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Heroic Ken Watts and more than 40 members of Islington Veterans’ Association have enjoyed a free slap-up meal to celebrate 70 years since VE Day.

It’s no less than Mr Watts, 90, deserves – as a D-Day veteran he stormed the beaches of Normandy and was nearly ripped to shreds weeks later when a mortar exploded two feet above his head.

Sitting in his home in Lofting Road, Barnsbury, clutching a newspaper clipping, Mr Watts pointed out D-Day veterans he knew who have passed away and recalled the day in June 1944 when they faced enemy guns lining the beaches of Normandy.

“The Germans were shooting at us,” he said. “We were up to our chests in water and we had to wade to the shore, rifles above our heads.

“I had never seen a dead person until that day. I remember a sergeant standing two feet away from us saying: ‘They [the Germans] are there’, and those were the last words he spoke. We always shot first after that.”

Born in Camden, Mr Watts moved to Islington aged 10 and later worked at a taxi garage at King’s Cross.

He was called up in 1943, aged 19, later joining the 2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment.

At the end of June 1944, a mortar exploded in a tree above his head. It tore his uniform to pieces and lacerated his hand. He recovered in Scotland before returning to Europe before Armistice Day.

Mr Watts has since visited the beaches of Normandy many times. “I always shed a few tears,” he said. But whereas in years past coaches full of veterans would travel to Normandy, now just a handful are able to make the journey.

The veterans enjoyed their get-together at the Assembly Rooms, in Islington Town Hall, on Friday, with pubs in Angel providing food and drink.

“It gets people together, doesn’t it?” said Mr Watts, who is married to Eileen, 84. “We are a self-supporting association and it’s good that people are willing to contribute.”

The Radicals and Victuallers and The Bull cooked lunch, The Old Red Lion supplied the wine, The Brewhouse and Kitchen donated a barrel of craft beer and Slim Jim’s Bar gave soft drinks.

Councillor Gary Poole, who came up with the idea for the meal, praised the pubs’ “wonderful and generous support”.

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