Shropshire war veteran Bill, 90, honoured for role in D-Day landings

As dawn broke out over the Normandy coast, 19-year-old Bill Weaver drove his amphibious vehicle slowly down the ramp of a ship amid an explosion of flashbulbs.

"Through the doors we could see the French coast and the great array of ships of every size and shape around us," he says.

"The Press started to gather, cameras were flashing as we moved down the ramp. There were so many cameras, and so much noise, you didn't know where you were. I've never seen a photograph that was taken.

"As we got nearer the shore the shells and bullets started to come our way but by this time we were too busy trying to avoid the mined hedgehog shore defences which began to appear between the rollers."

That was D-Day. Now, more than 71 years later, Bill's role in liberating the French from the tyranny of Hitler's rule has finally been recognised by the French government.

Bill, now 90 and living in Shawbirch, Telford, has been awarded the Légion d'honneur for his role in the D-Day landings of June 6, 1994, after his son Simon applied for it. "It was really nice to receive it, it makes me proud," he said.

Last year, during the 70th anniversary of the offensive, the French government announced it intended to recognise the selfless heroism of all surviving veterans of the Normandy landings, and of the wider campaigns to liberate France in 1944, by awarding them with the medal. It is the highest decoration in the French honours system, and is awarded for "excellent civil or military conduct delivered upon official investigation".

Bill, who was serving as a driver with the Royal Army Service Corps 705 Company, landed on Gold Beach during the operation.

He recalls a very choppy crossing from Southampton aboard a US Navy landing ship tank (LST) on the morning of the landings. "Those LSTs could certainly pitch and toss and roll to extraordinary angles," says Bill. "Nearly everyone was sick. At 5.30am the rum ration was given out and at 6.30am the bow doors were opened."

He was one of seven drivers of small amphibious vehicles known as Dukws, or 'Ducks', with crew member Bill Weston and second-in-command Captain Goodhew and a dozen infantry men of the Hampshire Regiment also aboard.

"We landed five or six miles out, and drove through the water towards the shore. We had done it before, so there was no trepidation. We had been told to expect trouble, but we didn't get it." He says the shells passing over them on the way to the shore defences and the rocket ships firing closer to shore was deafening.

"As we got nearer the shore the shells and bullets started to come our way but by this time we were too busy trying to avoid the mined hedgehog shore defences which began to appear between the rollers.

"We finally made landfall between two landing craft which had just been hit and were blazing fiercely. All seven of us had made it ashore, but we were still under fire from the fortified positions on the hill between us and Arromanches. We now had to make our way inland to deliver our cargo and we drove past burning tanks and British and German casualties towards Meuvaines where, still under sporadic fire, we began to unload."

Following his demob after the war, he returned to his job working backstage at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, before going to work for the family building firm.

He married wife Joyce, now 85, in 1952, and the couple had son Simon and daughter Yvonne. Bill, who grew up in Wolverhampton, moved to Telford after joining the military police at MoD Donnington in 1970. He remained at the base until his retirement in 1985.