AN EXHIBITION which tells the story of Allied soldiers captured during the Second World War opened yesterday.

Former prisoners of war have helped gather the exhibits at the Green Howards Museum, in Richmond, North Yorkshire, which include an escape suit worn by a naval commander who went "over the wire" in Italy.

Dozens of photographs, papers, diaries and mementoes brought home when the fighting was over are also included in the exhibition, called Behind the Wires.

Much of the memorabilia was owned by former Green Howards officer Captain John Oldfield, from Sandsend, Whitby, and Sergeant Major Richard Hall, from Redcar.

Both were captured by Rommel's Africa Korps in Libya, during the Battle of Gazala, in 1942, and sent to camps in Italy.

Capt Oldfield was later transferred to Germany, from where he was released by the Americans in 1945. He continued his career as a soldier and eventually commanded the 1st Battalion of the Green Howards. He died in 1998, aged 80.

Sgt Maj Hall was also moved to Germany and was released from the camp at Mhlberg during a Russian advance. A painter by trade, he was a senior Teesside magistrate until his death in 2001.

The display has been put together by former PoW Jim Bourn, from Darlington, and museum friends Chris Dunn, from Boroughbridge, and Wing Commander Jim Brown, from Richmond.

Green Howards Museum curator Major Roger Chapman said: "We are proud to tell the story of so many former prisoners of war, 60 years on.

"With the help of friends of the Green Howards Museum, we have been able to mount a fascinating exhibition which shows the hardships of the camps, but also the great comradeship and bravery of so many men."