World War Two veteran Tom Fowler will take his place in remembrance events this week having just been awarded France’s highest decoration.
The Spalding 96-year-old has received the Légion d’honneur, an award established by Napoleon in 1802 to recognise individual merit.
Sylvie Bermann, the French ambassador to the UK, told Tom: “As we contemplate this Europe of peace, we must never forget the heroes like you who came from Britain and the Commonwealth to begin the liberation of Europe by liberating France.
“We owe our freedom and security to your dedication because you were ready to risk your life.”
Like many involved in the D-Day operation in 1944, Tom knew nothing of the planned invasion before being plunged into battle.
His landing craft left Newport and arrived in Normandy on June 10.
One of many soldiers with bicycles strapped to their back, Tom said: “The idea, we found out afterwards, was that we were going to follow the tanks from Caen, but Caen hadn’t fallen [to the Allies].”
Instead Tom and his colleagues took over trenches at a nearby village. Quickly the order came to retreat 500 yards and British aircraft bombed the area.
“When they had finished we went back and sorted out the few Germans left,” Tom recalls.
But coming under fire from six-barrel mortars took its toll on Tom and he was given a role at a prisoner of war camp near Bayeux until being demobbed in 1950.
Having joined the 4th battalion Lincolnshire Regiment as a 20-year-old in 1939, he also served in Norway and Iceland.
Spalding-born Tom recognises his family’s good fortune that he and late brothers Horace, Jack and Albert all survived the war.
He said of the Légion d’honneur award: “It’s the most wonderful present that the French could have given. I never thought I’d be entitled to one.
“Nothing could have thanked us more.”
Weather permitting, Tom, who lives with his wife Gwen in Wygate Road, will be part of the Spalding remembrance service in Ayscoughfee Gardens on Sunday and is also due to attend the annual service at Weston St Mary’s Parish Church.
