Local war veteran awarded medal for World War Two services in France talks about his experiences

Date published: 09 December 2022

A Littleborough war hero who received a Legion of Honour medal for his services in France during World War Two, has shared his experiences with Rochdale Online.

Les Brown, 97, of Hare Hill, enrolled into the military when he was seventeen after working for the home guard for two years, where he defended our reservoirs from potential German paratrooper attacks.

His role was to map out the beach of Normandy, so the English soldiers knew where they had to go on D-Day.

He recalled: “When we went over to France, it was June 6th, 1944. We were the beach party and it was our job to map the way in for all of the other troops. You couldn’t just walk in. You had to go through certain parts, and it was up to us to direct them. We were actually on the beach long before the main party of soldiers.

“The beach was clear at that time but I can remember there being German pill boxes facing the sea. The navy was shelling some of the installations and as we were going forward, the shells were actually going over our heads.

“In our party… One of the lads was called Bert Murray, he came from Summerseat in Bury. He was blinded by the blast of an explosion. Another lad, Sid Holland came from Audenshaw, and he got a machine gun burst across his legs, that was his war finished.

“You couldn’t stop to help your pals, you know. You had to keep going and leave them there.

“The one thing is, I was never scared. They called my generation the greatest generation. It’s a good job we had them at the time.

“After we’d done our job, we were brought back off the beaches and for some reason or other I ended up in an army camp in Devon for three weeks. I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t kept with the other marines. I didn’t have to go and parade or do any duties, they treated me really well. I later found out that I had been termed a survivor because of the operation that we were on, and I don’t think they expected me to survive.”

He recalled: “I lived in Manchester and that’s where I signed up to join the marines. The blitz of Manchester was in 1940; it was Christmas Eve and I remember I could hear the bombs dropping; I sat with my parents on the cellar steps listening to them. We lived in a terraced house and we spoke to the neighbours through the wall.

“I remember there were 2,500 people killed and the same amount wounded because of those bombings.”

For his services in the war, Les was recently awarded with the w Légion d’honneur medal - also known as the Legion of Honour medal - which is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil.

He also has five other medals which he received during his time in the war which he wears proudly on Remembrance Sunday.

Last year, he unfortunately lost his wife, Delia, who was ninety when she passed.

The couple met over seventy years ago and she worked in Chadderton during the war, helping create parts for the iconic Lancaster bomber.

Unfortunately, after his wife passed, Les was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

He said: “I paid for it recently. I was diagnosed with PTSD which is a mental illness. They treat me for it with very heavy tranquilisers.

“What happened was, I’d just lost my wife and I was having trouble sleeping. One night at 3am I found myself in the café barefoot and I thought, there’s something wrong here. Luckily, one of the carers on the night shift spotted me on the cameras and she came out and took me back to my flat. That’s how it all begun.

“I put it down to two things… Losing my wife – we were married for over seventy years. And I also put it down to my war time experiences.”

Les also thinks that his long life is due to all of the training that he had in his younger years.

He said: “The training that I had, it’s the reason for my age and it put me in good stead. I don’t drink or smoke.”