A D-Day veteran who helped liberate the Bergen-Belsen Nazi focus camp has died on the age of 104.
Donald “Don” Sheppard landed on a ship tank on Normandy’s Juno seaside on 6 June 1944.
A dispatch rider for the Royal Engineers, he was one of many 156,000 British, American, and Canadian troops who landed by air and sea that day.
D-Day, which marked its eightieth anniversary this 12 months, grew to become probably the most profitable navy operations in historical past – paving the way in which for the liberation of France and, mixed with the Soviet advance within the east, the top of the Second World Warfare.
Between 4,000 and 9,000 Allied troops are estimated to have died.
On Sunday, the British Normandy Memorial introduced Mr Sheppard’s dying on X.
“We’re saddened to listen to of the dying of 104-year-old D-Day veteran Donald Sheppard,” it posted.
“Donald attended the digital opening of the Memorial in 2021 and options within the Winston Churchill Centre Royal British Legion exhibition. Pondering of Donald’s spouse Sandra & household. Relaxation in Peace, Don.”
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After Mr Sheppard and his friends landed on French soil in June – they broke Nazi strains in August and continued to Belgium, Holland, and Germany.
In Germany, he was a kind of who labored to liberate the Bergen-Belsen focus camp – the place greater than 70,000 individuals, most of them Jewish or Soviet prisoners of warfare, have been killed.
Anne Frank and her sister, Margot, each died within the camp, having contracted typhus within the cramped circumstances.
‘A waste of life’
Talking at dwelling in Basildon, Essex, in 2019, Mr Sheppard described the D-Day operation as a “waste of life” however acknowledged it was “so vital” in ending the warfare.
“I do know we needed to defend ourselves… however younger guys like me 20, 21, who by no means lasted 5 minutes, a few of them received killed earlier than they received off the boat. Tragic, completely,” he mentioned.
When he arrived at Juno seaside, round 4.30pm, Mr Sheppard mentioned the Germans had “actually received the space and shells have been coming over like rain”, with battleships additionally firing over their heads.
“We misplaced fairly a number of guys,” he mentioned.
Describing the scenes as soon as he reached the Nazi focus camp, he added: “I shall always remember that for the remainder of my life. How one human may try this to a different.”
Mr Sheppard’s solely harm all through the whole warfare was a minimize to his leg as he sheltered from German bombs in a ditch.
Some 70 years later, nonetheless, unrelated medical scans discovered a bit of shrapnel in his lung, which by no means precipitated him any well being issues.