A PICKERING war hero's memories of the legendary evacuation of Dunkirk have been re-lived as a result of the recent television series on the famous rescue operation.

Eric Bowes, now 84, who served with the North Riding regiment, The Green

Howards, recalls: "We were all lined up on the moat at Dunkirk, waiting for ships to come, when a shell fell at the side of us, blowing us all into the water-wash at the bottom."

He and other young soldiers took refuge in a cellar, but it was bombed by the Germans.

"At nine o'clock that night, we were told we were going to get away to England. As it happened, the enemy ceased fire at 9pm and all was calm until 11pm."

Eric has always been convinced that it was a deliberate attempt by the Germans to let the British get away in safety across the English Channel.

"Everyone out of our brigade got onto a ship. I managed to get onto a destroyer called the Venomous. It was crammed tight. We had got about halfway across the Channel when a German plane came and gave us a few rounds of machine-gun fire and killed a few boys who were on the top deck of the ship.

"We arrived safely at Dover at 2am and what a welcome we received. Everyone

was giving us everything."

Eric's wartime service was recorded remarkably in a diary he kept at the time of the hostilities. He was subsequently captured and, while a PoW, learned shorthand and used that for his memoirs for fear it might be confiscated.

Today, the diary, with its copper-plate shorthand, is one of his many prized possessions of his war service.

After years of trying to persuade him to lend her the diary, Eric's daughter, Jennifer, eventually succeeded. While Eric had forgotten his shorthand skills after many years, Jennifer did get the outlines translated by Doreen Laycock, and they were made into a booklet by Jennifer's husband, Andy Downing.

"A Private's War" was created thanks to Jennifer and her team of Rhozlyn James and Richard Dixon, and she has touchingly dedicated it "To my Dad, Eric Bowes - always my hero".

Modest Eric had kept the diary locked away, but now, in print, it reveals his and his comrades' bravery.

He had joined the Territorial Army with the 5th Bn The Green Howards at the

age of 18 at Pickering and, like all the volunteers, was to receive £25 a year which, compared with the £10 he got as a hireling and waggoner working on farms in the Pickering area, was regarded as a princely sum, he says.

He had worked with teams of horses on farms at Wrelton and Pickering, and just a week before the outbreak of the Second World War, had been, as usual, to the local Methodist chapel for the Sunday night service. It was while he was having a cup of tea at a friend's house, a few minutes later, that an army officer arrived and told him he was being called up for permanent service and to report to the drill hall at Pickering.

He became a PoW in June 1942 after six days of fighting in Libya. He and other soldiers had made their way into a dugout. One of their number had just died, despite attempts to save him, when they were surrounded by Germans. "We all had to surrender," said Eric.

They were eventually handed over to the Italians and they were PoWs for three years.

"I volunteered to work in a sugar factory, and later on a cement works," says Eric. "I just had to do something."

He put his time at the camp to good use, learning German and shorthand, taught by the Germans.

The war over, he returned to Pickering and his wife Marjorie. The couple have been married for 57 years. She became a warden at Orchard Close in Pickering, while Eric spent many years working for the North Yorkshire County Council and Ryedale District Council. The couple now live in retirement in Forest Road, Pickering.

Eric's final entry in his diary is dated May 14, 1944. It reads: "We arrived home

for the first time in four long weary years. We really thanked the Lord with all our hearts for our safe return..."

Updated: 10:01 Wednesday, February 25, 2004