The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Modest Normandy Landings veteran Tony Blackman says he is “surprised” at the level of ceremony as he receives France’s highest order for military merit.
The Weston 91-year-old will be presented with the Légion d’Honneur at a service at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire on Saturday, June 18.
Tony has been invited by the Colonel Commandant of The Parachute Regiment, and will receive the honour from the French Honorary Consul.
He was in the Devonshire Regiment 6th airborne division 12th battalion during the liberation of France in World War Two. He landed at Sword Beach on what is known as D-Day +1 in June 1944.
Tony said: “We should have gone in by glider, but unfortunately they had ran out of gliders!
“We went in by sea. We were ten hours in a flat-bottomed boat and to be honest by the time we got there we couldn’t have cared less.
“We should have gone to Caen to split them (the Germans) and keep them apart. Unfortunately I was only there for seven weeks before I was hit by shrapnel in my leg and injured.
“I was in a slit trench when a 3” mortar hit the top of the trees and I was underneath it.”
He added: “The Germans had done that brilliantly.”
Tony was wounded on a Friday and came back to England in a Dakota on the following Monday. The dressing hadn’t been changed in that time and surgeons had to cut away a large part of his leg because he had gas gangrene.
His condition was so bad that he was never able to rejoin his battalion.
Now, Tony’s bravery is to be officially acknowledged by the French government. His wife Rita (79) will accompany him to this month’s service.
Tony said: “It’s great but I’m surprised at just how big this thing is.”
Spalding’s Tom Fowler and Bernard Hale, of Fleet, have also been awarded the honour in recent months.
