#d-day – Ninety three year–old Dublin Bay sailor Michael 'Mickey' D'Alton will receive the Legion d'Honneur today from the French ambassador, Jean–Pierre Thebault with full military honours for his heroism at D–Day, June 1944.
The then 23–year–old sub–Lieutenant piloted landing craft on to the Omaha beach as part of the liberation of France in the last year of World War II.
The Royal Irish Yacht Club sailor, who undertook a number of significant cruises in the vintage Dublin Bay 24 boats, was a member of the Glen class, racing Glenshane with joint owner the late Franz Winkelmann in the 1970s. Later the pair owned the Ruffian 23 Siamsa.
Mickey was second in command of the Royal Navy landing craft. They landed on Omaha beach just after dawn. 'There was a whole buncxh of landing craft. The big thing was to try and get on the beach without crashing into other craft. That took seamanship' he told the Sunday Independent newspaper.
Michael D'Alton, a retired quantity surveyor, will receive the Legion d'Honneur on board the French Supply Vessel, the Somme, berthed in Dublin Port.
The Irish Times has a video of Michael at his Killiney home on facebook HERE.
