IT was on the night of August 24, 1942 that 20-year-old flight engineer Peter Squires took to the skies for a raid on the German city of Frankfurt.

He and his six fellow crewmen were on their way back to England when their Lancaster bomber was shot down over the Belgian village of Morkhoven, near Antwerp.

Four of the crew, including Peter, were killed. Three managed to parachute to safety and the pilot eventually found his way back to England.

Unbeknown to the families of the dead men, a member of the Belgian resistance came across the wrecked plane and salvaged a gear wheel.

He kept the piece of metal and later split it into four parts, one for each of the men killed.

This month, their families travelled to Morkhoven to remember their loved ones, and be presented with their own piece of the wheel.

Among them was 80-year-old David Squires, of Richmond, North Yorkshire, the brother of Peter.

He first visited the village in 1946 with his mother and father to see Peter's grave and meet local people.

Fifty nine years later, the second reunion was organised by people finding out about the crash and the four deaths.

Mr Squires attended the ceremony with his wife, Molly, son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons.

He said: "The graves are in the village cemetery, not the British cemetery, and have been looked after marvellously over the years.

"They really are very friendly people."

He also paid tribute to the man who saved the wheel.

"He did a great deal of undercover work in Belgium during the war. His main contribution was getting pilots and aircrew back to the UK through the Special Operations Executive.

"He had been to the crash in 1942 and had looked around and found a gear wheel on the ground and had picked it up.

"He saved enough of the metal of the plane to make four for the people who were expected at the reunion from the four families. It is a very personal thing."

Peter Squires was a member of 83 Squadron, flying out of Scampton, Lincolnshire, and then Wyton, Cambridgeshire.

The squadron became part of the newly-formed Pathfinder Force in the summer of 1942.