By Cam Lucadou-Wells
ONE of the men who were the role-models for secret agent James Bond has received a medal for his bravery during the D-Day landings.
Sprightly Welsh-born 92-year-old Aneurin (Richard) Jones recently received a French medal of recognition, the Legion D’Honneur, for being part of the key landing at Normandy in World War II.
During the war, Mr Jones was part of the revered 30 Assault Unit – a British Royal Marines Commando unit formed to gather intelligence such as the sites of Nazi V1 rocket sites and Enigma code machines.
The unit was the brainchild of Ian Fleming, then stationed in Whitehall, who later became famous as the author of James Bond books.
Mr Jones said that Fleming had modelled the unit on a similarly clandestine German unit which advanced ahead of the frontline and without any support such as a medical officer.
“If we were ever caught, the government would know nothing about us,” he said.
Though never meeting Fleming personally, Mr Jones said his commander was known for speaking his mind and so getting on the wrong side of his Whitehall superiors.
Not to mention his womanising and hard drinking – though all of them drank pretty heavily, Mr Jones said.
“When he wrote James Bond, he just rolled up the entire (30 Assault) unit into one man and called him James Bond.
“I never read his books but I enjoyed the movies.”
The unit’s missions have also been the subject of countless books and several movies such as Age of Heroes and Operation Crossbow.
Mr Jones, who was conscripted into the war as an 18-year-old, recounts his missions in France with relish, humour and clarity.
There were plenty of times when he was scared for his life, such as when he drove next to a three-tonne truck that triggered an unexploded shell on the ground.
“How did we survive? That truck just took the lot.”
Miraculously, one of the truck’s four occupants was recovered alive and delivered on a make-shift stretcher to a US medical station.
He, though, never attends Anzac Day or Remembrance Day ceremonies.
“We had a job to do and we done it. I don’t like the fuss and bother.”
As well as his own collection of medals, he souvenired and later sold off Nazi regalia such as elaborate daggers, a sword and helmet.
Mr Jones is among the last standing in his old unit. He shows off a wealth of photos and news clippings from when he attended the unit’s final march in the UK in 2000.
He says the biggest shame about receiving his latest medal from the French Government is that it came so late.
It has only recently been extended to non-French nationals who are still alive.
Twenty years after WWII, Mr Jones moved with his late wife Pat and four children to Springvale. He worked as a dipper for BP until retiring in 1984.
Mr Jones still plays bowls in Springvale and travels the world with a spirit of adventure, making world luxury cruises an annual event.
In a few weeks, he is off again on his latest worldly mission – a wedding in Spain.
