A BALLARAT World War II veteran admitted he was moved during a special ceremony in which he was awarded France’s highest military honour, the Legion of Honour.
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Bruce Clifton made the journey, with a large family contingent for support, to the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance on Tuesday for the ceremony.
Mr Clifton was one of 26 recipients of the medal.
“The French ambassador presented the medals one by one and embraced us and of course everybody had their back-up group, I had my six children with me,” he said.
“The ambassador gave a very heartfelt speech and moved among us afterwards and had a chat to us all.
“It is no doubt a great honour and the way it was delivered today, (...) it was a very moving.”
The 91-year-old was presented with the Chevalier dans l'odre National de la Legion d'Honour – literally knight of the national order of the Legion of Honour – by the French ambassador to Australia Christophe Lecourtier.
The ambassador informed Mr Clifton of the honour in March after his application was approved by the French government.
Six of Mr Clifton's seven adult children – Margaret, Cathy, Elisabeth, Peter, Robert and David – attended the ceremony with John, who is in Denmark, unable to attend.
“My eldest girl said it was the happiest day of her life,” he said.
“I think she was a little bit over the top but they are very proud to know that their dad fought in the war.”
Mr Clifton said the medal was “quite impressive”.
“They were nice proceedings,” he said.
Mr Clifton was the sole survivor of a Royal Air Force bomber crew shot down over Scandinavia in 1945.
Of the 125,000 men who flew with RAF Bomber Command during World War II, 55,573 lost their lives, a casualty rate of 44.4 per cent.
“I was only 16 when war broke out so when I was 18, it was 1942 and training to be a pilot takes some time, so going into uniform in May 1942 I didn’t complete my training until December 1944, it was quite some time,” he said.
“I was shot down on my 11th trip, others did so much more , a tour of duty in bomber command was 30 trips, a hell of a lot didn't reach that, some got shot down on their first trip.”
Mr Clifton’s Lancaster bomber crew of seven was actually shot by neutral Sweden who believed they were a lone German intruder based in Denmark.
In October 1945 Mr Clifton returned to Australia and became a foundation member of the La Trobe Flying Club.
He has lived in Ballarat for four decades and is a member of Legacy, Ballarat South Rotary, RSL Ballarat Branch and the RAAF Association.