WW2 veteran awarded France's highest honour
Douglas Charles Cracknell, from Cransford, near Framlingham, Suffolk has been awarded the Legion d'Honneur by the French government.
Vicky Dann, Mr Cracknell's granddaughter, said he "landed in Normandy in late June 1944 and fought alongside his comrades across north-west Europe, whilst taking part in some of the fiercest and bloodiest battles of the entire conflict".
On the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the then French President François Hollande pledged to honour all those British veterans who had served in his country during the war.
Mr Cracknell, who was part of the 5th Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry as a rifleman, landed in Arromanches, Normandy, on 22 June 1944.
Ms Dann said the family had previously applied for the medal for her grandfather but been unsuccessful due to a lack of information about his service.
But with help from a friend in the military, they managed to piece together more details about his experiences.
These included fighting for control of strategic positions, coming under mortar fire and pushing into Germany.
Mr Cracknell was wounded twice during the war.
The first time was in the Netherlands when a bullet hit the weapon he was operating and wounded his face. Later, he was in Hamburg when a shell blast caused shrapnel wounds and a temporary loss of hearing.
It was while he was on leave that he met Sheila Dix, who asked him for a cigarette. They married two years later and remained together for 70 years until she died in 2020.
Ms Dann said her grandfather was "overjoyed" to have been awarded the honour, "not just for himself but for all those men who lost their lives from his regiment and throughout the rest of the war".
She added: "It's so important that these people get recognition for the things that they went through."
Mr Cracknell will receive his medal at a ceremony at Framlingham College, where he worked as a boy.
The presentation will be made by the French military attaché.
Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
D-Day veteran,105, receives France's highest honour
'Remarkable' D-Day veteran dies after 100th birthday
Man embarks on charity walk for Normandy veterans
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Epoch Times
9 hours ago
- Epoch Times
The British Pacific Fleet of WWII Finally Gets Its Story Told
The raids on Sumatra by the British Pacific Fleet is a little known piece of World War II history. In fact, according to Angus Konstam's new work, 'this is the first history of the Sumatra raids.' Konstam, one of the most prolific maritime historians living, has recently written a concise work on this brief piece of British naval history, entitled 'Sumatra 1944-45: The British Pacific Fleet's Oil Campaign in the Dutch East Indies.' The author, who hails from the UK, is not shy about why the history of these raids is so obscure. They were conducted in the shadow of the behemoth that had become the United States Navy. Catching Up Konstam discusses how the U.S. Navy had controlled the Pacific War and ultimately won it pretty much single-handedly. For their British counterparts, they were significantly behind in the advanced world of naval warfare. The British had long ruled the seas. But after World War I, the Royal Navy could no longer compete, specifically on an economic level, in building its naval fleet. Naval warfare had graduated from the battleship era to the carrier era, primarily because of the advances in aviation.
Boston Globe
12 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Explore homes for sale in Winthrop
LOT SIZE 0.1 acre BEDROOMS 4 BATHS 3 full, 1 half LAST SOLD FOR $610,000 in 2020 PROS This gut-renovated 1900 Colonial sits near restaurants and the skating rink downtown. Enter through a tiled mudroom into an open first floor with hardwood floors, recessed lighting, and deep blue walls. The living area has a shiplap electric fireplace, while the dining room has bay windows, a dry bar with wine fridge, and French doors to the back deck, stone patio, and fenced yard. The kitchen has quartzite counters and breakfast bar, black stainless appliances, and a shiplap backsplash. There's a half bath with laundry nearby. Upstairs, two bedrooms share a newer bath, while the primary suite has its own dressing room and a private bath with double vanity and step-in shower. The basement holds a guest suite with kitchenette and new bath. CONS No off-street parking. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The living area of 136 Pauline Street in Winthrop. Handout Advertisement Anthony Carestia, William Raveis, 781-715-5076, $950,000 31 LINCOLN STREET / WINTHROP 31 Lincoln Street in Winthrop. Handout SQUARE FEET 2,341 LOT SIZE 0.22 acre BEDROOMS 3 BATHS 2 full, 1 half LAST SOLD FOR $475,000 in 2007 PROS This 1920 Craftsman with central air is just steps to the ocean and Ingleside Park. From the grand front porch, step into an entry hall with refinished hardwood floors and a powder room near the stairs. The living room at right has a pellet stove, while the dining room at left boasts bay windows. The tiled kitchen has stainless appliances, granite counters, and a built-in workspace. Step down to a mudroom, which opens out to a spacious, fenced yard with a patio and electrified garage or studio space (which could potentially be converted to an accessory dwelling unit). Upstairs, three bedrooms, all with deep closets, share a roomy bath. The finished basement holds a family room, laundry room, and new bath. CONS Two baths are a bit dated. Advertisement The living area of 31 Lincoln Street in Winthrop. Handout Seth Williams, Reference Real Estate, 617-680-9322, Seth@ Jon Gorey is a regular contributor to the Globe Magazine. Send comments to
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Boston Globe
A letter to my oldest son, before he starts high school
You will begin high school, you lucky boy. And so, instead of cornering you in the car on the way to basketball, I thought I'd write down my advice. For those of you with kids beginning a new school, a new job, a new chapter in life, maybe you can relate (and have something to add). Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Here goes. Advertisement Sign up for Parenting Unfiltered. Globe staff Study however you feel comfortable . For years, your grandparents insisted I do my homework in our home office, on a metal desk and swivel chair built during the Nixon administration. They believed that serious students worked at a desk, and they wanted their daughter to be a serious student. I hated it. I spent more time thinking about how uncomfortable I was than on AP French — but it appeared to them that I was focusing. (I was not. I was on a dial-up AOL chat room with my friend Katie talking to random strangers in Texas.) Once I hit college and was in control of my own study arrangements, I did my best work sitting on my bed. Since then, I have written hundreds of thousands of words and two books, either on my couch or on my bed. Great for my lower back? Probably not. Good for my own personal productivity? Yup. Work where it works for you. Advertisement Don't fight your natural organizational habits . I use this term loosely because right now, your organizational strategy appears to be shoving wrinkled papers into your backpack next to rotting bananas. Your suggested list of supplies might include color-coded binders and day planners; the requests will come in for spiral notebooks and file folders. That's all fine, if you use them. But you might not (doubt you will!), and I have zero desire to give Amazon Prime more money. Find a system that you can stick with, use it, and tune out the noise. Ever seen a doctor's office or a professor's desk? Yeah. You'll be OK. Don't stay anywhere you feel small: lunch tables, parties, friend groups . This is hard. The drive to be surrounded — to fit in — is stronger than words. I remember pining to be summoned to a superior lunch table, a rung-and-a-half higher on the cafeteria ladder, and finally snagging a seat only to go completely silent, dead mute, once I set down my tray of nuggets and Famous Amos cookies. I was afraid I wasn't funny (and I was funny; just maybe not to them, because they were not my people). I felt alien in my own body. I couldn't be myself. And when one of the girls started badmouthing a close friend, I joined in — grateful to have something, anything, to say. Advertisement The next day, someone who overheard me wrote a screed in black magic marker (brave!) on my French desk saying what a fraud I was. A fake. A climber. And she was dead right. I still haven't forgotten the date: November 1992, Madame Inman's class. I remember thinking even then that I'd prefer to be honestly average than falsely cool; I even wrote it in my journal in bubbly cursive, feeling profound. It didn't totally sink in then, of course; I wasn't mature enough to live it. It took me well into adulthood to realize that some people won't see you, ever, and that's their loss. But being comfortable in your own skin is the only true sanctuary, and when you forfeit that for the sake of blending in, you've got nothing. Don't ever shrink yourself to fit at a lunch table. It might feel safe in the moment, but it will hurt so much more in the long run. You won't have everything in common with your friends. And that's OK. If I based my friendships on who had the same exact combination of interests, I'd be a hermit, because I know nobody who loves 'Murder, She Wrote'; 1960s oldies; nachos; and Dominick Dunne. Enjoy the small overlaps; go where you feel seen. And remember: Nobody will be a perfect friend all the time. Look for patterns instead. Do these people usually show up for you? Do they fill a certain need: a person to ride to school with, to play basketball with, to swap inane memes with? I had very little in common besides a sense of humor with my high school friends. But, you know what? I just got back from one of their mom's 80th birthday parties. I'm having dinner with two others next week. Sometimes the bonds that connect you are more about chemistry and shared history than anything else, a sense of familiarity and consistency and goodness, and those bonds really are irreplaceable. Advertisement It's OK not to peak in high school . Some clichés are true. Life is long. Success takes many forms, and it also takes its own sweet time. You'll see. The most important lessons you learn in high school aren't measured by grades. Schoolwork seems like the official barometer of worth because knowledge is most easily measured in numbers, but these metrics don't reflect the lessons that shape who you are. Truly. Some perspective: I took five AP exams and was named something called an 'AP scholar.' This has had absolutely zero bearing on my life. In fact, I can no longer speak French. The one and only thing I remember from World History is that there are three types of Roman columns (ionic, doric, and Corinthian). I will never again read 'Beowulf.' In fact, I barely read it the first time. I missed the 3.5 National Honor Society cutoff by .02 points because of a bad math grade. Nobody has ever asked me, anywhere ever, whether I was in the National Honor Society. Speaking of math: I dropped out in 12th grade. I am still a productive member of society. My iPhone has a calculator, and that's good enough for me. Here's what I do remember: Mr. Seymour, who nicknamed me Sassy Baskin and encouraged me to do stand-up for Speech and Debate; the columns I wrote for the school paper making fun of the rancid cheese at the semi-formal; and the feeling of getting behind the wheel of my parents' Ford Taurus as a newly minted driver and realizing for the first time — soundtracked by WZLX 100.7 — that the world really was bigger than Acton, Massachusetts. (There was Concord, too!) Point being: Life experiences, real memories, don't get a letter grade. Advertisement A big world exists outside your phone. I know you're mad that I'm not letting you have screens during the week, but someday, when you know how to have a coherent conversation and think critically, you'll thank me. Don't take it personally when I yell at you. Oh, and I will. I will surely get mad if you flake out on your homework or have 10 missing assignments in PowerSchool. This is because I'm only human, too, and I want you to do well, to work hard, all the things that any parent wants for their kid. I want what's best for you, and this might make me sometimes act poorly and lose perspective. I'm still learning, too. I apologize in advance. (But seriously: Please do not have 10 missing assignments in PowerSchool.) Treat your teachers with respect. You have no idea how hard this job is. You are not entitled to delicate treatment because you're having a bad day; you don't get an extension because you forgot your day planner. You are special to me, but you are not special. Be kind. Be polite. Be respectful. Non-negotiable. Nothing is worth your mental health. Absolutely nothing. Take it from someone who learned this the very hardest way — in emergency rooms and therapists' offices. Too much homework? Too much stress? When you're healthy, you have lots of problems. If you're sick, you have one: getting better. So please: The minute you feel like it's all too much, if you're hopeless or stressed to the point of sickness, if you feel like nothing will ever get better because your problems at this moment are insurmountable, take those worries and give them to your parents. We may not know how to edit videos on TikTok. (You do edit videos on TikTok, right?) We do not know what the hell '67' means. Advertisement But we also have been through high school and lived to tell the tale. You will come out the other side, hopefully with lifelong friends, arcane trivia, and memories to sustain you — but most of all, a sense of self and the knowledge that you have flawed parents who will annoy you and badger you but who always love you and see you. Now shut off the video games and do your summer reading. Kara Baskin can be reached at
