Torpedo attack PoW recalls VJ Day liberation

One of the oldest surviving veterans of the Second World War has told the Duchess of Edinburgh over a cup of tea how his Royal Navy ship was torpedoed by the Japanese before he was held as a prisoner of war for more than three years.

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Sophie met 105-year-old Royal Marines veteran James “Jim” Wren in Salisbury on Tuesday ahead of the 80th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day (VJ Day), which marks the surrender of Japan to the Allied Forces on August 15 and the end of the Second World War.

Mr Wren survived the sinking of HMS Repulse in December 1941 but was captured by the Japanese in Singapore in February 1942.

He spent the next three and a half years as a prisoner of war and was still in captivity in August 1945 when the war ended.