DUNKIRK veterans from Leeds and Scarborough are to re-unite after the two groups remained unaware for decades that the other existed.

Leeds Founder Dunkirk Veterans, who believed they were the only group of survivors in Yorkshire, discovered by chance there is a Scarborough contingent from the events of 1940, when 337,000 Allied troops were evacuated from the beach at Dunkirk as German forces marched on Paris.

Hundreds of small ships from Britain helped in the evacuation - including the Scarborough pleasure boats Regal Lady and Coronia, which will be taking out the veterans on a sea trip when they meet in Scarborough on D-Day, June 6.

Bob Pendleton, secretary and treasurer of the Leeds veterans, said: "We didn't know the Scarborough group existed. There will be 54 of us going there, along with some from the Normandy veterans group. It will be a wonderful reunion."

The two groups will lay poppies from the pleasure boats on the sea in tribute to their comrades who died in the conflict.

Tom Machin, skipper of the two boats, said: "We shall be very honoured to do it. They will have free use of the vessels and we shall provide them with refreshments."

George Wilson, of the Scarborough Dunkirk Veterans, said: "The national Dunkirk Veterans group disbanded last year. We believed we were the only group still in existence so we shall be delighted to meet once again with the Leeds veterans."