FAMILY and former comrades paid their final respects at the funeral service for Major John Howard, the D-Day hero who led the crucial assault on Pegasus Bridge.

About 200 veterans, friends and serving soldiers joined the family for yesterday's hour-long service at the Royal Garrison Church, Aldershot, Hampshire.

The coffin, draped in a Union Flag with Major Howard's maroon beret and medals on top, was carried into church by six pallbearers from the 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment. During the service, his daughter, Penny Bates, 55, read Anthem for Doomed Youth by First World War poet Wilfred Owen.

Major Howard, who settled in Burcot, near Berinsfield, after the war with his wife Joy, returned to Pegasus Bridge every June 6 to lay a wreath.

Col Todd Sweeney, 79, who served with Howard in the daring assault on June 6, 1944, paid tribute to his comrade, saying: "Somehow or other I thought John was indestructible. I have seen him escape death so many times. He came from the bottom and rose to become one of the greatest warriors of all time.

"His operation was the only one that went perfectly on D-Day. He was one of the few men to change history."

Col Sweeney, a 25-year-old lieutenant when Howard's unit secured two vital bridges in Normandy, said Howard led his men by example. He said: "He was a hard man but a kind man. He wouldn't ask anyone to do anything he was not prepared to do himself. He led by example.

"He just had that magic touch that impressed his superiors who decided he was the man to carry out this vital, vital operation. Of all the things that happened on D-Day, this was the faultless operation, and we may say that this was due to the brilliance of John Howard."

A bugler from the Light Infantry played the Last Post before the coffin was carried from the church.

A private cremation later took place at Aldershot Crematorium.

Story date: Friday 14 May

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