Tributes have been paid to one of Britain’s longest-serving D-Day veterans who has died at the age of 100.
Joe Cattini, who served in the army for five years from 1941, was with the Royal Artillery Hertfordshire Yeomanry regiment on Gold Beach.
The success of the Normandy landings turned the tide of the Second World War in 1944.
Mr Cattini’s granddaughter Sarah Burr announced on social media that her “beloved grandad” passed away on Tuesday night.
She wrote: “A life so well lived. One of the last D-Day Veterans left. We are so proud of him and loved him so much.”
In a response to a well-wisher, Ms Burr added “the past 9 years since D-Day 70 were some of the happiest of his life”.
“From (like most of his generation) never having really talked about his war experiences to sharing them with so many others in recent years was so important to him,” she wrote.
Mr Cattini, from Southampton, had been the Ambassador for the British Normandy Memorial since 2019.
Paying tribute to the veteran, the British Normandy Memorial wrote on Twitter: “The Trust is so sad to learn of the passing of D-Day Veteran and Memorial Ambassador Joe Cattini. Joe died on Tuesday 18 April 2023 just three months after his 100th birthday. We send our deepest condolences to Joe’s children and their families.”
Trustee Nicholas Witchell also paid tribute to Mr Cattini, writing: “Another giant within the Normandy Veteran community has left us.
“We mourn Joe Cattini’s passing and remember the man that he was. I recall the support he gave to me and the memorial project in its earliest months.
“Thank you Joe, for everything, from your service in Normandy, to being the delightful man that you were. You will remain in our hearts. Rest in Peace dear friend.”
UK Defence in France described him as a “Normandy Hero” in its tribute, while Hannah Prowse, the CEO of Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust, said he was “irrepressible, exceptionally generous in his commitment to educating future generations, and an utter liability around pretty women”.
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Mr Cattini was not due to arrive in Normandy until nine days after the invasion began, but arrived on Gold Beach in one of the first waves, according to The Times.
As a squad leader, he dropped off several officers at the docks in Southampton – but then a sergeant caught him and said the driver of an ammunition lorry was needed.
He loaded a lorry onto a transport ship with the 6th and 7th Green Howards and the 1st East Yorks Regiments, which were in the first coastal wave, before leaving for France.
“It was bloody rough. A lot of the boys were sick,” he told the paper in 2019.
“Some of the younger ones were crying for their mums and NCOs and officers were going around and trying to sort them out.”
