A 92-year-old World War Two veteran has said he is ‘proud’ and ‘thrilled’ after receiving a prestigious accolade for his role in the 1944 D-Day landings.
Alan Griffiths, who served in the RAF, received the French military’s Legion d’Honneur medal at a ceremony in Bristol last month.
The Legion d’Honneur is the highest French accolade for military and civil merits. It has been handed out for several years to foreign Allied veterans who served in the Normandy landings to thank them for their service.
Mr Griffiths, who lives in Congresbury with his wife Margaret and is a member of the Wrington Vale Rotary Club, said: “I was very proud and thrilled to receive the award.
“I was very grateful, too, particularly because I served in the Normandy landings as a member of the RAF and I am happy the public will know we were there.”
Mr Griffiths, who has two daughters and three grandchildren, served in the RAF’s radio ground control unit and helped set up a ground radio station, which would locate and track the movements of enemy aircraft. He also edited an RAF newspaper in occupied Germany after the war ended.
He said: “It is hard to describe what invading a foreign country and being met with a hostile reception was like.
“It was a dangerous mission for everybody, but we landed safely.”
