A D-DAY veteran who lives in York has given a graphic account of his experiences on the Normandy beaches in a new book about the crucial Second World War battle.

Dick Bowen, 78, of Scarcroft Hill, who enlisted with the East Yorkshire Regiment when he was only 15, was one of the first and youngest soldiers to land on Gold Beach on June 6, 1944.

He has now written of what happened that day and afterwards in D-Day: The Battle For Europe, part of the Once Upon A Wartime series of books by historian Molly Burkett.

Dick said the books aimed to report the experiences in battle of ordinary rank and file warriors, breaking with the trend to concentrate on generals, admirals and air marshals, which he believed the young people of today found "boring, boring, boring".

In his book, launched yesterday at a reception held at the Museum of the Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire in Tower Street, Dick tells how he approached the Normandy beach in a landing craft, surrounded by the thunderous noise of naval guns.

"There's no word in the vocabulary that can describe the noise that morning, the whistle and explosions of the shells, the roar of the rockets as they left the rocket ships, the sound of the waves and men shouting through megaphones, planes screaming overhead.

"We didn't talk. Nobody would have heard us against that noise. I wasn't frightened, just very excited. Men around me were being sick and the scuppers were so full of vomit. I don't think I had ever felt so ill in my life."

After landing, he tells how he ran over the sand. "It's strange how one's mind works, because I was thinking of the days I had spent on the beach as a child... The beach was full of action. Men seemed to be running in all directions...Then I saw the corporal signalling for us to make for the sea wall.

"I reached the wall and leaned against it to regain my breath... That was when I realised that some of our men were absent. Looking back, I saw men lying on the sand. That gave me a shock. I hadn't realised we were being shot at. We wouldn't have heard the shots with all that noise."

Once Upon A Wartime: D-Day, is published by Barny Books, of Hough on the Hill, Grantham, Lincs, (01400 250246), and priced at £9.99.

Updated: 10:53 Wednesday, March 24, 2004