassador for the trust three years prior, campaigning for the lives of his comrades are never forgotten.
‘When one comes and looks at the pillars, and sees some of the names that you knew,’ he said, ‘you begin to wonder how lucky you were to have survived it.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.