A NORTH Yorkshire veteran returned to Dunkirk to mark the 70th anniversary of the military evacuation.

Peter Shaw, of Willow Rise, Tadcaster, was rescued along with thousands of Allied troops from the French beaches and harbour in May 1940.

Mr Shaw, who reached the rank of sergeant in the Army, but was a corporal at the time of the evacuation, has made the annual pilgrimage for 30 years.

“I have been back every year since 1980, and a flotilla of little ships goes over every five years, including this year,” said Mr Shaw, 89.

“From my point of view, we went over there and we were only youngsters and never gave it a thought what might happen. In those days, nobody told you what was happening. I didn’t know we were being evacuated until we got five miles or so from Dunkirk.”

Mr Shaw said he was unsure of the exact date and ship he returned to Britain on.

“I have never worked out to this day what kind of vessel I was on. It was not a big one, more like a fishing trawler. It was on its side when I was called up into it. I went to sleep in the hold and the next thing I knew the boat was afloat,” he said.

Mr Shaw travelled to Dunkirk on Thursday, and joined members of the Royal Norfolk Regimental Association who were also visiting villages in Belgium, which were sites of massacres of British troops in 1940.