From Longest Day to 100th birthdays

NORMANDY VETERANS MARK CENTENARIES JUST WEEKS APART

- CHRIS SLATER

TWO D-Day veterans living in the same care home have celebrated their 100th birthdays within weeks of each other.

David Teacher and Peter Belcher, who were both involved in the 1944.

Normandy landings have had parties thrown for them and received special cards from the King.

Yet looking back on his incredible life, one of them said D-Day in the end turned out to be a 'doddle? David joined the RAF aged 18 and served from 1942 until the end of the war in 1945.

He was a mechanic in an RAF Beach Unit, among the first to land on Juno Beach on June 6, 1944. His job was to repair vehicles.

After living for three months on the beach in a trench, his unit moved to fight in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and was involved in relieving US troops besieged in Bastogne in December 1944.

David is a former vice-chairman of the Bolton and District Normandy Veterans Association and a former chairman of the Manchester Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women.

In 2012, David, a double amputee, was awarded an MBE for his charitable work.

He is a widower who was married to Nancy for more than 70 years. He turned 100 last Friday.