An Orpington D-Day veteran has recalled the moment a fellow sailor rescued him from the sea after his ship exploded.

Harry Card, of Tubbenden Lane, was dragged from the sea after his ship, HMS Swift, was blown in two by an oyster mine on June 24 1944.

Mr Card, 88, who served aboard HMS Swift as an Able Seaman Gunner, was separated from his rescuer, Harry "Buzz" Brown, when he was taken to hospital.

They did not see each other again until 60 years later when they recognised one another on a veterans’ trip to France.

Mr Card, who grew up in Beckenham, told News Shopper: "I remember him pulling me up onto the landing craft when the ship had just blown.

"I was fairly cut up. I was smothered in oil and they gave me a bar of chocolate and I was sitting on the deck crying my eyes out. I was frightened.

"They just cleaned me up the best they could. I landed at Portsmouth and finished up on a military train, which stopped at Orpington hospital.

"They gave me a bath and put me to bed. Chicken supreme they gave me, I’ll never forget it. I hadn’t had a hot meal for three weeks."

Mr Card, who has two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, joined the Royal Navy when he was just 17.

After he left the armed forces, he settled in Beckenham with his wife Phyllis before moving to Orpington. They raised three children.

Granddaughter, Natalie Morris, of Victor Road in Penge, said Mr Card dedicates a lot of his time to paying his respects to other veterans travelling to Belgium, Holland and Normandy.

The 30-year-old said: "Since my nan died, he’s picked himself back up and visits all these places. He’s heavily involved with veterans organisations. It’s given him chance to have another life.

"I am just so proud of him. When we see him on Remembrance Sunday, we feel such a lump in our throats and we get so emotional."

Mr Card said: "Every opportunity I get, I go across and pay homage to the other fellas that I lost. The people I met there are still so vivid in my mind.

"It’s something that happens to you that you can’t take away. I was only a very small part of it but I did what I had to do and I’d do it again."