LIEUTENANT Philip Bennett was 19 as his assault craft made its way towards Sword Beach on the morning of D-Day, June 6, 1944. It was a Tuesday. He wondered whether he would live to see Wednesday.

'As we neared the beach we had real pangs of fear — anyone who said they didn't is a liar. But you had to overcome the fear and keep going. When we got ashore we just got on with the job.'

What Philip Bennett calls 'the job' was a tremendously tough task: to dislodge German troops from machine gun emplacements and liberate the French coastal town of Ouistreham, paving the way for a flood of Allied troops to land in comparative safety.

In the first-hand account published below, Philip Bennett relates his experiences as a young officer, centre stage in the most important theatre of war in human history.

On that fateful dawn, he was aware of the colossal importance of the task: 'By dawn's early light I saw this great armada stretching as far as the eye could see. It was then that I realised, my God, we're making history today.'

That morning, after a snatched sleep on board the SS Princess Astrid, he breakfasted on fried eggs, bacon and sausages. 'The last supper,' the ship's cooks sardonically called it.

As the French coast neared, officers and men transferred to assault craft that were lowered into the water. The commandos ignored orders to don steel helmets, preferring to go into battle wearing their green berets.

Officers carried a rifle or sten gun or tommy gun rather than a pistol, so they could not be distinguished from the other ranks and picked off by German snipers.

Lt Bennett stuffed a pair of binoculars inside his battledress blouse and a hunting horn.

French Commandos, led by Commandant Philippe Kieffer, were to capture a casino building which had been converted into an armoured strongpoint above the beach. Lt Bennett and his fellow British Commandos were to advance to the rear of the town before cutting back through it to take machine gun posts in front of the beach, and near the casino building.

In a built-up area, radio signals would be distorted so Lt Bennett was to sound the hunting horn to alert the French commandos in the casino that the British were ready to attack the machine gun posts. They did so, 'firing from the hip and yelling like banshees . . . '

Twelve days later Lt Bennett was wounded in the head and shoulder by a mortar shell and shipped back to England for treatment.

Col Bennett is now almost 80. A tall man, he suffers from arthritis, and walks with the aid of a stick because of serious circulation problems in his left leg. Despite this he still has a military bearing and his eyes are alive as he relates the amusing anecdotes of Army life.

He was at Ouistreham for the 50th anniversary of D-Day and will be there again for the 60th. Leading politicians will be in Normandy to mark the anniversary. France's President Chirac will meet veterans at Ouistreham.

Col Bennett says: 'President Chirac's coming down to thank us.' He shrugs and smiles. 'Apparently, he's going to give us some sort of gong.'