AT about 5.30am as the sun rose on D-Day, young corporal Edward Ballard prepared to lead his men onto a landing craft on a rough sea a mile or two off Sword beach.

The Royal Engineer, who was leading 20 men, had so much to think about, he says he didn't have time to be afraid.

He and his team were part of two squadrons of the 5th Assault Regiment which had the fearful task of going in first, ahead of the main infantry assault, to clear mines and beach obstacles. Not many men alive then or now can lay claim to that.

The 6ft 1in tall soldier jumped off the landing craft and sank up to his nose in the sea, weighed down with equipment.

"God knows what happened to men who were shorter than me," said the now 84 year old who lives in Hertford Road, Alcester.

"As we got near the shore, everything just exploded. All hell let loose. There were shells and bullets everywhere.

"I made it forward behind a sand bank on the beach. All you could think about was finding cover."

For Mr Ballard, the passing years and a conscious effort to forget the horrors he saw in the war have left him with only fleeting glimpses of those first few confusing minutes of the invasion. His overriding memory is of chaos and the need to find cover.

He believes he might have spent a total of about 45 minutes on the beach but, of course, he is trying to recall details from 60 years ago.

But he said: "If I remember, I was afraid. Every man was afraid."

He came ashore somewhere near the town of Ouistreham, to the east of Sword beach, an area defended mainly by German machine gun and mortar fire from seaside villas and pill-boxes.

By the time full daylight arrived, the German defences were being subdued by shellfire from the warships laying just off shore and the rest of the troops landing on the beach.

As an engineer, it was Mr Ballard's job to clear exits off the beach and find a route inland. He and his men were ultimately to make their way to the famous Pegasus Bridge over the River Orne, three miles inland, in case the Germans had blown it. It would be their job to re-bridge the gap.

But luckily the bridge had been taken in a famous coup de main by airborne troops in the early hours of June 6.

Amazingly, he can't remember having a chance to use his rifle on that day, though he would have cause to use a Bren gun a few times later in the war.

His exploits as part of the 17th Field Company and Bomb Disposal on the front line after D-Day would prove just as hazardous, and he ended up being shot in the leg by a sniper - on the day the war ended!

"What I remember most is the comradeship. We had quite a few killed. I remember having to write letters to parents or wives."

He added: "I spent a year trying to get the war out of my head. I wanted to forget."