D-Day vet finally receives highest honour

WELL done . . . Ernie (centre) with his Oldham Royal Naval Association comrades (from left) Eddie Smith, David Browne, Harry Oakley, Vinnie Gartside, chairman Matt Gilmore, Pongo Gordon and Ricky Smith

DESPITE playing a major role ferrying tanks across the Channel to the Normandy beaches under heavy fire during the invasion of Europe, Ernie Mayall is incredibly modest about the part he played in D-Day.

In fact it took a lot of persuasion from Royal Naval Association comrades for the 91-year-old great-grandfather to consider himself worthy of the highest decoration France can bestow, the Legion d’Honneur.

Former Able Seaman Mayall, from Waterhead, is now the proud recipient of the medal. Following the 70th Normandy campaign celebrations in 2014, the French government vowed to decorate surviving British and allied veterans who helped liberate them from the Germans during the Second World War.

The huge delay in making the gesture and wrangling with the British Government meant many brave D-Day veterans never received the decoration. Ernie says that spurred him to put himself forward.

Ernie is one of les than a handful of known Oldham recipients.

In June 1944, Ernie and his comrades had no inkling of what lay ahead on the top-secret mission that would eventually define the outcome of the war.

As a gunner on a Royal Navy tank landing craft he says they were all fired up and mentally prepared to embark on June 5. It was a blow when the mission had to be postponed until the next day due to bad weather.

“We had no idea,” said Ernie - who made up for it later with eight children of his own, and who now has 26 grandchildren and 55 great-grandchildren.

“We were all geared up to leave on June 5 so when it was cancelled because of bad weather we were all upset. You always worked yourselves up for things like that, but it went ahead the next day and the rest is history. We were all scared. The Germans must have been as well.

“As we got nearer it was just a mass of gunfire. I was strapped into an anti-aircraft gun and just had to fire overhead and on land. You could never tell if you’d hit anything as there was so much firing going on.

“We dropped the tanks on the shore then sailed back to Southampton to pick up more supplies. We were back and forth several times but it was slow as landing craft only go about eight or 10 knots.”

Ernie was unscathed in the horror that unfolded during the invasion but he had a close call when his craft hit a mine outside Boulogne.

“I’m normally a very modest man, but it was my comrades at the Royal Naval Association in Shaw who told me I should apply for the Legion d’Honneur. I didn’t think I was worthy really.

“But it was a very proud moment for me when it arrived and I wear it on the end of my other medals and shall do so when I go the Arnhem anniversary in September.”

Chairman of the Royal Naval Association in Shaw, Matt Gilmore, said the medal is a fitting tribute.

“He’s a very unassuming person,” said Matt. “He does not brag and he’d been there, done his duty, got his medal and it was over as far as he was concerned. But he’s very proud to receive it and it’s very well deserved.”