A WAR veteran has received a medal marking his part in the Normandy Landings more than 70 years after the event.

Peter Bell, of Straight Road in Lexden, Colchester, was part of a naval fleet which landed on Sword Beach aboard a small landing craft on D-Day in 1944.

Surviving veterans were invited to apply for recognition in their part in helping to liberate France last year, and he has now received a National Order of the Legion of Honour to mark his crucial involvement.

Mr Bell, 89, who has lived in the Colchester area for his whole life, signed up for the Navy when he was 18 and was delighted to receive the medal.

He said: “The French president Francois Hollande thought those who helped liberate France should be honoured.

“I wrote to the French embassy a year ago and received a letter back recently – it was a little bit of a surprise.

“We arrived on D-Day but not in time for the initial assault.

“In the end we stayed on the beaches for several weeks but the shelling got so bad that we had to move on.

“We were on one side of a river with the Germans on the other with a full service of 88mm guns which were shooting at us all the time.

“I would see American troops rushing out all the time.

“Our role was mainly as a support crew helping engineers and clearing mines off of the beach but we had all sorts of different jobs.

“The worst part was the initial shelling – we lost a lot of men.”

As well as playing a vital part in the Normandy Landings, Mr Bell also spent 19 months fighting in the western Mediterranean trying to help conquer Italy.

He was demobbed in 1946 and returned to Colchester where he attended an agricultural college and managed farms and estates for six years.

Mr Bell then worked in the manufacturing industry for more than three decades.

“The Normandy Landings were only a small part of my war,” he said.

“It is more than 70 years ago but I remember it so vividly.”