AFTER 56,000 men from RAF Bomber Command died in the Second World War, Albert “Jim” Wright knew he was lucky to survive.

Now the 93-year-old former Wing Commander has been awarded France’s highest military honour for his heroism, the Legion d’honneur.

Mr Wright, from Abingdon, was among 12 servicemen, all aged in their late 80s and 90s, to receive the medal on Wednesday from French Ambassador Sylvie Bermann at her official London residence.

The father-of-three, known as Jim, was a navigator in Lancaster bombers and completed a total of 43 missions with 61, 630 and 97 squadrons.

He said he was “surprised and honoured” to be awarded the medal, adding: “I never did think that we would ever be here.”

After volunteering for flying duties in 1941 Mr Wright trained as a navigator in Canada and was first stationed with a Wellington crew at Upper Heyford, near Bicester.

Then in 1943 he joined 61 Squadron at RAF Syerston in Nottinghamshire and it was on his fifth Lancaster mission that he almost lost his life.

He said: “We were coned in searchlights over Kassel, Germany, on October 22, 1943, like a spider in a web, and we were simultaneously attacked by three night fighters.

“At 20,000ft my oxygen tube was cut by a cannon shell after it came through my navigation desk and I keeled over – the guys thought I was dead.

“But when the pilot, Ken Ames, got the plane below 8,000ft I came to and we staggered back to Coltishall on the Norfolk coast. We stumbled in with just enough petrol left to fill a cigarette lighter.

“I was out of action for two months after that. I know I was lucky to survive.”

Mr Wright, who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, also served with 630 Squadron at RAF East Kirkby in Lincolnshire, and with 97 Squadron at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire.

After the war Mr Wright worked for BOAC as an air traffic controller before rejoining the RAF. He retired as a Wing Commander in 1976.

He then worked as a bursar at a teaching training college in Culham, near Abingdon, before working as a National Trust volunteer for 21 years.

Mr Wright married Joan Barbier on December 18, 1944, and the couple had three sons – Dane, Neil and Keith. Mr Wright and his wife moved to Abingdon in 1977. Mrs Wright died aged 93 in 2011.

The former navigator said he was delighted to receive the Legion d’honneur.

But he added that he had “fought tooth and nail” for 10 years on behalf of Bomber Command for a campaign medal.

This included joining a delegation to 10 Downing Street to lobby for recognition for Second World War aircrew, and the Bomber Command Clasp was confirmed by the government in 2013.

Mr Wright’s son Neil said last night: “I’m very pleased that the French government has given my father this medal.”