Michael d’Alton was one of the last surviving Irish veterans of the D-Day landings. Aged 95, he died just over a year after having been made a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government for his part in the Battle of Normandy which began the liberation of France from Nazi rule in 1944.
D’Alton was born in 1921 to Jack and Mabel d’Alton. His father was a veteran of the Gallipoli campaign during the first World War. His experiences in the trenches were a key factor in his son’s decision during the second World War to join the Royal Navy and not the British army.
D’Alton was brought up in Dalkey, Co Dublin, and his lifelong love of the sea began when he built his first dinghy at the age of eight.
He attended Kingston Grammar School and St Andrew’s College in Dublin, before qualifying as a quantity surveyor when war broke out in 1939. D’Alton was one of tens of thousands of Irishmen from the South who joined the British armed forces.
He recalled his reasons for doing it in an interview with The Irish Times to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in 2014: “I thought it was absolutely intolerable that Hitler was going to conquer Europe. I wanted to try and stop that awful German monster.”
Second-in-command
D’Alton was commissioned in Portsmouth as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He was second-in-command of a landing craft during the D-Day landings. His mission was to land Sherman tanks on Omaha Beach.
The landing craft set off from Plymouth on June 5th, 1944, only to be recalled because of rough seas. The landings were postponed for 24 hours.
After hours of fretful waiting, d’Alton’s skipper, Lieut Jim Stroud, ordered the men to beach the craft. It nearly ended in disaster as they initially lowered the bow landing door on top of a teller mine which would have blown them to pieces had it exploded.
After D-Day, he returned to the UK. He was supposed to command a landing craft tank in the Far East, but the war there ended. He was demobbed and returned to Ireland where he took up a job as a quantity surveyor.
He revisited the Normandy beaches in 2002 with his daughter Sonda, and his son Mark was also present in 2004 for the 60th anniversary commemoration ceremonies.
After the war he became a partner in Patterson, Kempster and Shorthall, the Dublin-based quantity surveyors.
The pace of his life never slackened. He was a fellow of the Institute of Arbitrators, a member of Lansdowne Rugby Football Club and the Royal Irish Yacht Club, where he was some years ago made an honorary life member.
Disputed territory
He sailed to northern seas, including to the Norwegian fjords and to Rockall at a time when it was disputed territory, planting the Tricolour there.
In January 2015, d’Alton was awarded France’s highest military honour, the Légion d’Honneur, for his services during the second World War. The presentation took place on board the French Navy ship Somme.
The French ambassador Jean Pierre Thébault said: “Your life, your story and the one of your family illustrate better than many words or books what Europe and its civilisation have experienced during the past century.”
Michael d’Alton is predeceased by his wife Mabel. He is survived by his children Mark and Sonda.