In June last year Alan Rennells visited Hill 112 for the last time. Cancer claimed him four months later. 

The Hill held painful memories for Alan. It was there his war ended after a German mortar ripped open his stomach.

His first vision of the War came two years earlier when he watched Canterbury burning from his home in Nunnery Fields following an air raid, the Cathedral silhouetted by the flames.

After his call up the following year Alan joined the Dorsetshire Regiment and on June 7 – D-Day + 1 – he landed at Gold Beach, close to the Normandy town of Arromanches. The Dorsets headed for Bayeux and then headed towards the heavily defended town of Caen, encountering deadly sniper fire along the way.

First, Allied forces had to take Hill 112 in a bloody conflict codenamed Operation Epsom. Rommel is reported to have said: “Whoever captures Hill 112 will win the battle for France.”

Advancing up the northern slopes, the Dorsets were attacked by enemy mortars. One exploded close by him. He swung round and was hit in the stomach by shrapnel.

Alan collapsed in the hedgerow. His hands clutched the appalling wound to prevent his guts spilling out. He recalled the smell of burning flesh.

A comrade who rushed to help was almost immediately hit in the chest by enemy fire and collapsed screaming.

To make matters worse a retreating German soldier turned and shot Alan through the hand and leg.

Growing weak, he was relieved when medics arrived to patch him up. At a field hospital in Bayeux he was operated on and given 14 pints of blood. When he was strong enough to travel he was shipped back to the UK and spent two years in hospital before being discharged with a war disability pension of 12s 6d (60p) a year.

He survived to become a father, grandfather and great grandfather.