Listening to Ted Owens, one can’t help feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude for everything he endured after landing on Sword Beach on June 6, 1944.

“It was hard and it was frightening,” he says in his keen south Pembrokeshire accent.

“I was a sniper with the Royal Marine Commandos.

“I carried a Lee Enfield 1914 with a 10x6 telescopic site and the men I could see were 75 yards away from me.

Western Telegraph: The handsome Pembroke Dock Royal Marine sniper, Ted OwensThe handsome Pembroke Dock Royal Marine sniper, Ted Owens

“But they must have picked me out because they sent over five mortar shells. I tried to hide behind a blown-up tank but the mortars exploded on my left side with 14 pieces of metal going into me in little bits.

“They laid me out on the beach, paralysed, but I could hear everything that was going on. I heard a voice saying ‘The poor blighter’s had it’ but I kept on going.

“They checked me over and parcelled me up with a label which I’ve still got today and I spent two and half months in hospital.”

Listen to Ted explain in a video, captured this afternoon, of how if he had his time all over again, he would proudly return to life in the Armed Forces.

Upon recovery, the Pembroke Dock hero returned to his unit and swiftly set off through France, Belgium and Holland before later fighting in Dunkirk.

Ted was wounded on three separate occasions, including by a piece of bullet which entered his windpipe.

Western Telegraph: War hero, Ted OwensWar hero, Ted Owens

“And it’s still here today,” he chuckles. “But it doesn’t cause me much bother because as long as I chew my food carefully, I’m fine.

"I never grumble because life is too sweet. If you make a mistake, always laugh it off. At the end of the day, I’ve been a very lucky man”.

This afternoon (Friday, August 12), Ted celebrated his 98th birthday in radiant sunshine, surrounded by military veterans and friends at the VC Gallery, Pembroke Dock.