SEVENTY years after his war service,a Royal Navy veteran has finally been awarded a medal by the Government.

Donald Browne has been given the Arctic Star for his service on the Arctic convoys during the Second World War.

Mr Browne, of Thorndon Park Close, Leigh, was 18 when he signed on with the Navy.

The convoys kept the Soviet Union supplied through the war on the Eastern front, sending incredible hardship and danger the way of the sailors aboard their ships.

Among other tasks, Mr Browne’s ship, HMS Wren, helped transport Norwegian sailors to a radio station being set up on Spitsbergen, off the northern coast of Scandanavia, in 1944.

Mr Browne, 89, recalled: “We didn’t actually really know what we were there for. We didn’t come under fire, but the U-boats were waiting for us.

You had to escape when you saw them.

“The reason we didn’t come under fire was because when they were under the water we could outrun them.

“It was so cold walking around on deck. You would have to hold on to the side because you couldn’t stand up, otherwise.

“You would only last a matter of minutes if you went over into the water.”

Earlier, when the Wren was off the French coast, Mr Browne saw service in in warmer seas, but with equally tragic results.

He said: “We had an aircraft carrier with us, but a plane came over the end of it and three crewmen ended up in the water.

“We put a rope ladder on the side and got two of them on and then the third man was on the ladder.I still see the fellow’s face now–he was smiling.

“Then a wave hit the ship and he went under and out the other side. He was dead of course.

“It was the most terrible thing.”