Highest honour for D-Day hero

France salutes veteran of Normany landings

A HERO of the 1944 D-Day landings in Normandy has received the highest honour France can bestow.

Bob Pullin, who lives in Hungerford High Street, has been appointed to the rank of Chevalier – the highest category – in the Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur.

The order is the highest decoration in France and was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802.

The Government of France has said it wishes to recognise the selfless acts of heroism and determination displayed by all surviving veterans of the Normandy landings, and of the wider campaigns to liberate France in 1944, by awarding them with the Legion d’Honneur.

Mr Pullin received his medal from the French ambassador to Britain, Sylvie Bermann, on behalf of the President of France, Francois Hollande.

She wrote: “I offer you my warmest congratulations on this high honour in recognition of your acknowledged military engagement and your steadfast involvement in the liberation of France during the Second World War under Gen George Patton’s command.

“As we contemplate this Europe of peace, we must never forget the heroes of June 1944 like you – those men who came across the Atlantic, the Channel, the Mediterranean and the Pacific to begin the liberation of Europe by liberating France.”

Ms Bermann added: “We owe our freedom and security largely to your dedication, because you were ready to risk your lives.”

In his written recollections of the D-Day landings and their aftermath, Mr Pullin describes facing German machine guns and administering morphine to colleagues and friends who were wounded, some of them terminally.

He also recalled the boat descending from the crest of high waves into a pit so deep he thought it would never emerge.

Sadly Mr Pullin is currently unwell, recuperating in hospital following a stroke.

His son Richard, who also lives in Hungerford, said the family was extremely proud of Mr Pullin and had told him of the honour.