WW2 veterans sign history buff's rifle as he collects stories

Jay Hawkins, with Ken Hay, who was captured after D-Day in 1944 and survived a 1,000-mile forced march in eastern Europe until he was liberated by US forces

A history enthusiast has spent two years getting forces veterans to sign a rifle as he records their World War Two stories.

Jay Hawkins, 26, was inspired after buying a 1939 Lee-Enfield weapon.

The painter and decorator, from St Ives, Cambridgeshire, has traced about 90 RAF, Army and Royal Navy personnel and hopes to record at least 10 more.

"I can't comprehend what they went through, when most of them were just 17 or 18 years old," he said.

"People wouldn't have the lives they have today without them."

Mr Hay, who lives in London, described how the US forces deloused him and gave him a new uniform and boots

Since beginning the project he has travelled thousands of miles, meeting veterans in England, Scotland and Wales, with the closest living "only 12 doors down".

He uses social media forums to reach out to the children and grandchildren of the men and women, the youngest of whom was in their 90s, with the oldest aged 107.

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They include Ken Hay, 97, who joined up aged 17 and "stormed the beaches of Normandy" in 1944 as a private in the Essex Regiment, only to be captured a few days later by the German 12th SS Panzer Division, while behind enemy lines.

He was sent to Poland in a cattle truck, where he worked in a coal mine, but worse was to come.

"During the final months of the war, he was force-marched 1,000 miles (1,600km) with thousands of prisoners of war, across Poland and Germany in appalling winter conditions, until the Americans liberated them on 20 April 1945," said Mr Hawkins.

Former Wren Marie Scott was the first woman to sign the gun, one of two so far, and Jay Hawkins hoped more women would come forward

Mr Hawkins said: "Trying to find female veterans is really hard to do, but they had just as important role in World War Two."

Marie Scott, 96, who met him in Harwich, Essex, was also aged 17 during D-Day, when she was in the Wrens [Women's Royal Naval Service] working as a switchboard operator for the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF).

"Her responsibilities included passing messages from the continent to the leaders of Operation Overlord, including Eisenhower and Montgomery," said Mr Hawkins.

"She passed coded messages from troops during the D-Day landings and one of her most vivid memories is she could hear all the gunfire and screams through her headphones."

Joe Randall risked all to rescue an important box of supplies from a crashed Spitfire

He said the "most British story of all" came from RAF veteran Joe Randall, 100, who now lives in Teignmouth, Devon.

After the Normandy landings, he built temporary airfields and cleared the area of snipers.

Mr Hawkins said: "He described a Spitfire crash, with the ammunition popping off and aviation fuel alight, and he said the bravest thing he did in the war was to run to the Spitfire and duck under and rip out a box.

"And what was in the box? It was a big box of tea so he and his friends could have a brew."

The Lee-Enfield No 1 Mk 3 rifle, which was used at Dunkirk, is now covered in about 90 signatures and cost Mr Hawkins about £800

Mr Hawkins' World War Two interest was sparked by a visit to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford in Cambridgeshire aged about 12.

After hearing of a similar project in the US, he decided to ask veterans to sign the deactivated gun, and then he would upload their stories on Instagram as the Lee-Enfield Rifle Project.

He hoped a museum would be interested in taking his collection of stories once he had finished the project.