Huang Tingxin, the only survivor of 24 Chinese naval officers who participated in the Normandy D-Day landings 62 years ago, received France's highest honour yesterday in recognition of his valour during World War II.

Jean-Marin Schuh, French consul general in Shanghai, travelled to the veteran's home in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province, to present him the award.

Huang, 88, suffers from a heart ailment and Parkinson's Disease.

A native of Anhui Province, Huang graduated from a naval school in Qingdao, Shandong Province, in the late 1930s. In 1942, during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), Huang and 23 other naval officers were chosen by the then Nationalist government to study at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Greenwich, Britain.

They were then posted to fleets operating in different war theatres for internship in March 1944.

Huang served on escort carrier "Searcher" and his duty was to keep watch over the angle of the carrier on the sea and its position in the fleet formation.

"It was no small task as the smooth landing and take-off of aircraft depended on the tilt of the carrier," Huang recalled in earlier interviews.

At midnight on June 5, 1944 the eve of D-Day his warship slipped its moorings in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and sailed south; and it was not until the next morning that Huang and his peers heard on the BBC that the allied forces had landed at Normandy.

"Only then did we know what our mission was that night," Huang said. "All of us were overjoyed at the news, but we didn't feel completely relieved until our escort mission ended."

Huang also took part in the Toulon landing with French troops on August 15 the same year.

"We will never forget that you and other Chinese people stood with us shoulder-to-shoulder when France was facing the most difficult situation during the war," Schuh said in Chinese at the ceremony.

"It is our responsibility to remember this forever," he added.

Huang's face lit up as Schuh presented him with the medal of the Legion d'Honneur, awarded to fewer than 200 Chinese. His family members captured the moment with video cameras.

The father of three made a short speech from his wheelchair, while his nurse held an oxygen mask beside him.

"It was a great honour to join the anti-Nazi war. After more than 60 years, I am still very proud about it," he said.

"It (today's occasion) reminds me of other Chinese naval officers who took part in the operation. The honour is not only for me, it belongs to all of them," Huang added.

The other 23 Chinese officers died in the intervening years.

Huang joined the Navy of the People's Liberation Army in 1949. He moved to Zhejiang in 1958 and taught English at Zhejiang Science and Technology University for seven years before retiring in 1971.

Source: China Daily