'Like a boy scouts adventure': One of Yorkshire's last D-Day veterans on the Normandy landings

The actions of the brave soldiers like Cooke on that day nearly 80 years ago ultimately liberated Western Europe from Nazi Germany and ended the Second World War.

Cooke was just 18 when he was called up for service in December 1943. He left his parents’ home in York and after six weeks initial training joined the Green Howards.

But he had no inkling of the daunting task that lay ahead on D-Day.

"I'd say it was a boy scouts adventure, to me, as an 18-year-old, never been on a beach before, never been on a ship before," Cooke told GB News.

Vividly remembering the moments after his regiment landed, Cooke said: "Everyone was telling us, the sergeants, the corporals, telling us 'get off the beach lads, quick, because there's some more stuff coming behind us and they had to get onto the beach as well.

"All our equipment and tanks and artillery, they were following up behind us, so we had to get out of the way and into the countryside and make as much ground as we could on that first day."

Cooke survived that harrowing first day but many did not and around 10,000 Allied troops were either killed or injured.

But their sacrifice along with the bravery of those that lived changed the course of history and resulted in the end of World War Two.

"I'm quite proud that I took part to get rid of the terrorists that were in Germany at that time. Somebody had to do it and so we did it, we did our job and that's it," Cooke said.

Within a month of landing in France, Cooke was badly injured by a shell while on patrol. He suffered shrapnel wounds to his back and legs and was shipped back to England before spending five months convalescing in hospital.

But after recovering, rather than being discharged, he was sent to rejoin the British troops across The Channel.

He arrived in Brussels in March the following year, joining up with the Highland Light Infantry and was injured a second time during a mortar attack outside Bremen in Germany.

Cooke then returned home to York where he met and married his wife Joan. Together they started a family and Cooke resumed work at Rowntrees confectionary factory where he had a career spanning 50 years.

Last month at the Commonwealth War Grave Commission’s Lighting Their Legacy event at Stonefall Cemetery in Harrogate, Cooke lit a torch which will be taken to Normandy this week as part of the 80th anniversary commemorations.

At the event, Cooke also spoke to local primary school children about his D-Day memories and answered questions that the children posed about his time in the war.

Building connections between veterans and young people is at the heart of the Lighting Their Legacy programme, in a bid to improve education, connect with younger generations and inspire them to understand the lessons of the Second World War.

"When we talk to children and young people, we tell them, it's up to them now to see that such as that Adolph and all his cohorts kind of thing and make sure that it doesn't happen again," Cooke said.

Cooke turns 99 in August and is one of the last surviving members of York’s Normandy veterans.

Part of an ever dwindling band of brothers who fought on D-Day, he's attending the 80th commemoration in France.

"[It's] a very emotional occasion this time, because there's not many of us left now, so we've got to make the most of it," Cooke told GB News.

"We're going to see our friends who are still over there and that's the main reason we're going.

"We're thinking it will be the last - it might not be, it depends. If I keep taking these tablets, I'll be going to the 85th."