Lancaster D-Day veteran celebrates 101st birthday

Sgt Richard Brock. Photo: Bay Veterans Association

A veteran of the D-Day landings from Lancaster is celebrating his 101st birthday.

Sergeant Richard Brock was awarded numerous medals for bravery including the Legion d'Honneur, the highest military order of merit in France, after being part of the largest seaborne invasion in history.

Richard landed on the beaches at Normandy with the Allied Forces as they advanced into Nazi-occupied France in 1944.

A post on the Bay Veterans Association Facebook page said: "A Cherished Veteran...today is Richard Brock's 101st birthday.

"From all of us at Bay Veterans Association we salute you Richard and may you have a very happy birthday."

The Association posted a poem in honour of Richard's birthday.

Richard helped to liberate parts of France and the Netherlands, saw first-hand the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, narrowly escaped death after a missile landed on a cinema in Belgium, was part of the famous 'A Bridge Too Far' battle, and invaded Germany's second biggest city as Hitler's forces surrendered.

His dramatic and gruelling journey - staying overnight under trees, hedges and in foxholes, and constantly in danger - took him 2,000 miles from London, through France, Belgium, Holland and then into Germany as the Allied Forces were ultimately victorious.

In 2024, Sgt Brock appeared on a special commemorative front cover of the Radio Times to mark 80 years since D-Day.

Earlier this month, Sgt Brock gave a speech at Morecambe Town Hall during the town's celebration of the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

Read more: INTERVIEW: D-Day veteran from Lancaster, 99, tells his incredible World War 2 story - Beyond Radio

Have you got a local news story? Email us now, newsdesk@beyondradio.co.uk

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