IT WAS  a family tradition for members of Theodore Dalgleish's family to serve with the Kings Own Scottish Borderers. So when his call-up papers came in April 1943, he was glad to join them.

He and other soldiers of the Sixth Battalion landed on the Normandy beaches on June 14 1944. "We landed in water up to our waist," he said. "One man was drowned. He went under with all his equipment and couldn't get up again."

The KOSBs were to be involved in the break-out from the tight perimeter held by the invasion troops. Theodore was switched to the intelligence section at Battalion headquarters, a move that pleased him a great deal.

"The day before the breakout the intelligence section was instructed to make contact with the unit holding the front line," he said. "They weren't very friendly because every time somebody moved it brought down a salvo from the enemy.

"On the way back some of the men went inside a house that was there, just to have a look. We were walking away when a salvo of shells landed on it. The house completely vanished.

"We went a bit further and a Messerschmitt 109 came over blasting away with his gun. We could clearly see the pilot. That was our first sight of the enemy."

The breakout began at 7.30 am the following day with a rolling artillery barrage. Theodore's section waded through a cornfield, sitting ducks for hidden German snipers.

"After crossing the Odon River - nothing more than a stream - we could hear a German calling for help," said Theodore. "He'd been wounded and one of our officers crawled forward and gave him some water.

"While he was doing that another German shot him through the mouth. Our officer managed to crawl back and survived, but we plastered the area after that."

Soon after that came the battle for Hill 113, sister to the notorious Hill 112 of which so much has been written.

"We were on this field for days and the Germans were blasting away with everything they'd got," he said. "I saw a platoon of Royal Welsh Fusiliers, about 30 men, wiped out just like that. 

"I was on observation duty. You note down everything, even a dog because it could be trained to carry messages. If you see puffs of smoke you assume it's an enemy position and you note it down and take a bearing." 

Eventually the KOSBs were relieved and walked back down a road away from the action, or so they thought. The Germans opened up on them with mortar fire.

"I saw a flash and the next thing I knew I was being swept off my feet. I couldn't get up. It was too painful. Eventually I heard voices talking a foreign language. It turned out to be Welsh Fusiliers. They picked us up and carried us down the road with shells and mortars exploding all around."

Eventually he was put in an ambulance but that wasn't the end of his difficulties. The vehicle ran into a bomb hole tipping a man out of the top bunk onto another lying on the floor.

At last they reached a field hospital at Bayeux where Theodore was found to have a big hole in his thigh. Before long he was back on a landing craft, this time headed for England.