FREDERICK Stebbing won a grant to return to Normandy, but it’s a shame he couldn’t get a grant to recreate the time he invaded his own village.

The 87-year-old Bournemouth resident was awaiting D-Day when he got the chance for a once a lifetime escapade.

His Crusader tank needed a refit in Newmarket then a test drive.

“I said ‘I know just where to take it!” said Mr Stebbing, from Bearwood, with a mischievous grin.

He drove the 12 miles to his home village of Bury St Edmunds and stopped at his family bakery to the amazement of friends and relatives.

“We had a cup of a tea and a bun,” said Mr Stebbing. “We must have used about 10 gallons of petrol.”

He didn’t get the chance to recreate this adventure last month.

But he did get a lottery grant of £875 to revisit the Normandy invasion beaches.

He saw Gold beach, where he landed 10 days after the invasion.

During the battle his anti-aircraft tank did not even fire because the German air force was in such a poor state.

Mr Stebbing later drove a Cromwell tank with a 95mm howitzer during the invasion of Germany.

He was nearly bombed by the new German jets, the Messerschmitt 262s – the British soldiers did not know what they were.

Mr Stebbing memories included the moment an SS soldier surrendered, then shot a British Sergeant who went forward.

“The sergeant had been all the way through the desert war,” said Mr Stebbing.

“His mate in the next tank put a bellyful of Sten gun bullets into the German that did it.”

Mr Stebbing had Dorset and Hampshire connections during the war. He trained at Bovington and waterproofed his tank for the invasion at Milford on Sea.

After the war, he moved to Bournemouth and took up the family trade at LF Kings bakery in Holdenhurst Road.