D-Day veteran who 'was amazing man' dies aged 106
BBCOne of the UK's oldest surviving D-Day veterans has died at the age of 106.
John Daniels was serving as a Royal Navy radio operative when he was sent to Omaha Beach in France to support US troops on 6 June 1944.
He previously described the Normandy landings as "a bloodbath", which he could not believe he had survived.
In tribute, his family said Daniels, who lived in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, was "an amazing man who was always interested in life".
Daniels, who was originally from Newport, Wales, joined the Royal Navy after leaving school "out of sheer desperation".
When speaking on the 80th anniversary of D-Day in 2024, he said: "Unemployment was rife in the 1920s and 1930s. My father was an architect but they couldn't afford for me to get any qualifications.
"My uncle, Will, had been in the Navy and he was a jolly chap so I thought I'd give that a go."
Daniels was first deployed to Malta and then Mauritius, where he met his future wife, Margaret.
"She was the sergeant major's daughter. He was a tyrant who scared everyone to death, but it was interest and fascination at first sight," he said.
By 1943 Daniels was a radio operative on board HMS Glasgow, which was victorious in a major battle against a flotilla of German destroyers at the Bay of Biscay.
Six months later, the crew of HMS Glasgow was involved in D-Day.
"We did our training on Mull of Kintyre in Scotland," Daniels recalled. "We were meant to launch the operation on 5 June, but the weather was lousy so our ship had to wait up the Bristol Channel to avoid detection."
The next day, Daniels was among 156,000 Allied troops to land by sea or air in Nazi-controlled Normandy.
"We were sent to support the Americans on Omaha Beach - it was a blood bath for them - the Germans were already there.
"We were told to spread out to avoid the enemy fire, but it was chaos. There were injured [people] and bodies all around.
"I watch films about it, and I think, 'Come on Daniels, be honest, you were one of them' - I don't know how I made it out alive.
"I believe a higher power was watching over me. I thank the Lord every night for my life," he said.
FAMILY PHOTODaniels' father had been a prisoner of war in World War One and his brother had died in a torpedo attack during World War Two, so when he returned from combat alive the reunion with his parents was "very emotional".
Daniels went on to have three daughters, nine grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, for whom he loved to perform magic tricks.
His daughter, Joan Pinkstone, said he was "loved by everyone and a great conversationalist who was always interested in politics and in life - most recently the trip around the moon and AI".
"We're so proud of him," she added.
Daniels, who at 104 was still doing daily sit ups, said he felt the world had "changed a lot" since D-Day, but that "there's no more peace today than there was then, it's just not on our doorstep. Not yet, anyway."
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