A DUNKIRK veteran who walked 1,300 miles to freedom has been honoured by the French village where he was taken prisoner 70 years ago.

Les Kerswill was one of 600 men who made up a last line of defence at the village of St Venant in a bid to stop the German army from reaching the beaches of Dunkirk.

More than 300 of his comrades were killed in the battle but their heroic actions allowed more than 300,000 troops to be evacuated by a flotilla of little ships.

Les, who lives in Bournemouth’s War Memorial Homes, was captured by the Nazis and taken to a PoW camp in Poland.

He later managed to escape – and marched across Europe before he met up with Allied soldiers.

Les, now 91, still has the boots he wore then and uses them at talks he gives to schoolchildren.

His story reached the mayor of St Venant, who invited him back to the village to take part in the 70th anniversary commemorations of Dunkirk.

He was given a medal which was made for him by the village.

He also laid a wreath at the local war memorial, attended the unveiling of a memorial plaque in honour of the Durham Light Infantry, who lost 100 men in the battle, and visited the graves of his fallen comrades.

Les said: “I was treated wonderfully well by the local people and I was very honoured to receive the medal.”

Les Devine, 73, chairman of the Bournemouth branch of the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment Association, drove Les to France for the event.

He said: “It meant a lot to him to be there.

“It was a very emotional occasion for him.”

Les Kerswill was a lance corporal in the Royal Berkshire Regiment when he was sent to France in December 1939.

After five months on the France/Belgium border, his regiment came under bombardment from the Germans as the overwhelmed Allied Expeditionary Force performed a “fighting” retreat to Dunkirk.

Les’s regiment desperately tried to make it to Dunkirk but were overrun in St Venant after three days of fighting.

He remembers a German officer telling him as they were captured: “You have got nothing to be ashamed of.

“You put up one hell of a fight.”

Les added: “He said he thought his men were up against an entire company when there were just 34 of us.”

Les was sent to a prisoner of war camp in Beutem in western Poland.

He spent four years in captivity until the Germans marched them out in Christmas 1944 while the Russians advanced from the east.

He took the opportunity to sneak off while the guards weren’t looking.

He said: “I just disappeared and started walking in a south-westerly direction.

“Most of the time I was foraging for food and sleeping in barns.

“You couldn’t imagine the snow and ice – the conditions were terrible.

“I got frostbite in my toes.”

He reached Bavaria in the spring of 1945 and met up with the advancing Americans.

He added: “My army boots had worn out and my mother sent me some more.

“Luckily they reached the PoW camp.

“If I hadn’t had my mum’s boots I wouldn’t have made it.”