Ref. 30719-29THE French Ambassador in London has honoured a Swindon war veteran with France's highest award for bravery.

Veteran Trevor Chirgwin, 78, from Stratton St Margaret was among 36 veterans from across the UK who were awarded the Lgion d'honneur from Grard Errera, the French Ambassador in Lon-don, for his contribution to the liberation of France.

A member of the Landing Craft Association, he said: "I was elated when I heard that I was going to be awarded the medal.

"It was quite an overwhelming feeling.

"The French colonel I spoke to said that no other French medal matters. This is the most important one there is.

"I would never have thought when I was 18 that 60 years later I would be receiving such a medal.

"At the time as we saw the coast of England receding away, we said it might be the last time we ever see home."

He was 18 when he served as motor mechanic in the engine room of Tank Landing Craft LCT 646. He was one of a crew of 12 including two officers.

Mr Chirgwin was one of three engine room crew.

He said: "We came down from Scotland and started taking part in exercises.

One of them was an exercise at Slapton Sands. That night some German E-boats got into the formation and sank two ships and killed between 700 and 800 men.

"We had no idea at the time about what had happened, we heard the explosions, but we thought it was part of the exercise and thought nothing of it. Of course it was all kept hush-hush, because we did not want to tell the Germans they had had a success."

Weeks later on June 4, the flotilla of ships put to sea sailed but rough weather forced Allied commanders to abandon the trip. Returning to port at dawn on June 5, Mr Chirgwin and the 12 crew spent a few hours resting before the flotilla sailed again that evening.

This time, Operation Overlord was given the go-ahead by General Eisen-hower.

"We were carrying American Sherman tanks from the 746th Tank Battalion to Utah Beach, As we arrived after the engineers and the infantry, I went up on deck, but we all kept our heads low.

"I could see the battleships firing, and German's firing from their emplacement and Pointe du Hoc. It's strange that even now I can still smell the air there."

As the tanks were discharged onto the beach, the crew prepared to leave, when they realised that one of the generators had failed, leaving the ship high and dry on the sands of Utah beach.

"We had to stay low and wait for the high tide to get off the beach and return to England. '

"Unfortunately, our captain was a little impatient and on our way home, we struck a merchant ship and managed to limp into Portland early on July 7."

The landing craft had to be scrapped and Mr Chirgwin was transferred to another and spent the rest of the war on routine supply duties, carrying equipment to the beachheads and later the French channel ports, even spending Christmas 1944 in Le Havre.

Mr Chirgwin is today travelling to France to meet up with old friends to commemorate the anniversary.

Anthony Osborne