Not many men can claim to have seen their own grave and lived to tell the tale, but Alf Harrison is one of them.
The 91-year-old, of Brentford, was among the first soldiers to land on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, 70 years ago today.
He joined other veterans at Morrisons, in Brentford High Street, today, where supermarket staff presented him with a food hamper in honour of his role in liberating France.
Mr Harrison will never forget the moment he and his comrades in the Second Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment received their orders to head for Sword Beach, after two hours spent waiting in a small landing craft.
As they advanced amid a hail of German shells, with Allied fire whizzing back over their heads, many never reached dry land.
"Several of our boys drowned before getting ashore. We had studded boots and you couldn't run through wet sand in them, so people were drowning in the shallow water," he said.
"Once you reached land you had to run like bloody hell. You had the Germans firing and our ships firing back. The noise was immense. It was every man for himself. The quicker you got off the beach the better."
Mr Harrison signed up at the outbreak of war in 1939 but did not see battle until June 6, 1944, a day for which he had spent the best part of five years preparing.
After landing, Mr Harrison made his way through France and on into Germany, where he celebrated VE Day.
With the war in Europe over, any hopes of a reunion with family and friends back home were dashed when they set sail instead for Palestine, where he served until 1948.
After struggling to find a job when he was eventually demobbed, he re-enlisted, serving with the Duke of Wellington's Regiment in the Korean War. He left the Army for good in 1954, having reached the rank of corporal, and went on to work as a builder and farm hand.
Having grown up on the south side of Brentford High Street, Mr Harrison, who never married, still lives just a stone's throw away at Lambert Lodge, in Layton Road.
It was many years after leaving the Army that he received the shock of his life when visiting the war cemetery in Ranville, the first village in France to be liberated.
"I couldn't believe it when I saw a headstone with the name 'A Harrison' on it. It turned out they'd got the numbers (on one of the dog tags) mixed up and thought it was me who'd died," he said.
At Morrisons this afternoon, he was swarmed by shoppers of all ages wanting to show their gratitude for his wartime heroics.
One woman, whose son is out in Afghanistan, told him 'God bless you for risking your life for all of us', while another customer put it succinctly 'respect'.
Labour councillors Ruth Cadbury and Lynn Green were among those at the store today to pay their respects to Mr Harrison and other veterans as people across the country remembered those who had made the ultimate sacrifice.
Ted Baverstock, who grew up in Chiswick and now lives in Hanwell, didn't see action during the Second World War but still played a vital role in the Allied effort.
The 85-year-old worked as a mechanic at Hudson Motors, at what is now the Chiswick flyover, helping to turn out military vehicle and gun carriages for heavy artillery.
He was also a messenger for the Air Raid Precautions (ARP), helping rescue people from buildings after the many bombings in the area.
His house in Church Path, Acton, was among those battered by German bombs.
"I came home to find my house had been flattened. I was up all night but I still had to be at work for 7.30am the next morning. If you were a minute late clocking in you would get booed by the other workers," he said.
Mr Baverstock went on to serve in the RAF, with the Lancaster Squadron, from 1947-49, before working as an engineer and electrician for the North Thames Gas Board, on the site of what is now Watermans Arts Centre.
Asked why we must never forget the debt owed to those who served in the two world wars, he said: "It's important to remember and teach schoolchildren about the sacrfices made by so many servicemen so this country could be free and democratic."
