AFTER the bloodshed of the Normandy landings, thousands of reinforcements swarmed onto mainland Europe, liberating villages, towns and cities across Europe.

In the second part of our D-Day series ANDREW TAYLOR talks to a soldier who was greeted with kisses as he helped liberate Brussels.

AS Geoffrey Arnold and his pals walked back along the promenade to their digs from a night out in Eastbourne, they noticed scores of people all looking out to sea.

And when they looked out to see what was there, they noticed hundreds of little dots on the channel skyline.

They were British ships preparing for the daring D-Day missions.

It was at that moment when the personnel of 153 Field Reg RA Leicester Yeomanry realised that the assault on occupied Europe by British and American troops was imminent.

"I think that's when it hit home to everybody what was going to happen and when everybody started getting a bit nervy," said Geoffrey, who lives with his wife Eveline in Queen Street, Clitheroe.

"We weren't enthralled about it but it is what we were trained for.

"I think the most frightening bit after that was approaching the French coast and you started hearing big bangs and aeroplanes flying over with strange noises coming from them."

Geoffrey's military career had started back in October 1942 when a large intake of 18-year-olds from across Lancashire were brought together at Morecambe station and were billeted at nearby Middleton Towers.

Middleton Towers was a holiday camp but did not feel like it to Geoffrey, who underwent six weeks of intensive training and numerous vaccinations.

Geoffrey, 80, originally from Rochdale, was posted with around 30 other recruits to Frome with the Leicester Yeomanry, part of the Guards Armoured Division.

They were later sent to Yorkshire to change over from "soft" vehicles to tanks and bren carriers, the latter being the vehicle Geoffrey would drive for the assaults on Caen and the liberation of Brussels after they crossed over on D-Day plus 20.

"By then, the front had moved a little and we went a few miles inland to a tiny village and dug ourselves trenches. We stopped there until we were called into action.

"Our first big job was pushing through to Caen as it was being taken. We stood there and watched as the bombers flew over dropping the stuff.

"The wind was blowing our way and after they had gone the dust came over from Caen and enveloped us like a thick fog and we could hardly see anything. After that, we were supporting the Irish Guards and helping with the general push forward. We were involved in the liberation of Brussels, which was amazing. All the population turned out throwing flowers and giving us bottles of wine and we were getting kisses off all the women.

"It made us realise just what we were doing and what it meant to those people."

Geoffrey was also involved in Operation Market Garden, the failed attempt to reach Arnhem, where the Allies were overwhelmed by Nazi German forces.

When the war was over, Geoffrey was posted close to the Danish border.

And in late March 1945 he was given seven days leave to marry Eveline, who he had met in 1941, in Rochdale before returning to Europe on April 4. He was finally 'demobbed' in 1946.

Geoffrey, who has two daughters and three grandsons, still looks back on his military days with great pride. He said: "When you talk about best friends during that time, you really mean it because we were together 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. The comradeship was unbelievable."

When Geoffrey returned, he managed the Shireburn Caravan Park for seven years and also managed Dawsons Ironmongers, in Clitheroe, until his retirement.