A WAR hero who returned to service after being wounded in the Normandy assault has finally been awarded a Legion d’Honneur medal.

John Oakley, 91, of Forton, was one of thousands of soldiers who went ashore on Gold beach shortly after the main invasion on D-Day.

Mr Oakley received the award from the French embassy 72 years after his role in Normandy in 1944.

He said: “I joined up the day before my 18th birthday, that was in 1943. I joined up straight from school. I was in the 2nd battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.”

“In 1944, just after D-Day, our battalion was part of the 15th Scottish division. We crossed to Normandy and our job was to break out of the bridgehead.”

Mr Oakley hadn’t been serving in France for long when his battalion came under attack from a German machine gunner.

He said: “Our station had been just going across a field after a German position and then I suddenly felt this great big thump. I was hit with a shot from a machine gun in the shoulder. I was wounded and I had to come back for a while.”

“Later on in the year I went back and rejoined the same battalion. I was lucky because a lot of people when they went back were put into different battalions. When I rejoined them they were in Holland.”

Mr Oakley served out the rest of his time in the army before returning home when the war had finished.

However, he struggled to settle back into normal life and so rejoined the army.

He added: “I re-enlisted in 1954 and I was in the 1st battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. I couldn’t settle in civvy street.

“I was involved in the Suez Crisis in 1956, I served in Borneo and I was part of the Aden Emergency.

“I had a few ordinary jobs after I finished before I came down to Chard.

“My younger brother had moved to Forton, Chard, and a house went up for sale near him so I decided to buy it.

“My eldest niece, she lives near Exeter, she had seen this thing on the television that the French president was dishing these things out to survivors.

“I don’t think he quite understood the number of us that were still alive.

“My niece put in an application for a Legion d’Honneur and I received it this year.

“To start with the MOD messed up and sent it to the wrong place so it went back to the French embassy, and then they had the wrong address as well, but it has all been sorted now.”