The Associated Press

BEIJING — The last Chinese veteran of the 1944 liberation of France has died, state media reported Wednesday.

Huang Tingxin had been an officer aboard the British aircraft carrier HMA Searcher during the invasion of southern France known as Operation Dragoon. The August landings near the city of Toulon were a follow-up to the June 6 D-Day invasion of Normandy.

Huang returned to China in 1948 and served for a decade in the Chinese navy after the founding of the communist state in 1949. He later taught English and tended the library at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University in the eastern city of Hangzhou.

In 2006, Huang received France's Legion d'Honneur in recognition of his wartime service, dedicating the award to his Chinese comrades.

A graduate of the Qingdao Naval Academy in eastern China, Huang was one of 24 Chinese officers sent to study in Britain in 1942 and who later served with the Allies.

After studying at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich outside London, Huang was assigned to the Searcher, a U.S.-built assault carrier that deployed up to 25 fighter planes.

"My part on the ship was not much," Huang was quoted as telling Xinhua in a 2006 interview. "Some other Chinese soldiers fought on the front line. One of my comrades showered thousands of artillery shells on the Nazi defenses."

Huang died Nov. 11 at the age of 91, the official Xinhua News Agency said. No cause of death was given, although earlier reports said Huang suffered from Parkinson's disease.

Although Nationalist China maintained close ties with Nazi Germany before the war, its forces fought on the side of the Allies against Japan, which had linked up with Germany and Italy. Very few Chinese fought in the European theater.