Age has not dimmed the spirits of the 100 or so former Aycliffe Angels called back to the site of their 1940s war efforts for one final tribute yesterday.

Now in their 80s, the women are just a few of the 17,000 female workers at Aycliffe's Royal Ordnance Factory who fuelled the British Army's demand for vast quantities of amunition.

Yesterday, just like they did 60 years ago, they partied in celebration of VE Day. But this time they had with them their sons, daughters and grandchildren - born to live in freedom because of their efforts.

The women and their families were guests of Newton Aycliffe plastics company Hydro Polymers, which occupies a corner of the vast site where they faced daily danger.

Spread over 837 acres, the munitions factory was a sprawling complex of 1,000 buildings buried into the earth to protect them as much from the occasional accidental explosion as from the Luftwaffe's bombs.

One girl died in an explosion on what should have been her wedding day. Women turned up for work in tears because they had received the dreadful news that their husband or fiancee was missing.

Mary Haines, now 81, travelled from Cockfield on the bus with her sister Millie Eden, a year older, to start the daily 12-hour shifts. A third sister, Marie McCormick, now 83 and living in Darlington, was sent to another factory in Staffordshire.

For Mrs Eden, from Stockton, yesterday's highlight was a reunion with an old friend, Gladys Corner, who she hadn't seen for 40 years.

Mrs Corner, 82, from Bishop Auckland, said: "You never forget friends like that. I looked out for Millie until I found her. That is partly why I came.

"We were doing men's work at the factory. I spent some time in the machine shop on a lathe. They were a nice set of people.

"I've told my grandson about the war but a lot of people will never understand what it was like.

"The trouble is people haven't learned from it. There is still war in the world today. You just can't get away from it."

Hydro Polymers teamed up with Greenfield Arts and Community Centre to stage the event with a grant from the Home Front Recall fund.

The money also paid for a sculpture unveiled at the factory yesterday. Meanwhile, schoolchildren are collecting memories for a DVD commemorating the Angels.

Following a long campaign by The Northern Echo, the Angels' contribution was recognised in 2000 when they took part in a service at Coventry Cathedral to honour Home Front workers.

Yesterday afternoon, former Angel Margaret Howe, the 82-year-old chair of Shildon Over-60s, laid a wreath at Newton Aycliffe's war memorial in what she believes will be her final tribute.

She said: "We can't let people forget. Conditions at the factory were awful and it was only later that we realised what we had done."