‘D Day Dodger’ shares World War Two battle memories

Matt still has razor-sharp memories of the battles he fought, and the comrades he lost.

He fled agricultural service in Kilmarnock as a teenager to get to Glasgow to enlist as an infantryman before ending up “right in the forefront” of the battle for Monte Cassino.

Advancing up the slopes amid the fog of deadly artillery bomb blasts and the continual crackle of gunfire, the soldier saw many of his comrades fall.

But, he said, there was no time to be frightened.

“You don’t look upon it as bravery, you just look at it as part of your life,” he told the BBC.

“When the officers told you to advance, that was what you had to do.

“Every battle is the same. You get pounded to death, whether it was Normandy, Burma or anywhere.”