D-Day veteran, Don Sheppard, who helped liberate concentration camp dies aged 104

A D-Day veteran who assisted in the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp has died aged 104.

On June 6, 1944, Donald “Don” Sheppard landed on Juno Beach in a landing ship tank.

The dispatch rider for the Royal Engineers was among 156,000 British, American and Canadian troops launched from the sea and air onto French land.

The military operation celebrated its 80th anniversary this year.

A tribute in honour of Sheppard was posted on the British Normandy Memorial social media account on Sunday.

The post said: “We are saddened to hear of the death of 104-year-old D-Day Veteran Donald Sheppard.

“Donald attended the virtual opening of the Memorial in 2021 and features in the Winston Churchill Centre @PoppyLegion exhibition.

“Thinking of Donald’s wife Sandra and family. Rest in Peace Don.”

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The veteran from Basildon, Essex previously described D-Day as a “waste of life” but acknowledges that the landings are “so important”.

During an interview in 2019, Sheppard said: “I know we had to defend ourselves… but young guys like me 20, 21, who never lasted five minutes, some of them got killed before they got off the boat.

“Tragic, absolutely.”

He recalled that after arriving at Juno Beach, the Germans had “really got the distance and shells were coming over like rain”.

The veteran broke through Nazi lines in the August and continued through to Belgium, Holland and eventually Germany – including the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

“I shall never forget that for the rest of my life. How one human could do that to another,” he said.

During the war, the only wound he received was a cut to his leg as he dived into a ditch as German bombs fell.