A WAR hero who survived a sickening hammer attack exactly a year ago today (Thursday) has been chosen to get Christmas underway in Taunton.

D-Day veteran Jim Booth, 97, who suffered life-threatening injuries in the vicious unprovoked attack in his home, has been chosen to switch on the festive lights in the town centre this weekend.

Mr Booth will be picked up from his home and driven to The Parade, where he will be the star of the show when he pushes the plunger at 6.30pm on Sunday to herald a sparkling evening.

He was chosen by a public vote for a community hero to carry out the honours on the night, Taunton's first Christmas switch on since 2015.

Thousands of people are expected to attend the Winterfest event.

Mr Booth has made a remarkable recovery since Joseph Isaacs, 41, of no fixed abode launched the attack on November 22 last year that shocked and angered the community.

Isaacs was later jailed for 16 years with a four-year extension after a jury at Taunton Crown Court found him guilty of attempted murder.

Mr Booth is the last surviving member of a Second World War secret underwater mission ahead of the D-Day landings in June 1944.

He was part of a ten-strong crack team of ten who spent five days camped in a submarine half a mile underwater before the invasion of Normandy that led to the end of the conflict.

Their mission was to guide Allied landing craft to Sword beach to prevent them drifting onto jagged rocks.

They spied on Nazi troops across the shorelines before shining beacons across the sea to guide Allied forces across the treacherous rocks.

Mr Booth was awarded the Croix de Guerre French military medal, and was part of the Combined Operations Pilotage and Reconnaissance Parties honoured with a granite memorial donated by Prince Charles on Hayling Island, Hampshire.