ITEMS from Hitler's Berlin bunker including marble from his desk and carpet from the floor feature in a new exhibition.

Other exhibits at The Green Howards Museum, in Richmond, North Yorkshire, include the key to the Fuhrer's office and parts of his radio.

The items, taken by a soldier after the allies took Berlin in 1945, form the centrepiece of an exhibition telling how British troops fought their way across Europe to the German capital after the D-Day landings.

Veterans of the campaign attended the exhibition's opening yesterday, including Philip Burkinshaw, 82, of Richmond.

During the assault on Berlin, Captain Burkinshaw, who was with the 12th Battalion (Yorkshire) the Parachute Regiment, was shot in the stomach but removed the bullet himself.

"I've still got it as a souvenir," he said. "Youth prevented fear while you were in action - you didn't have much time to think about it.

"I probably feel more afraid now driving round the market square, in Richmond."

In 1945, Phil May, 79, of West Witton, near Leyburn, North Yorkshire, was a 2nd lieutenant with the 1st Battalion The Green Howards, in Germany.

He described finding German cities completely demolished after the war and said his experiences taught him the German people were "human beings just like us".

Part of the exhibition focuses on local hero, Regimental Sergeant Major Clarence "Lofty" Peacock whose distinguished career was marked by the award of the Military Medal, in Palestine, in 1939, and the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) on the last day of the war.

The DCM was given after RSM Peacock led a successful attack on a German machine- gun post - despite all his officers, except an inexperienced 2nd lieutenant, dead or wounded.

RSM Peacock's two sons, Joe and Walter, attended the opening ceremony.

The museum is open Monday to Friday, from 10am to 4.30pm.

Published: 09/02/2005