Memories of back to life for

VE Day brought blind veterans

- TED HENNESSEY

THIRTEEN partially sighted or blind veterans have had their memories of VE Day brought to life to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe.

Charity Blind Veterans UK has released the illustrations, stories and photographs as part of its After the Darkness campaign, which looks to recognise their service and raise funds for war heroes living with sight loss.

Among the veterans' memories of VE Day were humorous drunken tales - including a commander in a dinghy and a sailor stripping off on a crane alongside more poignant stories, such as a fatal flight after the war ended.

D-Day pilot John Haddock, 102, from Stourbridge in the West Midlands, who was stationed in Scotland when it was announced the conflict would end, remembered the celebrations of his sozzled squadron.

Mr Haddock said his commanding officer Max Aitken, the son of the wartime aircraft production minister Lord Beaverbrook - got into a water dinghy and “launched” himself into the airfield’s static water pool, while his men splashed him.

He added: "It was all very schoolboy but provided much hilarity at the time."

Three days later, his squadron flew Crown Prince Olav to Norway after five years in exile, he said.

Royal Navy veteran Les Sunter, 99, of Leeds, was in Gibraltar after returning from a convoy when he learned the war was over and the crew celebrated with a few drinks.