THERE was cause for celebration as it was announced at the December meeting of Bude Royal Naval Association that one of their ‘shipmates’, Alan Litchfield, had finally received his Légion d’Honneur medal.

He received the medal for services rendered during World War Two. On the evening of Tuesday, June 6, 1944 at around 6pm, Alan and the rest of the relief crew landed on the beaches in Normandy.

He was coxswain of a landing craft and as part of his role he had to ferry general stores ashore and collect broken landing craft gear and parts -— these could then be taken back for repair.

Alan told the Post that when he landed it all seemed ‘strangely quiet’ even though the Germans were ‘still shelling us’.

This may possibly have been the calm before the storm as just hours later, at around 8pm, there were reports that Germany staged an attack in order to push the troops back. Alan was not part of this but he said the attempted attack soon fizzled out.

On June 27, three weeks after D-Day, Alan was hit by a piece of shrapnel and left the field invalided, resulting in being sent home from active duty.

His involvement in the D-Day landings has earned him the Légion d’Honneur, after more than 70 years since the event.

Members of Bude Royal Naval Association gave a round of applause at their meeting and announced they intend, at a future date, to combine him with other North Devon RMA recipients at RMB Chivenor for a formal presentation.