ERNIE Barnes can still vividly picture the British and Canadian troops disembarking from the landing craft as the first wave of Allied soldiers hit the beaches on June 6, 1944.

He was a driver of a DUKW, amphibious trucks used to ferry weapons, troops, ammunition and supplies from the ships to the beach.

"We drove straight out of the landing craft and our vehicle became waterborne," Mr Barnes recalled.

"German anti-aircraft guns were firing and you could see troops rushing everywhere. It was organised chaos.

"When we landed they took us to the nearest dispersal point. It didn't take long to get us organised as we couldn't hang around. Our job was to go out to the ships and bring back the supplies."

He added: "There were plenty of casualties one of our officers was driving on the beach when he struck a land mine and got badly injured. I also saw a lot of German prisoners."

Mr Barnes, now 89, of Bramley Court, Marden, had mixed thoughts as he prepared for the invasion.

He and many others had suffered from severe seasickness as they crossed the Channel in rough seas and were desperate to get off the ships.

"I was torn between two things getting off that boat and what was going to happen next.

"I have never been sick like that in my life. When I got off I wanted to change my mind."

The bombing of Caen was also to leave a lasting impression.

He said: "I remember that night as we were on guard and the whole place was ablaze. Word came round we had bombed Caen. It was flaring up. You could see it from miles away."

Mr Barnes was a commercial driver for a company in south London when he was called up in 1940 at the age of 24.

He was a driver with the Royal Army Service Corps, when in mid-1943 he joined up with a DUKW company that was training for the D-Day landings.

"We trained at a place called Towing in Wales because the sand dunes there were very high and steep. We used to go over the dunes and out to sea."

Despite the training, Mr Barnes said there was no indication of what the invasion date was likely to be.

He said: "It came to light on the weekend before D-Day. The whole area of Essex down to Tilbury was awash with vehicles and it was then you realised this was it. How the Germans never suspected it, I will never know.

"If Hitler had known we could have come unstuck. It was the biggest thing we got away with ever."