# China's Only Normandy Survivor Awarded Legion d'Honneur



## syscom3 (Jul 11, 2006)

I received this e-mail today. Quite interesting.

China's Only Normandy Survivor Awarded Legion d'Honneur 

The only survivor of 24 Chinese naval officers, who participated in 
the Normandy D-Day landings 62 years ago, Huang Tingxin, received 
France's highest honor yesterday in recognition of his valor during 
World War II. 

Jean-Marin Schuh, French consul general in Shanghai, traveled to the 
veteran's home in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang 
Province, to present the award. Huang, 88, suffers from a heart 
complaint and Parkinson's disease. 

A native of Anhui Province he graduated from a naval school in 
Qingdao, Shandong Province, in the late 1930s. In 1942, during the 
War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), Huang and 
23 other naval officers, were chosen by the then Nationalist 
government to study at the Britannia Royal Naval College in 
Greenwich, Britain. They were then posted to fleets operating in 
different war theaters for internship in March 1944.

Huang served on aircraft carrier "Searcher" and part of his duties 
included keeping watch over the angle of the vessel on the sea and 
its position in the fleet formation. "It was no small task as the 
smooth landing and take-off of aircraft depended on the tilt of the 
carrier," Huang recalled in earlier interviews.

At midnight on June 5, 1944 the eve of D-Day his warship slipped her 
moorings in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and sailed south. It wasn't 
until the next morning that Huang and fellow seamen heard on the BBC 
that the allied forces had landed at Normandy.

"Only then did we know what our mission was that night," Huang 
said. "All of us were overjoyed at the news but we couldn't feel 
completely relieved until our escort mission ended." Huang also took 
part in the Toulon landing with French troops on August 15 the same 
year.

"We will never forget that you and other Chinese people stood with 
us shoulder-to-shoulder when France was facing the most difficult 
situation during the war," Schuh said in Chinese at the 
ceremony. "It is our responsibility to remember this forever," he 
added.

Huang's face lit up as Schuh presented him with the medal of the 
Legion d'Honneur which has been awarded to fewer than 200 Chinese. 
His family captured the moment on video cameras. The father of three 
made a short speech from his wheelchair while his nurse held an 
oxygen mask beside him. 

"It was a great honor to join the anti-Nazi war," he said. "After 
more than 60 years I am still very proud about it." 

"It (today's occasion) reminds me of other Chinese naval officers 
who took part in the operation," Huang added. "The honor is not only 
for me it belongs to all of them." The other 23 Chinese officers 
have died over the years.

Huang joined the Navy of the People's Liberation Army in 1949. He 
moved to Zhejiang in 1958 and taught English at Zhejiang Science and 
Technology University for seven years before retiring in 1971.

(China Daily July 6, 2006)


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## Soundbreaker Welch? (Jul 12, 2006)

Too bad our relations with China are so uncomfortable these days......


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## Gnomey (Jul 12, 2006)




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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Jul 12, 2006)




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## evangilder (Jul 18, 2006)

Anyone who survived the beaches of Normandy deserves to be saluted.


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## Twitch (Jul 18, 2006)

Syscom3 you are the master of finding esoteric stuff. Good going!


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## syscom3 (Jul 18, 2006)

Thanks Twitch!


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Jul 23, 2006)

Hey P38 do you hate this guy too, hes Chinese?!


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## P38 Pilot (Jul 25, 2006)

Any man who fought and served on D-day I respect and salute.


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## loomaluftwaffe (Jul 26, 2006)

I'm part Chinese


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## HealzDevo (Jan 21, 2007)

My goodness I didn't know there was any Chinese soldiers on the Beaches of Normandy...


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