One of Scotland's last D-Day veterans dies, aged 100

One of Scotland's last surviving D-Day veterans, who helped clear sea mines off Omaha Beach during the Normandy landings, has died aged 100.

Charlie Horne was 18 years old when he served on a small wooden minesweeper which came under fire on 6 June 1944.

The former trawlerman from Prestonpans in East Lothian said the scenes of devastation he witnessed as Allied forces landed in France stayed with him for the rest of his life.

He died earlier this week at the Erskine Veterans Charity home in Edinburgh, where he had been living since the summer.

Born into a fishing family, Charlie was already an experienced seaman by the time he was called up for service in 1943 and was assigned to minesweeper MMS 291, part of the Royal Naval Patrol Service.

Two years ago, on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, he told the BBC of the fear he felt on board one of the first allied vessels to head towards the Normandy beaches.

With hundreds of ships behind them, they managed to get quite close in before the German forces opened up with artillery, then used aircraft to attack the landing fleet.

He described the intense noise of the shells and seeing bodies floating in the water.

"I was scared, I must admit, but you just had to get on with it," he said.

Charlie remained in the Navy travelling on further active service in Asia and North Africa before being demobbed in 1947 and returning to the fishing industry.

He died on on Tuesday, just a few weeks shy of his 101st birthday, and a few days before Remembrance Sunday which commemorates the contributions of those who served in the two world wars and later conflicts.

In another recent interview, Charlie spoke of the importance of remembering those who never returned from the war.

"I've had another 82 years. I came home, fell in love, got married, had children and watched my family grow – thousands of young men never had the opportunity to experience any of those things, and that is tragic," he said.

He continued: "I will never forget the men who didn't come home.

"All I ask is that, when we are no longer here to tell you ourselves, you don't forget them either."

Charlie kept a handwritten diary of his experiences during the war, and described how his minesweeper destroyed a total of eight mines after leaving Plymouth,

But the danger did not stop after D-Day. His diary reveals how another minesweeper, MM299, struck a mine and its explosion "blew her bows clean off".

The young sailor eventually gave up trying to count the ships which had been lost, seeing the waters strewn with wreckage.

His service during the Normandy landings was later recognised with the Legion d'honneur, France's highest order of merit.

He and wife Jenny, who died in 2009, went on to have three daughters.

Wing Commander Ian Cumming, chief executive of Erskine Veterans Charity, said it had been a privilege to help care for Charlie in the final months of his life.

He said: "We are deeply saddened by Charlie's passing, and our thoughts are with his family, friends and everyone who knew and loved him.

"His passing is particularly poignant as we approach Remembrance.

"We are losing the last of a generation who experienced the Second World War firsthand, and with each passing, another irreplaceable connection to that period of our history is lost.