A TELEVISION documentary on Forces Sweetheart Vera Lynn - who recently celebrated her 90th birthday - has stirred memories for Skelmanthorpe reader Reg Stone.
Reg, 85, remembers the singer entertaining troops at an isolated hill station at Shillong in Assam, India, during the Second World War.
Mr Stone, a leading aircraftsman in the RAF, was among servicemen who made an 80-mile trip in covered wagons along precipitous mountain roads to see the singer.
Said Reg: "Having been in a field hospital with fever, I was given two weeks' recuperative leave when Vera sang to us.
"I did get an autograph, but lost it while moving around in some very awkward places!"
Reg was in India before travelling to Burma, where he helped keep RAF planes flying in the war against the Japanese.
Among his treasured mementos is a photo taken in 1942 in Durban, South Africa, showing him with comrade Walter Shaw, as well as an unnamed RAF serviceman and a Zulu warrior.
They had stopped off in South Africa during their arduous eight-week voyage from the UK to India aboard the troopship Maloja.
At Durban, they were greeted on the quayside by Zulus in full ceremonial dress.
Said Reg: "Some of the British people living there came up in their cars and asked if any of us were from Yorkshire.
"Then, they invited us to their homes for tea. A little luxury was very welcome by that stage."
