As a band of British paras watched fascinated, the solitary German advanced. Someone pushed a Lee-Enfield rifle into the hands of 26-year-old Lieutenant .

He, too, climbed out of the trench and awaited the foe. But if the Nazi had some bizarre, noble duel in mind, Stan "Jev" Jeavons certainly had not. After weeks in the killing fields of Normandy in June 1944, he had no illusions of needless gallantry.

"This bloke seemed to be thinking of a bayonet fight," recalls the old Para at his home in Bilston. "It was the last thing I had in mind. When he got within a few yards, I shot him dead."

He says he never felt any guilt, never suffered any nightmares. And until this long chat, he never told anyone of his remarkable part in D-Day.

Stan Jeavons grew up in Coseley, an ordinary working-class Black Country lad who became an officer in the immortal Sixth Airborne Division. He may well have been the first British officer to parachute into Normandy as D-Day, June 6, 1944, unfolded.

The official record shows that advance parties of two Para brigades landed at 20 minutes after midnight on June 6. Lt Jeavons, serving with the Parachute Regiment's 13th Battalion, was among them.

By the end of The Longest Day, a vast British and American army had seized a foothold in Nazi-occupied France. But for scattered British paras the first few hours of D-Day gave little cause for optimism.

Lt Jeavons made an "uneventful" landing beside a railway line and rallied his platoon near the village of Ranville. As they gathered in the darkness, an uncomfortable truth dawned.

At 87, recovering from a stroke, he tells his tale in robust language and the most momentous night of the 20th century comes vividly alive. He smiles as he remembers clearly his first words to his lads: "Look around. There's no other buggers here but us."

He says: "It was terribly exciting to realise, deep down, that we were on our bloody own. We were so isolated I seriously thought the invasion had been cancelled."

Years later a senior officer told him that he and his men were dropped as a diversion, designed to draw German forces away from the main glider and parachute landing zones.

If so, they succeeded. From the moment they hit the ground the 13th Battalion drew fire. Through the next day they fought off three ferocious German attacks on Ranville.

As the Germans threw guns and tanks against the invaders, the lightly armed Paras fought almost to exhaustion.

His batman was buried alive and suffocated. Losing blood from leg wounds, Lt Jeavons slipped into a coma and awoke days later in a military hospital in Britain. His army days were over.

Back home he slipped into civvy street, raised a family and worked for more than 30 years at Rubery Owen in Darlaston.

Before the invasion in 1944 he was told his mission was top secret. So he never discussed it with his wife, friends or family. While others felt free to talk of their D-Day memories, he kept quiet.

He had no contact with his old regiment, has never been back to Normandy and accepts he is now too frail to go. He began attending Parachute Regiment reunions only a few years ago.

Stan Jeavons is one of only a handful of survivors from the lads who dropped in at Ranville on that squally night 61 years ago.

His proudest possession today is not his medals but his Commanding Officer's letter confirming that "This most brilliant officer was the first officer to land by parachute in France."