Edward “Eddie” Grimes – one of the few surviving D-Day veterans – has died aged 98.
Eddie was in the Royal Navy.
He shipped 35 tonnes of dynamite and helped troops land on Omaha beach during the WWII Allied invasion of Europe.
Eddie was born in 1925 joined the Royal Navy in 1943.
He was one of a five-strong crew on a landing barge that set off from Poole on June 4, 1944.
They carried TNT and a bulldozer to land at Omaha beach on D-Day – June 6th.
He stayed on the front line until Christmas Eve 1944.
Recounting the day Eddie said:
“I was off Omaha Beach on D-Day and 3,000 men died there before noon alone.
“The ramp would drop onto half-submerged bodies; it was quite something…quite something.”
Stepen Spielberg’s film Saving Private Ryan captured the fire and fury of the landings.
Many veterans have said was a realistic representation of what it was like.
After he’d left the Navy at the end of the war, Eddie worked in a mill in Battersea, London.
He later helped his parents build their dream bungalow and then became a self-employed bricklayer until his retirement at the age of 60.
In 2017, he was one of two men from Dorset presented with the Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion D’Honneur in recognition of his part in the liberation of France.
He said at the time:
“I am hugely honoured to be presented with this medal.
“I feel that we both are receiving it on behalf of all of those who didn’t make it back.”
His family said:
“Eddie leaves behind four children and 16 grandchildren as well as a legacy of service to his family, his country, and the veteran community.”
.
