D-Day veteran Kenneth Hay dies aged 101

D-Day, on 6 June 1944, saw British, American and Canadian troops storm beaches along the Normandy coastline to begin the liberation of France from Nazi occupation.

Hay had landed at Courseulles-sur-Mer just days after and was captured by the German 12th SS Panzer Division during a night patrol on 7-8 July.

He was taken to Zabrze in Poland, where he was put to work as a prisoner of war in a coal mine.

Speaking of the capture in 2024, Hay recalled his first feelings were of “dread” and “fear”.

“We went out on night patrol, was supposed to be doing a blow up of a self-propelled gun in no man’s land, but in fact, it was behind their lines,” he said.

“So they let us through and then very unfriendly, they sealed it and wouldn’t let us back, so we had a battle.

“We had 30 [that] went out on our patrol, 16 including my brother, who was a corporal, got back, five of us got captured and then presumably nine got killed.”

As the Russians approached, the prisoners were marched to a new location, approximately 1,000 miles away, during which many of them died.

During the three-month march, Hay said he once “lay down to die” after it became too painful to continue, but two friends turned back for him and lifted him with an “arm around each shoulder”.