WAR veteran Desmond Haigh drove thousands of miles across Europe to the Italian town where he was 60 years ago, before a massive Allied advance.
British troops landed at Anzio on the western Italian coast in January, 1944, in a smaller version of the D-Day landings in Normandy.
But they spent months pinned down by German and Italian gunfire, before breaking out and taking Rome.
Mr Haigh, 83, and wife Mabel, 80, of Honley, spent four weeks travelling through Europe on the poignant holiday during August and September.
The couple also visited an old friend, 91- year-old Nelo Bella- gamba, while on the trip.
Mr Haigh first met him at the end of the war.
Mr Haigh was a REME craftsman attached to an anti-aircraft unit.
He had been called up in April, 1943, at the age of 22.
The Anzio landings forced a front about seven miles inland.
Allied forces won a precious toehold on the mainland and lived in trenches for months.
Mr Haigh said: "It wasn't safe to sleep in tents. There was shrapnel flying all over."
Despite many Anzio commemorations this year the Haighs decided not to attend them. "It has just been a private trip," said Mr Haigh.
He drove his motor- home 2,850 miles through France, across the Alps and down Italy.
Unsurprisingly, Anzio has changed radically since the war. This was the first time Mr Haigh had returned since the conflict.
"Everything looks different. You can't recognise anything now," he said.
But the people were delighted to meet him. "Everybody has made a real fuss of him," said his wife.
She and her husband visited the huge war cemeteries that provide a lasting reminder of the sacrifices made by millions of men.
They went to the grave of Huddersfield man Pte Clement Blackshaw, who was killed on September 19, 1944. He was in the London and Scottish Regiment and died on Coriano Ridge.
Mr Haigh was head of the N D Haigh auto- electrical business off Leeds Road, Huddersfield, for many years.
