War veterans who lost touch with each other 50 years ago have been reunited thanks to an article in the Lancashire Evening Post.

Fred Smith and Ray Batten fought together in the battle of Ardennes as part of the Lancashire 13th Parachute Battalion in the Second World War.

The two lost touch after the war and as the years passed they never made contact again.

That is, until the newspaper ran a story on a memorial day in Preston in memory of those who fell in the Battle of Ardennes. A friend of Mr Batten recognised the Mr Smith’s name in the article.

Dave Woolcock said: “I remembered that Ray would always talk about a Fred Smith and I wondered if this was the same one. Amazingly it was.”

Since he passed on the news the two veterans have spoken several times on the telephone.

Fred said: “I had given up all hope of ever speaking to my old friend again. When we finally caught up it was like we had only see each other yesterday.”

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