Kentish Express Ashford & District
D-Day veterans’ courage recognised with France’s highest honour
Three Ashford men were the recipients of one of France’s highest honours, the Legion d’Honneur medal.
They were the guests of Kent County Council chairman, Tom Gates, at a celebration dinner in Maidstone.
Stanley Hodge MM, Donald Hunter and Ivan Jennings received the Legion d’Honneur, the highest French order for military and civil merits.
Mr Gates was joined by 14 veterans from across Kent and their guests to celebrate their receiving of the honour and their individual achievements.
Stanley Hodge was in the Dorset Regiment. He landed on Gold Beach at 7.30 am on D-Day as an 18-year-old.
He took out a German machine gun post by rushing at it firing his machine gun from his hip.
He was awarded the Military Medal for this and other actions.
He helped bring Paras back across the river at Arnhem in Holland in small boats. He was one of only 75 out of 350 from his regiment that returned.
Mr Hunter joined the Merchant navy for training as a Radio Officer at the age of 16 and qualified joining his first ship in early 1944.
He was sent on a course with the Royal Navy and obtained his Royal Navy gunnery certification.
He served as a Radio Officer in the combined Royal and Merchant Navy Operation Neptune from D-Day until this operation was completed.
Immediately after Normandy, he served on two high-octane carriers and an ammunition ship in the Battle of the Atlantic supplying forces fighting in North Africa and the landings in Italy.
Mr Jennings served on Hunt class destroyer HMS Eglinton during the Normandy campaign, protecting the troop and supply convoys from attack by e boats and submarines from ports such as Le Harve, which were in German hands.