I'm so lucky.. I think of those lads often

D-Day veteran Bernard, 100, weeps at the graves of his 3 fallen comrades

- LUCY THORNTON

A D-Day veteran fell silent and wept yesterday as he visited the graves of his three comrades lost 80 years ago.

Hero Bernard Morgan had vowed to pay his respects to his young wireless operators, who died weeks after D-Day on June 6, 1944.

And he kept his word when, in blazing hot sunshine, the 100-yearold visited Ryes cemetery near Bayeux in Normandy.

Summing up the national mood in the week of the 80th anniversary commemorations, he poignantly told the Mirror: "I'm so lucky it wasn't me.

I think of those lads very often." Front-line code breaker Sergeant Morgan had been the youngest RAF sergeant to land in Normandy on D-Day at just 20.

But he has never got over the deaths of his three friends.

Bernard, of Crewe, Cheshire, who was accompanied by his daughter Sheila, said: "Every time I went on duty, I had the same wireless operators with me and I lost all three.

"One was killed by friendly fire, the other two I've just found side-by-side at Ryes Cemetery.