In June 1944 these men stormed the beaches of Normandy in order to liberate Europe from Nazi control.
Seventy-two years after that astonishing display of courage, they gathered at Yorkshire Air Museum to receive France’s highest honour.
The Légion d’Honneur medals were handed to 21 veterans at the Yorkshire Air Museum in Elvington on Sunday (May 22).
Ten were from the York area, with the rest coming from elsewhere in the North and East of England.
Jeremy Burton, the French Consul to Yorkshire, and Colonel Bruno Cunat, the MoD’s French liaison officer, presented the medals.
Museum director Ian Reed said:
The French government marked the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings in 2014 by announcing that all allied survivors would receive the Legion d’Honneur.
But frustrating delays followed and York MPs had to step in to ensure the ceremony went ahead.
It was a moving ceremony. At its end, the veterans were given a spontaneous standing ovation from the watching audience.
