He’s about to turn 100 – but on VE 80th anniversary day, John Hannan will be recalling the wartime exploits that earned him one of France’s highest military honours.

The Croix de Guerre is given to individuals or units who distinguish themselves by acts of heroism involving combat with the enemy. And thanks to his service aboard Tribal-class destroyer HMS Eskimo, John, of Middlesbrough, is a proud holder of that medal – along with others awarded for his wartime service.

As D-Day approached in 1944, John and his crewmates patrolled the French coast aboard HMS Eskimo to help ensure nothing would interfere with the Normandy landings. And their efforts helped ensure that on June 6, 1944, the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare went ahead.

John turned 19 on May 12, 1944 – less than a month before D-Day. He’ll be celebrating his 100th birthday just four days after this week’s VE Day 80th anniversary celebrations.

But as he sits in his West Lane home, John recalls how he was just happy to be aboard a ship in the Royal Navy – an organisation he’d always longed to join and enrolled in straight after leaving Denmark Street School in 1942.

HMS Eskimo
HMS Eskimo

He said: “I volunteered for the navy because I’d always wanted to be in it and I thought if I kept hanging on, they might put me in the army and down the mines or something! With D-Day, we had an idea what was happening but we were just told to patrol the coast. I only knew it was D-Day afterwards when it came over the wireless.

“We weren’t scared, though – we were all for it. We never really felt we were in danger because we were in a good ship and felt we couldn’t be touched really. We could flash all over and if anybody got in trouble, with our speed, we would be there – but we never really thought anything would happen to us.”

John Hannan as a young man
John Hannan as a young man

After D-Day, one of John’s most memorable moments came when HMS Eskimo cornered the enemy German submarine U-971 while in company with the Canadian destroyer Haida in the English Channel north of Brest on June 24, 1944.

As a torpedoman, John was also responsible for dropping depth charges – and he did so to great effect. He said: “We picked a contact up with something in the water. We investigated and it was a U-boat so we dropped a pattern of five depth charges.

"The Canadian destroyer dropped five too, then we dropped another five – and as we stood on the side, the U-boat came up, they opened the hatch and they all threw themselves in the sea. We picked 46 up and the Canadians picked up six – so a complement of 52 and we picked them all up.”

John Hannan in his youth
John Hannan in his youth

Towards the end of the war, John and crewmates were despatched to South-East Asia aboard a patched-up HMS Eskimo following an accidental collision off the French coast with another destroyer, HMS Javelin. After finishing his navy service in August 1946, he worked as a railway wagon repairer before eventually becoming a postman, which he did for more than 30 years.

Nowadays, he lives independently in his own Middlesbrough home, although his children, Christine and John, also live on Teesside and are in constant contact with their dad. Most Wednesdays, he even enjoys a spot of aerobics at Trinity Methodist Church in sessions run by Middlesbrough Sporting Chance.

D-Day hero John Hannan
D-Day hero John Hannan

And on the day the country commemorates the 80th anniversary of VE Day, May 8, he’s been invited by the Friends of Linthorpe Cemetery to plant a tree there – a place where, he says, he often visits many of his old friends.

He’ll then enjoy a private family party for his 100th birthday on May 12.

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