A resourceful Aberdeen driver was tasked with safely getting a military chief on to the Normandy beaches on D-Day, and used sticky tape to help his cause.
John Johnstone, from Inverurie, joined the Gordon Highlanders in 1939 at the age of 19, before eventually being assigned as a driver for Major General Douglas Alexander Henry Graham.
Come 1944 – and on his 24th birthday – Private Johnstone was ordered to safely land the general’s car on the beaches of Normandy.
Forced to think on his feet, John used green adhesive tape to waterproof the Humber Snipe, as well as weighing it down with sandbags to ensure it didn’t float off and fitting temporary air-intake and exhaust pipes.
When he took the car off the craft, Pte Johnstone reported the water was halfway up the windscreen.
Following the fighting in Normandy he was sent to Norway, where he was part of a force which liberated the mansion of Vidkun Quisling, head of the Nazi occupation.
Pte Johnstone was demobbed in 1946, after serving his country for nearly seven years, and returned to life as a plumber in Inverurie before moving on to work for the water board and retiring in 1985.
In 2016, he was the recipient of the highest honour which can be bestowed by the French Government, the Legion d’Honneur.
Mr Johnstone died just two months ago, aged 98, and was given full honours by the Gordon Highlanders at his funeral, with his casket draped in the regimental flag and his Glengarry placed on top.
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