WORLD War Two veteran Ossie Wilkinson is preparing to "fight them on the beaches" to stop a D-Day landing vehicle from being scrapped.

The spirited 76-year-old plans to write to Defence Secretary Michael Portillo to save the historic transporter from destruction.

The famous DUKW amphibious vehicle is now used for seaside patrols by the Southport lifeguard, which plans to replace it with a modern dinghy.

Ossie drove a DUKW on to Juno beach, Normandy, in June 1944, and his memories of the Allied invasion came flooding back this summer when on a day trip to Southport he stumbled across a machine identical to the one he drove.

Ossie, of Brownhill Avenue, Burnley, served with 297 Company, the army's special team of soldier-drivers. He told the Citizen: "I drove a DUKW which was carrying ammunition for Canadian tanks. Some of the vehicles were knocked out by bombs, and we came under fire from snipers."

He added: "It was good to see a DUKW still being used to save lives even after all these years. It would be an awful shame if it were scrapped now."

In March 1945 Ossie, still driving a DUKW, crossed the Rhine and by the end of the war he had reached the Baltic. Fifty years passed before the chance encounter at Southport.

His wife, Mary, said: "We were on a day out and we just walking around when we saw the DUKW. So we went into the yard and met the lifeguard, who showed us around and let us climb up on to the DUKW."

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