TRIBUTES have been paid to war veteran, Eddie Straight, who took part in the Allied Invasion, the Liberation of Belsen and the Burma campaign, who has died at the age of 97.

He passed away peacefully on Tuesday, March 20 at a retirement home in his hometown of Saltburn.

Despite being wounded by bayonet and bullets as well as being struck down with malaria – Eddie survived the war and lived to tell the tale 70 years later.

A documentary "Eddie Straight - To Hell & Back" was made in 2015 by Saltburn film-maker Craig Hornby.

The Northern Echo: HELL & BACK: Eddie Straight, a Teesside war hero, now 94, whose military service took him from Saltburn into the blitz, Buckingham Palace, Belsen and the Burmese jungle Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT.

Eddie Straight, a Teesside war hero

Paying tribute the Mr Hornby said: "He was a charming fella and will be missed. He had no children or immediate family but was well loved by his friends and all at the home. To meet a Second World War veteran is a rare thing these days, so to meet one on my doorstep who had been through all he had was amazing and humbling to say the least.

"His story is on record forever and is most poignant as it is a rare eye-witness account of the Holocaust with a Teesside dimension."

The documentary of his received critical acclaim when it was screened at Saltburn Theatre and as part of exhibition at Dorman Museum in Middlesbrough during 2015.

The veteran, who was a company sergeant major in the 11th Armoured Division, was shot was shot six times. He helped liberate Belsen, a Nazi death camp, and chaperoned the heir to the throne, the young Princess Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace during the Blitz.

He also took part in the D-Day invasion, commanded former prisoners to help save Londoners during the Blitz and went on to command troops in Burma.

Neighbour and friend John Connolly described Mr Straight as a fighter until the end but the biggest battle he ever faced was the loss of his beloved wife, Ina, in 2010.

"My admiration and respect for Eddie Straight, based on his extraordinary story of courage under fire and of his service across Europe and in Burma together with his treatment as a hero by the West Africa Frontier Force in Nigeria, grew with every hour we spent together," he said

"Always a fighter, I saw that the toughest battle of Eddie’s life was against the cloak of loneliness which weighed him down after the death of his beloved wife Ina in 2010."