THE beaches may have looked different after 60 years, but the memories were still vivid for a Farnworth war veteran who made an emotional return to Sicily.

Tom McFarlane was just 18 when, as an Able Seaman Gunner in the Royal Navy, he was involved in landing British troops on the beaches under heavy German fire.

And, with the help of a grant from the Lottery Heroes' Return scheme he returned to the island for the first time last month, accompanied by the widow of former comrade Harold Woods.

Mr McFarlane and Mrs Helen Woods, from Little Hulton, spent a week touring the area and paying tribute to the servicemen who died in the battle for Sicily.

"It is certainly different now but the people were very nice," said Mr McFarlane.

"When I was there the last time we didn't have much time to see anything."

Tom, aged 79, and social secretary of Farnworth Veterans Association, joined the Navy in 1942.

Within weeks he was on his way to America to collect Landing Craft LST237 from Missouri, which was then used to ferry British troops from North Africa to Sicily and the elite American Rangers from Naples to Anzio in 1943.

"The young American soldiers thought they were going back to the States. But in fact they were part of the first wave on to the beaches at Anzio," said Mr McFarlane.

"They survived the landing, but within three days they were all either killed or captured."

He spent much of the rest of the war transporting soldiers, collecting and dropping off troops in Italy, all the time watching out for the German U-boats lurking beneath the waves.

After collecting soldiers from the French Army in Casablanca and bringing them back to England, Mr McFarlane and his ship prepared to take part in the D-Day landings.

"We sailed back and forth to different beaches and towed the barges that would be scuttled to make breakwaters for the Mulberry Harbour," said Mr McFarlane.

Shortly after the war finished, Mr McFarlane needed hospital treatment for back injuries he had suffered when a bomb dropped near his ship. After being demobbed he returned home to Farnworth.

Next month he is on his travels again -- this time with a group of 10 ex-servicemen from the Farnworth Veterans Association who will be visiting Normandy.

He is grateful to the Heroes Return scheme for giving him to chance to return to Sicily and is urging other veterans to apply for funding to return to their wartime locations.

"I didn't expect we would get a chance to go back," said Mr McFarlane.

"We are all getting on a bit."

So far, almost 1,000 Second World War veterans or their widows from the North-west have taken up the offer of a Heroes Return grant to visit the countries they served in.

For more information contact Heroes Return on 0845 4102030.