Joe Cattini: D-Day veteran dies months after 100th birthday

Alberto Giuseppe Antonio Cattini was the eldest of four boys

A D-Day veteran, described as a "giant" of the community, has died months after celebrating his 100th birthday.

Joe Cattini, from Eastleigh, Hampshire, passed away on Tuesday, the British Normandy Memorial said.

He had been an ambassador for the memorial which was unveiled near Ver-sur-Mer, France, in 2021.

He served for five years from 1941 and landed on Gold Beach on D-Day as a bombardier in the 86th Field Regiment of the Hertfordshire Yeomanry.

Memorial trustee Nicholas Witchell said: "Another giant within the Normandy veteran community has left us. I recall the support he gave to me and the memorial project in its earliest months."

Alberto Giuseppe Antonio Cattini was the eldest of four boys, born in Gray's Inn Road, London, but grew up in Hampstead where his parents owned a cafe.

Mr Cattini was initially involved in the action at Luc-sur-Mer and then at Ver-sur-Mer and went on to fight through the heavily-defended "bocage" area.

In 2014, when he met King Charles, then Prince of Wales, he described how the landing craft in front of him hit a mine and sank.

Mr Cattini visited the completed British Normandy Memorial twice

"The chaps were scrambling out as fast as they could. Some of them were swimming up to their necks in water. There were a few casualties that did not make it," he recalled.

A spokesman for the British Normandy Memorial said: "We are proud and honoured that Joe was our ambassador since 2019 and he was able to visit the completed memorial twice.

"He continued to campaign for ongoing support of the memorial to ensure that his fallen comrades were never forgotten."

Costing nearly £30m, funded by the British government and private benefactors, the memorial overlooks Gold Beach - one of three beaches where British forces landed on 6 June 1944.

Mr Cattini celebrated his 100th birthday on 17 January.