One of the last surviving soldiers from the first wave of the D-Day invasion of Omaha Beach has died at his home in North Carolina, he was 100 years old and was still meeting friends and family right up to his death on April 9.

Staff Sgt. Ray Lambert was stationed in Bridport from November 1943 to June 1944. He was a medic in the Medical Detachment to the 2nd Battalion of the 16th Regiment and the 1st Division. The medical detachment was housed in the Literary and Scientific Institute in East Street and houses in Barrack Street, while the mess hall was Allington Court, on the roundabout going into North Allington.

Ray Lambert, originally from Alabama, volunteered to join the army, doing his training at Fort Benning, where he was joined by his brother Euel. Ray was put into the Medical Detachment of the 16th Infantry Regiment, as he had had some experience as a veterinary assistant. His job was to assist wounded personnel before they were forwarded for more treatment. With the 1st Division he saw action in North Africa and Sicily, where he was awarded three Purple Hearts and two Silver Stars, and he was only 23 years old.

Ray talks about his time in Bridport in his book 'Every Man a Hero' published in 2019 in time for the 75th anniversary. He says work was light compared with what they had gone through in Sicily, they did a course to become dental assistants.

Bill, his brother, was stationed in G Company in Walditch so they saw each other a lot and went on trips to London. He made friends with a local baker who kept them supplied with bread and invited him home for dinner. Many dated English girls, not just wartime flings, with about 80 marriages taking place in the 1st Division in Dorset alone. Local girls married GI's during May 1944, with one marriage taking place in Bridport on June 1, only for him to be killed on Omaha beach.

'We went out on marches, building up endurance and strength. Fifty miles with the battalion, 25 out, 25 back, camping overnight along the way.'

Things speeded up a bit in the spring of 1944.

On March 11 they travelled to Slapton Sands practising full-scale assaults on the beach: rope ladders, landing craft, live fire. The medics lugged packs and medical bags as they sprinted from the landing craft, ducking the mock gunfire like the infantry, then racing to treat the wounded. It was a refresher course for all those who had been in Sicily and a reminder of what it was like to hit a hostile beach.

'Medics were part infantry and part medical department, the point of intersection for both. On the ground with the infantry, we fit in at the company and battalion level, working directly with the men on the front line. At the same time, we were the forward part of a much larger team. And that team was working as hard as we were to get ready for the invasion.

Anticipating large casualties not only on D-Day but in the weeks to follow the medical department ramped up the normal system of treating the wounded getting them off the battlefield and into hospitals. When someone was hurt, his company medic would treat him: if the injury was bad enough, stretcher bearers would take him to a battalion aid station very close to the front line. There they would be evaluated and treated.

'Everyone knew the invasion was imminent and on May 19, General Huebner talked to the 1st Division that things were about to happen and we would be spearheading it. Medics were issued a second med kit to take with them on the landing.'

Ray recalls leaving Bridport on May 17 and being quarantined somewhere between Bridport and Weymouth, no one could leave, and no one who was not part of the unit could not enter without special permission. He saw estimates of the number of casualties they would have to deal with, numbers were high about 15 per cent was the average. This was going to be the most difficult battle they had seen.

All the 2nd Battalion boarded the USS Henrico in Weymouth on June 4, expecting to land the next day, but the weather moved it to June 6. While onboard Ray and his brother Bill were able to talk about family, when it was time to go, there were no hugs, just a handshake. The troopship anchored about 10 miles off the Normandy coast, at the appointed time they would transfer to the landing craft and hit the beach.

The 16th Regiment was part of the first wave. Ray would be on one of the first landing craft in the first wave of the assault. He was helping a wounded soldier in the heavy surf when a landing craft ramp dropped on him, pushing him to the bottom.

At the 75th Anniversary in May 2019, President Trump signalled Ray Lambert out as a hero. Donald Trump told a hushed crowd at the American Cemetery overlooking the beach, 'They came to the sector, right here below us,' Trump continued as Lambert sat behind him, his favourite purple 'D-Day Survivor' cap on his head. 'Again and again, Ray ran back into the water. He dragged out one man after another. He was shot through the arm. His leg was ripped open by shrapnel. His back was broken. He nearly drowned'. At the end of his speech, Trump turned to face Lambert. 'Ray', he said, 'The free world salutes you'.

That morning of June 6, bullets whizzed and mortar rounds splashed around him, he scanned the beach for something, anything behind which he could safely treat the wounded. He spotted a lump of leftover German concrete, about eight feet wide and four feet high. It was his salvation. A plaque installed in 2018 now recognizes it as 'Ray's Rock'.

Only seven of Ray's landing craft survived. He was shipped back to Weymouth to the 50th Field Hospital, later transferred to the 110th General Hospital in Cheltenham where he stayed until January 1945, when he boarded the Queen Mary to sail to New York. He then went to hospitals in Georgia and Florida and was finally discharged from the army in June 1945.

For many years, like so many others, he just got on with his life, but with age and the passing of his fellow veterans he felt he had to share his story. 'I did what I was called to do' he wrote in his book, 'Every Man a Hero' published shortly before the 75th Anniversary. 'As a combat medic, my job was to save people, and to lead others who did the same. I am proud of that job and remain so. But I was always an ordinary man. Not one who liked being at the head of the parade….' 'My job now is to remember, not for my sake, but for the sake of others'.

'When I go back to the beeches at Omaha, I remember all my friends that were killed there and look at the Channel and the water is rough, I, it seems at times that I can hear voices.'

Ray had requested that his ashes be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and that some be scattered on Omaha Beach. It is believed that Ray was the last surviving member of the 'Big Red One' 1st Division, to have fought in all three Theatres of War, North Africa, Sicily and Normandy.