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I tried to join the local Green Howard's unit before reaching the age of 17 and was told to come back after my 17th birthday in April 1939.

I then became a member of the Territorial Army, and was called up just before the start of the war.

Being too young for overseas service at this time, I transferred to the Royal Artillery anti-aircraft branch, serving during the Battle of Britain in Gosport in Hampshire, and later, in the defence of Liverpool, Manchester, Barrow-in-Furnace and the South of England.

The Battle of the Skies, having been won around 1943, led to the demand for anti-aircraft units being reduced - in terms of men and equipment.

At this point I transferred to the airborne forces. My first company commander was Sir Hew Wheldon, who later became the Governor of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½.

My first overseas assignment was during the Ardennes Offensive (known as the Battle of the Bulge). This was a very cold experience, in Belgium and Holland and living in the ground on the banks of the River Maas.

This was an Anglo-American exercise, which took place over Christmas 1944, and succeeded in halting Von Rundsted's breakthrough. Returning, we had a short leave and some re-organising, before embarking on the biggest airborne operation of the war, the Rhine Crossing.

This culminated in a multitude of operations, finally ending as far as I was concerned, at Wismar on the Baltic coast. On the way, I was able to assist in the liberation of an American POW camp, taking the name and address of one particular internee from Pittsburg, Pensylvania, with whom I have remained in touch to this day.

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