HE survived the D-Day landings, the Battle of the Bulge, the invasion of Holland and helped war reporters tell the tales of war.

Now Andrew Bramley who is better known by friends and family as Jim - has been awarded France's highest medal for bravery.

The 92-year-old from Colden Common has been awarded the Legion d'honneur for his role in the war which saw him serve as a dispatch driver.

Hampshire Chronicle:

He said he felt surprised but honoured to be given the medal and said he will never forget what happened during the war.

Mr Bramley said: “You do not forget it, I remember every day and I would think that every veteran you speak to now would say the same."

He joined the armed forces at the age of 18 and became a dispatch rider.

He remembers how he rode up and down the coastal area around the town of Cruelly in Basse-Normandie in France.

One of the journalists he met in the war was BBC reporter and former Southern Daily Echo reporter Richard Dimbleby, who was stationed at Cruelly after the D-Day landings.

Mr Bramley had several close calls with death when he served. On the third day of the Allied invasion, the road he was driving on was bombarded and a shell knocked him off his bike.

Other close calls saw him almost drown as he crossed the Waal river on a pontoon, when his bike was tipped into the river.

Hampshire Chronicle:

In Holland in 1944, he was following a staff car in front of him which hit a landmine and the impact blew him off his machine.

When he reported back, his adjutant told him they had already telegrammed his wife that he was dead, he returned back to Hampshire, where he was living in Wickham four days after she received the telegram - much to her surprise.

After the war he worked as a lorry driver for Meon Valley Timber Company and he has been married to his wife Iris for 24 years.