Today sees the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. June 6, 1944, was the day of the Allied invasion of Normandy.

Officially codenamed Operation Neptune, it’s better known as D-Day and was the largest seaborne invasion in history,” writes Neil Brandwood.

The operation started the liberation of occupied France from the Nazis and, ultimately, led to victory.

As time passes, there are a decreasing number of Second World War veteran survivors but one of them is 98-year-old Wilf Oldham, also known as Private 1058.

Ironically, and despite being primed for action, his platoon of the Airborne Division missed out on participating in D-Day.

“We were stunned that we couldn’t take part,” said Mr Oldham of Ainsworth Road, Radcliffe, who didn’t wait to be conscripted in the armed services and voluntarily joined-up as a 20-year-old.

He may have missed out on D-Day but the two missions he did take part in were adrenaline packed. One was so significant a film was made about it; the other could not have been more dramatic.

“After joining-up I did my basic training at a holiday camp in Blackpool and decided to volunteer for the airborne forces. They didn’t need me for the parachute troop – that was the glamorous one – so instead I joined a glider battalion. I was a bit nervous because I’d never even been on the top deck of a bus, let alone a plane.”

Glider crews were towed into enemy airspace by a powered plane and then released near their target where the glider would silently land behind enemy lines.

“I was lucky because I was one of the few who didn’t suffer from air-sickness,” said Mr Oldham whose sweetheart at the time, Jessie, went on to become his wife.

His first mission, on July 9, 1943, was to invade Sicily and he was lucky to survive what he describes as “a complete disaster”

“The glider crash landed into the sea. The cockpit was smashed to pieces and one of the pilots was killed.

“After the impact I tried to open the door but the pressure made it impossible.”

“It was the middle of the night and as the plane began filling with water, a quick-thinking officer reached down into the murky depths, grabbed around for his rifle and used its butt to smash an escape hole in the canvas side of the glider.”

The ordeal still wasn’t over and the survivors were floating in the Mediterranean for eight hours.

“Originally there were 14 of us but by the time we were rescued by a ship there was only five of us left,” said Mr Oldham sadly.

His second mission was the famous Battle or Arnhem. It began on July 17, 1944 and was the Allies’ attempt to take the German-controlled Arnhem road bridge which was of huge strategic value.

“It was supposed to take 48 hours but it lasted nine days. It was very intense and the Germans surrounded us in a trench. We didn’t have enough ammunition and we’re told only to fire if we had a guaranteed hit.

“The top brass told us the German troops were third-rate and that they had no tanks. Both of these were wrong and we came under very heavy fire before eventually withdrawing.”

The platoon only had enough rations for two days but didn’t even get to eat those because their backpacks were out of reach.

“There was only rain water to drink and I didn’t eat for ten days. A lot of the others lived off apples that were growing on the trees but I was unlucky because, even as a small child, apples made me sick.”

So what did he think of the 1977 film, A Bridge Too Far which was about the battle?

“It was excellent and very enjoyable,” he said. “By and large it was highly accurate.”

Mr Oldham served in the Airlanding Brigade until the end of the war before returning home to Radcliffe where he worked in the textile industry until his retirement.