SECOND World War hero George French has been awarded one of France’s greatest decorations.

The 89-year-old, who lives in Stratton St Margaret, is a Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur.

It is a reward from a grateful nation for his role in its liberation from the Nazis.

Retired telecommunications engineer George joined the Army in May of 1943.

He went ashore on Juno Beach on D-Day Plus Three and fought alongside his comrades through France, Belgium and into the heart of Germany.

He and his team were in the remains of Hanover when news of the Nazis’ surrender came through.

“We were jubilant,” he said in an interview with the Adver earlier this year. “We’d liberated a brewery and there were big celebrations.”

Following the surrender, the team led by George, a corporal, were ordered to seal the border with Denmark and seek out remaining German units.

One of those ‘units’ turned out to be a battleship, the Prince Eugen, whose hiding place had been unknown to Allied intelligence.

George asked the captain for his surrender, and recalled: “His words to me were: ‘We will not surrender to the British Army, but if you would like to go back to your authorities and tell them we will surrender to the Royal Navy.’ “I looked up and thought, ‘well, they’ve got bigger guns than I have.’ So it was discretion being the better part of valour.

“All I could do was go back and report – but to all intents and purposes I took that ship.”

George is proud of his decoration, which was issued under the authority of the French President, but he and his wife, Shirley, laughed when the medal and citation arrived in the post.

At first bemused at being congratulated on serving under American general George Patton, George realised he’d been mistakenly sent the citation of another recipient, an American veteran called John French.

Shirley said: “I’m proud, but to be honest, when we read the citation we did have a little chuckle.”

George added: “I wondered whether I’d been in two places at once, helping old Six-Gun Patton!”

After the war, George was sent by the Army on peacekeeping duties in Libya and later Palestine, and he was demobbed in 1947.

When he was first sent overseas, he was only a fortnight short of qualifying for the Defence Medal, given to military personnel who had served in Britain.

He admits that this still irks him, as he had no choice about being deployed.“I won’t wear a medal I’m not entitled to,” he said, “and if they say I’m not entitled to it, what can I do?”