Idwal Symonds from Caernarfon was part of the Royal Marine Commandos who landed on Juno Beach on D-Day, 75 years ago.

At 95, he still remembers the day, and those leading up to it, clearly.

''The scale of the operation came home to me on the day before D-Day'' Idwal said.

''When I got up in the morning and looked out the Solent and the Spithead running up into Southampton and Portsmouth was packed with boats, packed.''

Idwal remembers seeing rivers packed with boats before D-Day. Credit: Pathé

Idwal landed at Juno Beach Credit: PA

When Idwal and his comrades landed on the beach, they immediately came across an unscalable concrete wall. Left with no other option, the company had to go around the obstacle in the face of intense gunfire. He was only 19.

''The air was humming with bullets'' Idwal said.

Despite the danger, Idwal says he wasn't afraid but focused on achieving his mission.

''I wasn't worried about my life.''

''I accepted there was not much chance of my surviving and when you come to that sort of acceptance you become quite calm.''

''The air was humming with bullets.'' Credit: Pathé

As the fighting continued, Idwal and his company found themselves in a corn field where they were forced to surrender.

Orders from Hitler himself stated that any commandos captured behind enemy lines should be shot.

Idwal argued that they weren't behind enemy lines and therefore the order didn't apply to them. He then faced a terrifying wait, as the Nazi soldiers relayed this back to HQ, to see what his fate would be.

Luckily, his company were given a reprieve.

''The report came back that, as we were not on sabotage raids but on a purely military mission, we should not be shot.''

But Idwal was now a Prisoner of War.

He spent a year in a POW camp in Poland under terrible conditions and with little food. Idwal was 12st when he became a prisoner but by the time he was liberated, he had lost six stone.

In the end, it was a soldier from Wales who liberated him.

''It was a Welsh Guards tank and a chap from Beaumaris, which was only a few miles from my home.''

Despite his ordeal, Idwal wouldn't change a thing about his time at war but hopes future generations don't have to go through the same thing.