D-Day veteran given top French medal
A VETERAN has been commended with a prestigious medal for his role in liberating France from Nazi control during the Second World War.
Alfred Ernest Whitmore, 92, was awarded the highest honour France can bestow - the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur medal - for his contribution to the Normandy landings.
Alfred, nicknamed Dag, was just 19-years-old when he took part in the largest seaborne invasion in history.
He was on board landing craft LST365 delivering Canadian troops and heavy weaponry to stretches of Normandy coastline, codenamed Juno and Sword Beach, in June, 1944.
His ship also transported medical staff and returned German prisoners to Southampton.
He played the crucial role of a Telegrapher, relaying information to navy bosses during D-Day and the years which followed.
His contribution helped liberate German-occupied northwestern Europe from Nazi control, which ultimately led to the Allied victory on the Western Front.
Now, more than 70 years later, Dag suffers with dementia and lives at Moat House Care Home in Burbage.
He is the second resident at the home to be awarded the medal after his friend Ron Collyer, 92, was given the honour earlier in the year.
On the 70th anniversary of D-Day, in June 2014, French President Francois Hollande announced the Legion d’honneur would be awarded to all British veterans who fought for the liberation of France during the Second World War. Three thousand applications were received in the space of a few months.
The medal recognises those who demonstrated outstanding service in a military or civilian capacity.
Dag, born in Arley near Coventry in 1924, enlisted in the Navy at the age of 18 on October 5, 1942.
He started training as a Telegrapher a month later and continued in that role before being discharged on June 27, 1946.
While serving in the war, Dag met his future wife, Irene Florence Rossitter, in London and they married on June 1, 1946.
They went on to have one son, Ian, one grandson, Jonathan, who is now a sergeant in the army, and two great grandsons, Alfie and Alex.
Mrs Whitmore died on Christmas Eve in 2001 following a long illness.
Dag served his entire naval career on the LST365, an Americanbuilt landing craft designed to transport tanks and other heavy armaments.
The ship was laid down on October 14, 1942, in Massachusetts and launched the following month sailing from Halifax, Nova Scotiam, Cana- da, to the UK in convoy with LST305.
She participated in a series of operations, including the Salerno Landings, the Sicilian Occupation and the West Cost of Italy operations in 1944.
It suffered severe storm damage on a trip to Greenock in Scotland in December 1945, with Dag on board, and was decommissioned the following year.
It was later sold to a frozen food businesses but her final fate is unknown.
After the war, Dag worked for several engineering firms, including Jaguar in Coventry, doing various lathe work until retirement in 1989.
He moved to Moat House in 2014 after his dementia meant he was unable to look after himself.