TWO war veterans from the North-East are to return to the beaches of the D-Day landings.

Alexander Kirk Johnson, of Rowlands Gill, near Newcastle, and John Cooper, from Hartlepool, will join 200 other veterans, widows and carers who will return to the beaches this weekend.

The visit has been organised with the help of the Heroes Return Scheme, run by the Lottery's New Opportunity Fund.

When the war started, Mr Johnson had just been called up. He was sent over with a chemical warfare company taking poison gas to Dunkirk, including mustard gas.

He next volunteered for the commandos, carrying out several raids, but was back with the Royal Engineers for D-Day.

He said: "It was pretty rough. We went in with the Canadians to clean up the booby traps and the mines for those following us. The beaches were full of them."

Mr Cooper was 18 years old and working for the British Steel Corporation when he was called up in February 1942.

He joined the Royal Army Service Corps, and became a driver in the 170 Tank Company - 34th Armoured Brigade.

A fortnight after D-Day he was outside Caen. He has welcomed the Heroes Return programme as he believes it gives people the chance to go back to where they saw service.

He said: "The big battle then was trying to take the city. I was lucky I came back. A lot of people didn't."

Major General Michael Shellard, chairman of the Confederation of British Service and Ex-Service Organisations, said: "The opportunity this funding scheme represents to revisit the very places where veterans served during that significant era of their lives, means a very great deal to them.

"It will give an historic opportunity for veterans to describe at first hand to young people what it was like to be involved in the First World War."

D-Day remembered - Pages 10 and 11