Yorkshire Normandy veterans receive France’s highest honour

For years many simply did not speak of the devastation they had seen, preferring to just get on with the job in hand and cope as best they could. But in accordance with the French Government’s wish to recognise those who played such a vital role in their country’s liberation, the sacrifice and bravery of six Yorkshire veterans all now in their 90s will be forever remembered as they were today awarded France’s highest honour the Légion d’Honneur.

Their chests lined with medals each of the five Second World War veterans proudly accepted the honour, while Catherine Rush, the widow of Bernard Rush, received the medal on her late husband’s behalf. Not far from all their thoughts were their comrades who had perished and not returned home to loved ones.

Madame Sylvie Bermann, French Ambassador to Great Britain, was at the Allied Air Forces Memorial and Yorkshire Air Museum, at Elvington, near York, to confer the honour.

“All particularly distinguished themselves in fighting to liberate France,” she said of the six.

“As Churchill said never in the history of mankind have so many owed so much to so few,” she added.

Those who received the honour were: Gerry Briscoe, 94, from Bradford, Gordon Collinson, 92, from York, James Denwood, 97 from Mexborough, Eric Gill, 99, from Edlington, Doncaster, and Thomas Wright, 91, from York.

Honours were awarded in accordance with the French Government’s wish to recognise those who played such a vital role in the liberation of France which finally brought an end to World War Two.

The museum, which, as RAF Elvington, was the home of the only two French Squadrons within the RAF Bomber Command, 346 Guyenne and 347 Tunisie, both of which played a vital role in the D-Day invasion campaign, bombing coastal defences in their own country on the night of June 5 1944 to secure the Normandy beachhead for Allied troops landing the following morning.

Yesterday veterans, together with their loved ones who attended the service, recalled the conflict and spoke of their pride at receiving the honour.

“You just had to get on with it,” Mr Denwood, a sapper with the Royal Engineers said.

Mr Briscoe, also a sapper with the Royal Engineers, was just 19 when he landed on Gold Beach. His vivid recollections of events show the lottery of war.

“The first lad jumped out and the boat went straight over him. He drowned straight away, I should have been the first one out,” Mr Briscoe remembers.

Mrs Rush, who lives near Keighley, said her late husband, a petty officer in the Royal Navy, in common with many others, did not speak about the war until his later years.

Then he told her of the emotion of watching them clear bodies from the beach. “He said it was heartbreaking watching them but he said you did not have time to think you just had to get on with what you had to do.”

“I feel so proud. He would have been over the moon,” Mrs Rush said of her husband.