Following in footsteps of a wartime hero

ADAM Hart's great-grandad Frank Griffiths died four years before he was born.

- BY AMY FENTON

But despite never having met, the pair now share an unbreakable bond after Adam retraced Frank's footsteps during his daring escape from Nazi-occupied France.

During the Second World War, Frank, from north east Wales, served as a pilot in the RAF.

On August 14 in 1943, Squadron Leader Griffiths was the only survivor when his Halifax bomber crash-landed near Annecy, a small village in south east France.

The six remaining crew members, including Sergeant John Maden, from Accrington, and Sergeant Frank Pollard, from Bury, were all killed.

What happened in the three months that followed could easily be made into a film.

Frank's great-grandson Adam, however, has turned the amazing story into a book.