A MAN who cheated death on the botched Second World War raid on Dieppe was carrying a picture of his wife and her overdue birthday card when he was pulled from the wreckage of his sinking ship.

Bill Bradley was reliving the fateful day he cheated death to mark the 58th anniversary of the Dieppe raid today.

Bill was standing yards away when his ship, the ill-fated HMS Berkeley, was hit by a German bomber in the raid on August 19, 1942.

A comrade spotted him pinned to the deck by a piece of debris and he was carried to safety on a steam gunboat as the Berkeley was scuttled.

"I looked up and saw a bomber coming," said Bill, aged 87, of Ripon Road, Ronkswood.

"One bomb missed us and I looked up and said 'look out lads, we've got it,' and a bomb landed two or three yards from us.

"I was apparently pinned to the deck by a lot of steel. One of the crew shouted 'Brad's alive sir, Brad's alive.' "

Able seaman Bradley woke up the next day in a military hospital in Brighton to hear 4,000 men had been lost in the raid.

"It was a big raid which was meant to pave the way for an invasion of France," added Bill.

"The force was mostly Canadian with a number of Americans and Royal Marine Commandos thrown in.

"We ran into a trap. They were waiting for us with a big force.

"All hell broke loose when we got there. The sky was black with 200 to 300 planes from both sides.

"We lost our A-gun to a direct hit and were called into the harbour to help evacuate a landing craft in trouble.

"The harbour was covered in black smoke but we got the boys out only to be hit ourselves."

Bill's first wife Edith had a birthday on the day of the raid and the only things he was carrying when he was pinned to the deck were her photo and her card.

Years after the war, Bill, born in Nashes Passage, Worcester, had a letter from the pilot who bombed the ship apologising.

"It said, 'I'm sorry I hit you but we had to do it, it was our job'," said Bill.