A FACE of the Royal British Legion - George Atkins - was set to go to London to help the national effort to give thanks to servicemen who secured allied victory in 1945.

But the 82-year-old Royal Navy veteran from Canterbury Road, Ronkswood, has decided not to go because his emphysema - a lung condition - has flared up.

Mr Atkins spent much of the Second World War on the U-boat hunting ship, the Wild Goose.

The submarines were strangling the allied effort by sinking thousands of ships criss-crossing the North Atlantic ferrying men and supplies. He spent Victory in Europe Day - May 8, 1945 - at base in Liverpool, preparing for duty in the Pacific. The bitter war against the Japanese was still raging.

He was part of a depth charge crew under Captain Frederick Walker's elite 2nd Support Group, which sank six submarines in 20 days.

Sixty years on, Mr Atkins has been part of a RBL poster campaign to raise awareness for the organisation and its fund-raising.

He was invited to the RBL's flagship celebration, The Nation's Biggest Thank-You, in Trafalgar Square on Sunday, July 10.

Mr Atkins said: "I'm sad not to be going down, but I'm on oxygen 15 hours a day and it's not possible.

"It's the same situation for the Heroes' Return in Liverpool later on.

"An old shipmate telephoned and said I would get there no matter what, but at the moment I'm not sure. It makes me very emotional thinking about it all," said the former Able Seaman.

"I keep in touch with some of my old mates, and up until two years ago, I used to go to Liverpool three or four times a year for reunions."

It is not just sailors from the same ship, or even side, he keeps in contact with. After destroying U-boat 202 in February 1943, his ship picked up all the German survivors - one was Kurt Storth, who has since attended a number of Wild Goose reunions, and sent Mr Atkins a Christmas card in 2004.

"We were all seamen," added Mr Atkins.

l The Worcester News is publishing a magazine to mark the 60th anniversary of VE and VJ Day in July. Look out for it in selected shops.