Tearful Meeting With Downed Comrade's Son

76th anniversary of d-day

- Marco Giannangeli

He has devoted the past 76 years to remembering those who didn’t make it home from the battlefield of the Second World War.

But for veteran Harry Billinge, it was one death in particular that changed him forever: Lance Corporal Joseph Neades, who died in his arms five weeks after they had stormed the beaches of Normandy.

Now the 94-year-old, who was appointed MBE in March after raising £1 each for every soldier who died on the D-Day landings to help pay for a new memorial, has finally laid his ghosts to rest through an incredible encounter with Joseph’s son, Alan.

Harry was just 18 when he waded on to Gold Beach at 6.30 am. It was five weeks later, during the savage Battle of Normandy, that he found himself sharing a foxhole with 22-year old Joseph, from Piddletrenthide, Dorset, who had landed on Sword beach.

Speaking from his home in St Austell, Cornwall, Harry told the BBC Breakfast show: “I’ve been a bit sad. I’ve been on my own more or less since I got the medal on March 3.”